If any of you like that part that follows the Grandiose Bit, where the agitato theme enters in G major in the strings with staccato brass, speak now, because I think it’s going to go away. Personally, I think it sounds silly, and with the variations I’m ringing on the Rachamaninov Ripoff™ theme, I think I can head straight into the clarinet statement of the agitato theme.

I have a widget counting down the days to GHP and hence to the day that I might be reasonably expected to turn over a score to Stephen Czarkowski for a summer performance.

It now says 100 days and some odd hours/minutes.

Feh.

I know, I’ll begin a hysterical daily countdown post. Sort of like the 365 project, only really really neurotic and probably not as entertaining, unless you like watching a fellow Lichtenbergian melt down.

Well, I’m sure I don’t know. I like my grandiose bit coming out of the obligatory repeat, so I’m keeping that, but I kept monkeying with the dotted trumpet rhythms. They’re supposed to be reminiscent of the agitato theme, but I don’t think they are. I’ll keep monkeying.

The grandiose bit, if you listened to the fragment a week ago, let straight into the major version of the agitato, and all that followed. I’ve tried something different, wedging a couple of variations on the Rachmaninov Ripoff™ theme in there. It’s still not falling together, but I’ve stopped for the night.

Here’s the mp3. What I’ve done is recorded everything after the obligatory repeat, with a measure rest between all the bits I keep shoving back and rearranging.

I’m writing this to avoid working on Lento. I haven’t touched it in a week: we went to north Georgia and then to Guilford, and of course when I got home on Sunday it was too late and I was too tired. Then Monday was Masterworks, and last night was the Martha Graham Company concert, which was an exhilarating example of the purity of genius. But now here it is a week later and I have nothing new.

To make it worse, I did listen to it on Monday, and I’m still very unhappy with the development part. I need to sit down and do some thinking. One thing that I may try is what Martha Graham did with Aaron Copland for Appalachian Spring: she wrote out what she wanted the music to sound like and to express. Don’t think you’re going to get that here. I have a private journal for that; you may recall that this symphony has an actual program, but I’m not divulging it. Perhaps being explicit about the program of this movement might help.

Busy as a bee this morning, not even 9:00 and I’m nearly to the lead-in to the return of the R.R.™ theme. However, as I listen to the sudden outburst of the minor agitato theme, it dawns on me that this is just an interlude, not the lead-in to the return. So, more work to be done. Actually, you might recall I had reserved the right to extend this section. It’s just that I thought I would extend the minor section and then plunge into the R.R.™. Now it appears there’s more to come after that. (There is a cat watching me type this as if she has just now noticed that I do this kind of thing. Or perhaps she’s trying to figure it out. She’s the one who, lounging, keeps reaching for the space bar to start or stop the symphony playing.)

10:07 am: Here it is, from the R.R.™ statement to the beginning of the minor agitato interlude. Sorry for the abrupt ending.

5:09 pm: Honest to God, I don’t know how this happened. (You’re listening for the new bit right after the obligatory repeat of the R.R.™ theme.) But it totally works and actually sets up the rest of the balloon section.

9:00 pm: Well, actually, it sounds a little stupid at the moment. But it will totally work once I get it tightened up.

I didn’t post any of the work, minimal as it was, that I did this week, so here’s your first look at it since last Sunday.

It picks up at the end of the opening Lento section. I think this is the first time you’ve heard the Rachmaninov Ripoff Theme™ with the oboe instead of the solo violin. I think it’s better. The solo violin was just a political move anyway, to make Stephen happy.

The obligatory repeat follows, and then, instead of the wistful lullaby-like version of the agitato theme in G major, I’ve launched into an allegro with the agitato theme in D major. More exciting, and it gets us into the keeping-the-balloon-in-the-air section earlier and with more vigor. The lullaby segment will return later, I think.

I cut this mp3 off sometime after the orchestration I’ve been working on runs out and we’re back to the piano sketch of a week ago. Keep in mind, as always, that the computer is cutting off some held notes; dynamics are hit or miss (although I’ve monkeyed with the mixer to make the brass not so loud); and some of the segments are still missing… something. That’s what this week will be about.

Since I’m off this week, I’m going to try to get the balloon-in-the-air section done and be firmly into the Awfully Grand Recapitulation of the Rachmaninov Ripoff Theme™ by the end of the week.

I took Dvorak’s 8th with me in the car today to listen to a couple of things, the orchestration and the development. I learned enough to depress me.

First of all, my impression was (and a study of the score this afternoon confirmed it) that the strings do all the heavy lifting. They never stop playing. They may be playing pads and chords under the winds occasionally, but mostly they’re playing “the piece,” and they never stop. So I have to learn to do that. You would think this was easy. It is not.

Second, the man’s development I have always admired: tuneful, witty, inventive, and beguiling. Seemingly organic. Seemingly effortless.

I know it can’t have been. I know he took a lot of time with each of his symphonies, and he wasn’t just doing it a couple of hours twice a week. It was his day job. Besides his natural gift, he worked at his craft, many hours every day.

I begin to wonder if I would be more productive if I had all day every day to thrash out ideas and discard the less worthy ones. I think this is part of my fear of just generating crap: I don’t have time. I’m not even using everything I’m writing. I am sketching out things that don’t go anywhere. But with Time’s wingéd chariot hurrying near, I’m afraid that I will sometimes settle for what’s on the page already.

Can you tell that this evening’s work didn’t go well? I’m going to eat my Häagen-Dazs raspberry sorbet.