First Compositions 1973 - 1976

Percussion Trio (1973?)

The Dresden Overture (1973?)

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Prelude for String Quartet (1974 or 1975)

Two Interruptions (1975-6)

Your blogger in a tie

In junior high, being able to read both rhythms and pitches, I was tagged to play percussion in the school orchestra. A fellow percussionist and I composed a short percussion trio for a district ensemble contest. We each threw in stuff that we wanted to do and strung them together so that there was a start of it and an end of it. We were probably the only group that wrote our own material, and I remember the adjudicator was impressed. Well, perhaps more intrigued that we had done it than impressed with the result. It is possible, but I doubt the score survives. My first attempt at writing a masterpiece resulted in a painfully earnest effusion for solo piano, inspired by Slaughterhouse Five, called The Dresden Overture. It featured lots of loud D minor chords. I'm pretty sure the score is gone and no recordings were made.

In both junior high and high school I got to know some excellent young string players. I also became acquainted with different chamber ensembles, simultaneously drinking deep drafts of the relative prestige the various configurations were accorded in our culture. String quartets seemed to be top of the heap, so I wrote a movement in E minor. I was playing lots of preludes (Chopin and Scriabin) so that's what I called it. My string writing isn't particularly gracious, though I got some excellent feedback on that from some of my peers who were game to read through it. On the plus side it's based on actual musical ideas - a melody, an accompanimental figuration, and a sequence or two. This was the piece I showed Dell Wade when we first met. I probably still have the original hand written score somewhere, and a printout of a score made with software long since unloadable. In 1985 I made a recording on a Wurlitzer Funmaker Sprite electronic organ that I had purchased for Banned Rehearsal in 1984 ($200!). There may be some overdubbing involved. The cheesy cruddy sound does the piece no disfavors.

I was dinking around on the piano one day when I chanced upon an impressive sounding but simple to produce figuration (a modified Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater pattern) that I worked into a blatant set of answering phrases in 7/16 time. In orchestra we had recently performed a piece by Alan Hovhannes that had a "senza misura" bit in it, so I strung together some juicy dissonant chords for a middle part, and marked it grandly "senza misura". Then I repeated the 7/16 phrases to bring it home. Thus was born Interruption, later Interruption #1.

Interruption #2 was my attempt to make lightning strike twice. This time the motor is a black note pentatonic figure in 5/8, set against a Ravel-ian melody in 2/4. The eighth note is equal between them, so that the meter lines up each 20 eighths. The tunes are pleasant and there are repeats, probably too many.

The Two Interruptions are the first of my pieces that I still rather enjoy. The focus is real, I'm starting to play with material in ways that I recognize as my own, the piano writing falls well under the hands, and I think the titles are great. I was quite pleased with myself. I played at least the first one for Lockrem Johnson when we met in the Spring of 1976. In going through my old papers I discover that the adjudicator who looked at my piece as part of the Washington State Music Teachers' Association Young Composer's Project was none of other than the late Bern Herbolsheimer, who wrote me a nice note. I played #1 in public several times back in the day, including as an encore at my Senior Recital. I picked them up again after many years to perform on a recital on November 5, 2011, at University Temple United Methodist Church, in Seattle. The score can be found here. 2 Interruptions