One Day Wonder #62

For 1 horn, 1 trumpet and 3 trombones.

Once again, I try the modified fanfare format. I wanted to contrast the declamatory trumpet/horn line with the more rhythmic trombone music. It’s OK, but, as I’ve learned, fanfares are hell. Their parameters are narrow and if you stray even a little ways from them, you find yourself writing something that isn’t a fanfare. And if they're too long, they sound rather pointless. I’m not sure whether this piece accomplishes anything. Or whether it has a point. Sometimes, writing a really good piece like #61 can screw things up. You think: "Gee, I can't possibly write anything to compare with this" and go for something unassuming, like this piece. What I should be doing is trying to write something equal to or better than #61 every day. That's difficult because #61 was a complete accident. It could easily have been not very good. But through a series of processes that I can't fathom or describe, it didn't suck. This piece (#62) could have also rocked the world - in that very limited way that brass ensemble tunes can rock anything - but it doesn't. I'm beginning to believe that there's a lot of blind luck involved in writing a fine piece...

Click on the title to listen.