Squeezed out a little more of the end of III. Allegro gracioso and played around with some orchestration.

Also, for some reason, pulled out a folio sheet of score paper and labeled it I. Fanfare, for double bass duo & percussion. Yes, I decided some time ago to expand last summer’s Dance for double bass duo & marimba into a suite, but why I thought I should even label a piece of paper at this point is beyond me. (Fanfare, Threnody, and Dance, in case you were wondering.)

Anyway, here’s the mp3 of III. Allegro gracioso. Keeping in mind how IV. Lento begins, see if you can guess how I’m going to end III.

I didn’t think I’d get any work done tonight on III. Allegro gracioso, and instead I’ve nearly got the whole thing sketched out!

I’ve started playing with orchestration here and there, but it’s still mostly a sketch. There’s an odd bit in there where instruments sound like they’re tuned to a weird scale or something. I don’t know what that’s about.

But on the whole it’s quite what I wanted. Here’s the mp3.

I’m calmer today, thank you.

As you will recall, I was a little freaked by how quickly I had gotten to the recapitulation of this movement. Tonight I went back to the score paper and sketched out a couple of strophes that might reasonably be inserted here and there in what I already have. But none of it seemed to fit.

I also listened to my favorite waltz, the “Delirien” waltz by Josef Strauss, Johann’s younger and to my mind more melodic brother. I wanted to hear more of how he structured it. I mean, it’s all pretty formulaic, and I might as well use the formula. I don’t yet have a flutes-with-pizzicato strophe, and I don’t really have a Big Grand strophe, which ought to come second or third in the lineup. I’ve got the cute little twittery one (it’s about third), and a couple of the smooth, legato ones.

(At the moment, you can’t really tell how some of my bits are going to fulfill your expectations of a concert waltz, because so far all you’ve heard is the sketches in the strings. Some of those are going involve brass leads, cello variations, etc.)

I listened particularly to the end, where Josef has the return of the first strophe, followed by the return of the second, followed by the coda. I think I’m going to vary that. Instead of following the recapitulation with the second strophe, I’m going to toss in a new one, followed by the Big Grand Finale.

The new secondary strophe is in place, and before I share it I want to tweak it a lot, because I want to do a lot of interesting stuff to its repeat before heading into the BGF. But I’ve made progress, and I might actually be finished with III. Allegro gracioso by this time next week.

Just in time to use my spring break to plunge back into IV. Lento; allegro. That’s okay. I’ve been having ideas.

This is very odd. I’ve tweaked a few things (including a repeat on a section that was not repeated previously) and added another 16 measures of transition back to D major. And I think it’s almost done (except for the actual orchestration, of course). I’m not sure that’s good, is it?

Listen to it. When it reaches the end, what do you expect to hear next? If you’ve been paying attention, the opening phrase should return at that point, and then it’s all over but the coda.

That would be fine, but it’s barely two minutes long. Hmph. Perhaps something should come after the Big Syncopation and before the tremolo strings/horn bit, i.e., extend it before we hit the recapitulation and coda.

Or maybe it just needs to be 2:30 minutes long.

In less than an hour it will be 77 days, but who’s counting? (And who’s kidding whom? As if anyone believes I will be working on this in the week preceding noon, June 8.)

As I indicated previously, I have abandoned IV. Lento temporarily and am working on III. Allegro gracioso. Something tells me that it’s not going to be as salutary as it might be in anyone else’s creative scheme, because unfortunately I have a natural gift for waltzes. This was a piece of cake, and I fear it’s only going to make the formal torture of thematic variation even worse when I return to the fourth movement.

I’ve done the first 60 or so measures. You’ve heard the first strophe, but the rest is new and just sketched out in the strings. Here’s the mp3.

I think I’m stuck. I diddled around with the agitato motif, just scribbling down anything that came to mind, not stopping to flesh anything out. I didn’t get very far, although there were some possibilities among the bits.

I tried wedging the sweet variation from yesterday into the development, but it’s not really going in there. Now I have to get it out of there. Dang computers.

Perhaps it’s time to focus on the third movement for a while, just get away totally from the Lento and come back to it with fresh ears later. I’m thinking really a month or so.

How weird is our political discourse? The most sensible thing said about the whole Obama/Wright episode was said by Mike Huckabee, who said a couple of sensible things: a) it’s foolish to hold parishioners responsible for what their pastor says; b) preachers don’t always stick to their prepared notes and therefore extemporize things that they later look back on with wild surmise; c) you need to “cut some slack for people who grew up being called names.” Astonishing, no? But sensible.

Rather than trying to wrestle with what I already had, I explored what I consider to be my main problem, and that is the little agitato motif: how can it be developed in a light, joyous style?

This is asweet little variation. I’m not sure where I can use it. I’m not sure I can use it.