One Day Wonder #163

For 1 trumpet, 2 trombones and tuba.

After the outsized nature of #162, I wanted to go smaller. But like any day, I didn’t want to write something that sucked. The over-arching theme of this piece is patience. I am by nature an impatient person. I usually go straight to the point, what with expedience being a daily virtue and such. I knew that such an approach wouldn’t do today. For this, I wrote out some unison lines that interacted both rhythmically and melodically and pitted them against each other – all in 3/4 time. And, by the way, the key changes several times after the terribly obvious five-seven chord at the end of every section. Sometimes, it’s fun being obvious. I like this piece, because it focused me on timing things to happen in right places. And timing is essential to the creation of a fine piece. You can spin off the greatest melodies in the history of humankind, but if you don’t time them well, then you’re just a poor imitation of Nicolas Flagello, a composer who I hoped with my entire soul would be better but wasn’t. I was initially potentially well-disposed toward him, because he wrote a concerto for saxophone quartet, but he was just terrible; formally conventional, mind-numblingly repetitive and dull. My point is that if his timing had been better, he may have written some very good stuff. If what I've heard is indicative of his entire body of work, then it's safe to say that, sadly, he wrote much awful music. All of this has absolutely nothing to do with #163. What I take away from the experience of writing this is that I’m quite surprised at my restraint. I was patient and let the action unfold, instead of forcing the issue, as I often do - not that there's anything wrong with that. Except for the little run-around toward the end (I needed something in there at least a little different), it displays remarkable moderation. Listen to it a few times. It’ll grow on you.