One Day Wonder #250

For 2 horns, 1 trumpet, 2 trombones and tuba.

After being ill for the better part of three days, I'm better. And so here we are – 5/6 the way through this blasted project! Whoopee! I wasn’t celebrating such an insignificant milestone, though. I had a piece to write. I don’t know why I haven’t attempted this before, but here it is: a nice stompin’ little polka in 5/4. When I’m writing dance music that is usually in standard meters (2/4. 4/4, 6/8, etc.) and putting it into an odd meter, the challenge is phrasing. I often find myself either writing phrases that sound too short and terse or phrases that sound a little too unhurried. In this piece, you get both of those things, plus something that is hopefully in between. The intro sets the mood, then the A theme is upon us in the horns. I try to give it some kind of groove by repeating the two slurred eighth notes in the fifth beat as often as I can. That seems to inject a little energy into things. But you’ll notice that the tune itself seems to be truncated. It was my bet that the impetus of the tune would negate that terse effect. I hope I succeeded there. The B theme in the trumpet is a bit more expansive. It’s a nice 16-bar chunk that begins with a tune that fits well into 5/4. In the next eight bars, the horns take up the first four bars of the trumpet’s tune at half speed, while the trumpet gets a little manic over then. After the repeat of A (this time with the trumpet prodding things along), we get the C theme in the trombones and tuba. I suspend the “oom-pah” feel while keeping the pulse going with commentary from the trumpet and horns, and , after some building, it all leads back to the last A theme, this time with the trumpet in the lead and the horn dealing out a countermelody. Honestly, I didn’t think that this piece would work out as well as it did. I really like a lot about it. It’s got drive, mood changes and a nice odd-meter groove. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon following the demolition of the Seahawks at the hands of the Packers. Yeah, it was rather alarming, but at least I won money – a whole two dollars from a couple of guys who have learned nothing about what happens to Seattle teams in the playoffs.