One Day Wonder #174

For 1 horn, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones and tuba.

It occurred to me today that I haven’t written anything with a tuba lead in many a moon. I also haven’t done anything with shifting meters. Well, here you go! This is a polka-like creation in 2/4 that stretches itself out thanks to some meter changes. I just bump the time signature up an eighth note every time the tuba hits a sustained note, so I go from 2/4 to 5/8, back to 2/4, up to 3/4, back to 2/4, up to 7/8 and then work my way back the way I came. Does that make any sense? The principle is the same when the other instruments take charge, but their melodic approach is different from that of the tuba. Although this turned out very much as I wanted it, there are still a lot of things not quite right with it. I can’t put my finger on the exact problems, so I’m keeping it as-is for the moment. I have no problem with the odd phrasing. That’s a byproduct of metrical change. My problem is in the accompaniment to the tuba. I’m just afraid that straightening it out will mean that I have to change the entire piece. I’m still thinking about it, so I’ll probably go back and revise at some point. I do that sometimes. Instead of just casting certain pieces out of my mind, I let certain parts of them bother me enough to take action. I recently went back and modified the C section of #82 because it was a spot of muddiness in what is otherwise a dandy piece. I just got tired of hearing my own bad arranging. I’ll have to stick with this piece to get to the bottom of the mess. Stay tuned.