I woke up this morning with several possibilities for the cello sonata running through my head, both for going forward in the development section and for segueing into the recapitulation.

So far, neither has proven entirely satisfactory, but the morning’s work has moved me past what I accomplished last weekend. I’ve gotten notes on the page, breaking up what has become the hermetic “perfection” of what I have written so far. Does that make sense? If what I’ve written is good, and I don’t work on it for a week or so, then what’s there begins to sound as if it’s complete. How can I add to it?

Therefore, even though what I’ve written this morning is far from what I think I need to hear, it at least has given my brain something to reject and to improve.

Why don’t I post two bits, the original beginning of the development, and what I wrote this morning? The first is what I ended up with last weekend; the second is what I’ve stopped working on this morning, and I state up front that it is not good. As I work on it and get back into the music, it will serve as an interesting lesson in how I blunder my way into what sounds awfully organic and masterful.

Original | Saturday, Oct. 22 blundering

Today’s work is indescribably clumsy. Some interesting suggestions, but this will not be what audiences in our nation’s capital hear. This is what comes of trying to transcribe dream music.