On provoking divine mirth

Periodically, I draw up a list of titles I have in mind, which seem (at the time) a fairly good notion, and in case I do not remember them over time.  This morning I chanced upon just such a list, from/for 2007 – thus, incidentally, pre-dating this blog.  Often (as in this case) the list is both of titles for purely hypothetical future pieces, and of works-in-progress

The old proverb goes, If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.  At any rate, I chuckled on seeing the first item marked done, yes?  I can laugh with a light heart now, knowing of the substantial progress last summer, and the fact that I presently have "live" sketches for Night the Third;  but I cannot help smiling at the fact that White Nights is still with me, eleven years on.

Terpsichore in Marble was the new title for a duet for clarinet and cello which I wrote in Charlottesville, which has not yet been performed, and which (perhaps) need not ever be.

The Irreplaceable Doodles have, of course, become a Henning performance staple.

I do not believe I ever actually got to work on a Kyrie at this stage;  it tickles me a bit that the thought occurred to me well before my July 2012 Kyrie.  Five years later than this list, in 2012 I apparently had no idea that I had previously entertained the idea.

I must have recently struck my friendship with violist Peter Lekx, because Tango in Boston is the title of the first viola-&-piano sketch I drew up.  I held onto that sketch, which would later form the genesis of the third movement of the Sonata for Viola & Piano.

I may quite possibly still write a Symphony springing from the delightful Italian visit;  but the Op.143 Symphony № 1 is completely different music.

On these lists, I did not balk at casual ambition;  and apparently I was considering an opera after Hamlet.

Of the other titles (some, but not all, of which I may likely yet use) Heedless Watermelon became the first of the Op.97 fl/cl duets;  and Another Think Coming became the opening movement of the Sonata for Clarinet & Piano.