One Day Wonder #135 (Variation #3)

For 3 trumpets.

Writing something on the second day of my two-day assignment was completely hopeless. And since I’m not inclined to write crap, I didn’t force the issue. I just took the day off and toiled at my reception job. I dashed this piece off the next day. I wanted to focus once again on certain intervals and rhythms (taken from the theme in retrograde, if you really want to know) while keeping all three trumpets in close harmony but varying that with some starker textures from the lead trumpet. I also wanted to contrast the swing with straight time at some juncture. I’m happy with how this turned out, but once again, I fall into the mute conundrum. This piece needs straight mutes and all I have to offer are those lousy Harmons. I’m seriously considering getting an upgrade for Finale. I’m a little gun-shy about that prospect since I upgraded to Finale 2006 two years ago. I expected a lot from it and it turned out to be utter crap; the highly-touted Garritan Personal Orchestra sounded like cheesy video game patches, the interface was revamped to appeal to musically illiterate DJs (with such features as, if I remember correctly, reverb and gain – who the hell ever heard of somebody turning up the gain on a trumpet???) and instruments that I was writing for (this was back in the days of Mackris v. O’Reilly), in particular D trumpet, ceased to exist. After a week of learning to hate this monstrosity, I returned it to them, got my money back, and I’ve been on Finale 2005 ever since, which is not without its bugs. But honestly, since I’m working (at least a little) and whatnot, I can afford an upgrade. I’m still wrestling with the issue. It could be every bit as crappy as the 2006 version, but then again, it actually seems to offer several brass muting options. I just might take a chance on it. But if I do and I actually end up liking it, I’ll have to go back, replace all my mis-mutings with the correct ones in every single piece and edit all the mute-bitching out of my old posts. Since this is a pretty formidable job, it might just be easier to bitch about the lack of muting options and leave it at that. We shall see how that turns out.