I worked all morning, then drove to Lenox to find a tux shirt. On the way I listened to my latest efforts, and these are the notes I scribbled on the way up and back:

• + bassoon to RR echo (ended up not necessary)
• stronger minor [chord] after duet (it’s a major chord; see below)
• extend duet? (not yet, but I may still)
• + woodw to 2nd [building phrase] (not today, but I will)
• downbows on 2nd [building phrase] (done)
• string pad for duet? (haven’t tried it yet)
• A major m. before D7 m.? (did that, it worked)
• continue Eng. horn to B (did that, it worked)
• alt. up and downbow on 3rd [building phrase] (done)
• extra E major m. [after duet] (did that, will double-check it)
• 1/2 notes for Grandiose brass [chorale] (tried it, discarded it)

And with that, my next bit of work will be the minor agitato section: extend that and get us back to the Grand Recapitulation of the Rachmaninov Ripoff™ theme.

You may recall a gentle, wistful version of the agitato theme. I think that’s actually going to be the coda of this whole thing: a lullaby to put it all to bed, only with one final chordal sequence to swell to double forte, of course.

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.