One Day Wonder #191

For 2 horns, 2 trumpets and tuba.

After the previous day’s exertions, I wanted to keep it simple. The only thing I had in mind was alternating meters. It’s always a challenge, because it's really easy to screw up the phrasing. This time around, it’s 9/8 and 4/4. Granted, it’s not much of an alternation (only an eighth note), but I manage to sustain it throughout the piece. I guess what I’m trying for (and it doesn’t come out very well initially) is the contrast between the 3 x 3 (three groups of three eight notes) of 9/8 and the 4 x 2 (four groups of two eighth notes) of 4/4. Oh, and also note the brief Harmon interjection is a hand mute, like what is featured in #97. Don’t worry, no trumpets or hands are harmed in any of this. And, funny enough, it never comes back. It just happens once. The main thing about this piece (and about many of these pieces) is that it gets much better as it goes along. Perhaps that’s an indication of something not quite good. Perhaps it’s something else, but I’m edging toward #200, so things are coursing through my feeble brain that I’m willing to try out, but not stand behind. Fair enough, I’ll fight anybody who says that #190 sucks, but this piece may not be a classic. I firmly believe, though, that few can muster the kind of phrasing and contrast that I produce. This isn’t ego. It’s just that I haven’t heard anything that deals with these metrical shifts in quite the same way. Then again, I don’t listen to a lot of music (curiously enough), so I really don’t know much.