Now that my doctor has transitioned from suggesting I might benefit from moderate exercise to insisting that I walk two miles every day (within 30 minutes, YOU GUYS!), I have the opportunity to listen obsessively to my work on Seven Dreams of Falling.

Thus it was that as I slogged around the park this morning I found myself really enjoying “Hark, the sound of screaming fans” as an entirely fun piece of bravado.

Which is why I set myself the goal of ditching it and writing something else.  I cannot shake the feeling that an audience of any sophistication would sneer at this snarky little tune.

side note: I’m having issues about melody.  On the one hand, I despise modern opera’s avoidance of a good tune.  There’s a reason why we keep scheduling the Top 40 years and years after their premieres and more modern pieces... not so much.  (For the record, I would love to hear and learn from each and every piece mentioned in that article.)

On the other hand, maybe it’s because of my lack of talent, but I don’t think bits like “Hark” are very strong.  It seems lazy to plop something in there just because it’s hummable.

Oh, who knows?  My inadequacy, my fear of not being thought one of the “cool kids,” or is it all just fine?  Discuss in comments.

So I wrote another version of “Hark, the sound of screaming fans.”  Not the whole thing, just the first two lines.  I’m not happy with it either.  It’s definitely got Theseus’s smarminess down, but if anything it’s even weaker musically than yesterday’s version.

Maybe I’ll keep pushing, writing ever more strenuously for voice and ear until I have something at which the cognoscenti will nod knowingly.  Or maybe I’ll just leave the gigue where it is.

Dream One, “Hark, the sound of screaming fans,” 2nd version | score [pdf] | mp3