In an admirable display of both TASK AVOIDANCE and ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS,^[1] I have not worked on Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy today.  Instead, I have forced myself to crank out about two minutes of abortive musical ideas for a new piece that’s been on my mind for a year and a half now.

What I’m posting today is a textbook example of ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS: it makes no effort to be complete or even good.  What you will hear is multiple “false starts,” just plopping out some images and ideas without regard to whether they are any good or not.  I put “false starts” in quotes, because the whole point of ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS is that there’s nothing false about them: they are just starts, period. 

Some of these bits are way wrong.  But they exist.  Some may find their way into the finished piece; most won’t.

Here’s what you’re listening to.

I have an idea for a programmatic orchestral (maybe concert band) suite inspired by series by one of my favorite young adult authors, who shall remain unnamed here for copyright issues obviously.  There are two ideas I’m futzing with here (in a piano score): 1) a landscape of surreal majesty; 2) a theme for our hero, a 1930s radio serial style whiz kid.  (If you have tumbled to the secret, keep it to yourself, thanks.)

Each abortive attempt is only a couple of measures, followed a measure of silence.

• landscape ideas: just harmonies, to be fleshed out later + fragments from an earlier attempt, also landscape related
• sketch for our hero theme
• another hero theme
• chase music motif, mostly harmonic
• another hero theme
• a landscape sketch
• a chase fragment
• one more hero theme

You will note the appalling unfinished sound of nearly all of it.  But that’s how it begins.  Check back when if I’ve finished the piece.

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^[1] see Lichtenbergianism