Ali Bom Bali

During dinner, I read Alex Ross’ account of Sibelius in “The Rest is Noise”. That, combined with a recently heard phrase “Ali Bom Bali”, of obscure origin but not, I am reliably told, associated with the east Indies or neighboring lands. It may, though this is pure speculation, have something to do with the Swedes, but I am at best a rank amateur philologist.

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8 Bars of a Duet

This evening’s amusement is limited to the opening phrase of a duet for violin and piano.

Ground

This is an exercise in variation over a ground bass. The first variation is contrary motion in 3rds followed by a mixture of similar and contrary motion in fourths that has a bell-like sound. Eighth notes dominate the next four variations, first rising step-wise in broken chords, then falling arpeggios in steps and skips. Alberti makes an appearance next and remains static, then takes off with an interior dominant pedal. Having reached the heights again, the rhythm accelerates to triplets that weave in and out in a tight pattern that gradually falls in the next variation to off beat chords. The penultimate variation introduces seventh chords to set up the final whole-note variation in block chords. And that is my evening’s relaxation.

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End of Weekend

Music written after driving home on a slightly icy road and into stiff breeze off the starboard bow.

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Fragment for the Evening

This was written this afternoon, when out the window I saw a bright blue sky and clean, white snow. Unlike some composers, I don’t see color in music, so there is no other connection between the title and the tune other than circumstance.

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Leap Day Music

I wrote this yesterday, but it really has nothing to do with the date that appears only once every four years (except for those end-of-century years not evenly divisible by 400). It was just a quick tune written at the end of the week.

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