One Day Wonder #281

For 3 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones and tuba.

I wanted to write something big and noisy as today’s piece. This is the first try at it. I used a Buxtehude prelude as my inspiration, but not as my model. That piece was just an agglomeration of shorter pieces that built up to this thunderous finale. This would be a little different from that. Basically, the approach was to write a slow processional tune in the trombones, have the tuba follow in a half-time canon for as long as was practical and have commentary from the horns and trumpets harmonized a diatonic step apart. So the entire sections only span a major or minor third, as the case may be. Towards the end, I do what has by now become a favorite practice, breaking up the sections and having them play their lines a beat apart. It works especially well here, as it gives the band a nice full sound but still manages to sound quite busy. Overall, this tune is pretty good, but there are just two things that call for a do-over: the intro and the middle. I’m really happy with everything else, but these two sections don’t belong at all. I kind of knew this when I finished it, but figured that a rebuild would require enough new material to constitute making it another piece. Or maybe I was just being lazy. It’s anybody’s guess. At this stage of the game, you can pretty much call it anything and I won’t argue with you. After what has seemed like an eternity, the weather has suddenly turned not crappy. This makes me rather restless. I know it’s only February, but I’ve got me a tiny case of spring fever, I guess. Even the forbidding streets of Belltown seem a bit more inviting. Be that as it may, this piece still needs an overhaul. That will follow tomorrow.