26 February 2014

Insufficiently Dysfunctional

Yesterday saw substantial progress on the quartet, whose provisional title had been Dysfunction & Outright Extortion. The piece is a sort of introduction and allegro, to last a total of 5 or 6 minutes; and the Andante introduction was pretty much finished as of Monday. (It would have served all right for dysfunction, although it is in fact perfectly coherent . . . .) For "outright extortion," I actually envision nimble, high-energy music...but that second section of the piece has emerged as more of a slow burn, marked Allegro non troppo. And so, in the back of my mind, I already knew that the music was assuming a character out of step with the title. (Though it is a good title, and requires music to match.)

The Clincher was: last night I "played" the 9/8 section (at first; we did later get around to The Entire Piece So Far) for the artists in my life, who like it much. Of course, I was asked if the piece has a title.

It simply would not do to give a title which we would all understand is unsuited . . . so I responded with the invitatory, "What do you suggest?" "I don't know...something mysterious."

And she's perfectly right, of course.

So I have three prospective titles which crowded in upon the study of my imagination last night . . . .

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