I heard from Wallace Galbraith in Ayr. In his first email, he essentially agreed with my assessment of the five pieces, but expressed no preference for any of them in a way that my American brain could discern. I asked for clarification, and he suggested that we move forward with Resignation and Rondo. So there we go. I have new goals. (He also proposed Waltz as a “third movement,” but I’m not sure what he means by that.)

I woke up with the start of a piano piece in my head, the first of a series I conceived earlier in the spring, Preludes, no fugues. This is mostly driven by my sense of guilt over never having written the Trio for piano, trombone and saxophone that Maila Springfield asked me to write three summers ago. I can at least throw half a dozen bagatelles at her.

So I was quite productive on that front: finished No. 1, conceived No. 2, and am halfway through No. 3. I’ll loop back to No. 2. Nos. 4, 5, and 6… this week, maybe?

Prelude No. 1, score | mp3
Prelude No. 3 (as of 6/27), score | mp3

The third prelude will continue with that opening theme now interwoven with the sixteenths, I think, in multiple octaves in both hands, more grandiose than the delicate opening. Since I cannot possibly play any of it, I’m going to have to be very left-brain about its construction: where can the fingers actually be at any given time? Can I notate it so that the quarter notes of the “melody” are distinct from the sixteenths? How is this thing supposed to end?

I also heard from Diane Mize. While her cabin is being repaired, she has asked me to write a goal statement for our Art Camp: what do I want to accomplish and why? This is supposed to be “uncensored.” No fair making me think. Or be honest. You can see how this has taken me two days even to get half a page written.