Okay, I'm gonna give y'all a new piece, and I think you'll like it even if you didn't care for the last piece I put here at all, 'cause it's completely different in style. But first, let me tell you its story.
On September 11 of this year, I was doing nothing in particular on the computer, my mind wandering, when a theme came to me. Sort of a low cello theme, really, with a pretty indistinct rhythm. I tried playing it on the piano and it didn't sound right, so I did something I'd never tried before: I harmonized with the piano while singing the melody. Now, this was the sort of gorgeous theme that I just completely fell in love with, the sort of theme I didn't push to
go anywhere because I was perfectly content with singing the same thing over and over and over. And so I did. It was the sort of theme I knew I wanted to remember forever and play over and over and over again for the rest of my life. I get pretty worked up about this stuff.
Then I left the house for an hour, humming to myself. When I came back, I sat at the piano and started playing, but it wasn't right! What I was playing didn't sound anything like what I remembered- I couldn't remember any of it! I became completely depressed, and sat around miserable for a few hours trying to remember how it went. My memory isn't good, you see, and I'd forgotten piano pieces I liked many times in the past. So I was very worried that I'd never get to sing it again. And I made a mental note that September 11 2006 was the day I forgot one of my favorite musical themes. I tried getting back to my computer, to do other things, but I couldn't concentrate on anything but the hole in my memory where the music had been. But I kept trying to remember
anything substantial from the piece, and eventually I did. And it all came rushing back, and I played it and sang it over and over and over again.
I didn't develop the piece at all after that, because it didn't need to be developed at all. I just continued to repeat it. A little while later, I went to this guy with recording equipment to record a bunch of my pieces on an electronic piano. I'd been planning on doing that for a while, though I hadn't played on an electronic piano in years, and certainly never for the purpose of any sort of recording. Well, as I was there recording for two hours altogether, I decided I wanted to do something with my latest theme. So I played a duet with myself: First I played a harmony with the piano voice, deciding as I went along what the melody would sound like later. Then, remembering what I'd decided, I played the melody in a strings voice while listening to the piano so that I could play along. It'd been much too long a time since I had the opportunity to improvise a duet with someone else, and this was almost as satisfying. I was really just experimenting, with no idea of how it'd sound in the end, but I felt that the very first try was very successful. It's extremely imprecise and chaotic, and I actually think that adds to its charm. You can decide for yourself.
Sigh.
