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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1st Movement Sketched

Back to the string quartet last seen three posts and seven months ago.

A transition has been added to the first subject that takes its lead from the eighth-note figure in the viola:



The transition rises to the 2nd subject, in A major, which includes some chromatic passages borrowed and modified from the beginning:



There is no coda before, as originally intended. Maybe I’ll insert one later, maybe not. It sounds to my ear a bit out of balance, but that is not necessarily bad.

The development works on the 1st subject, starting with the viola and the first two bars in a minor. The 1st violin throws in its four pieces of eight as comments, causing the viola to change its tune, then everyone chimes in until the viola wraps up the section with the 2nd bar.



The 2nd violin takes the 2nd bar to C major and noodles its way to the third bar with some echoes from the first fiddle.



Then the cello takes over, putting the 3rd bar into G major with some conviction, which the 1st violin softly echoes on high, from which everyone tumbles down



to the viola and the 4th and 5th bars in D major. The viola then launches into some noodling of its own for a short trip to b minor and a handoff to the 2nd violin.



The 2nd violin decides there has been enough noodles of late and takes bars 5 and 6 from the 1st subject and spins some variants:



The cello likes that idea and takes the 6th bar, now in f# minor, tosses it around on the way to the 7th bar.



The 1st violin, having allowed the others to dominate the development, states the opening chromatic figure on A major, passes it to the cello, who hands off to the 2nd fiddle, who returns the passage to the 1st to complete a dominant seventh and start the recap.