Began actually working on this piece in earnest, after thinking about it for several months. I decided to start improvising with some themes and played trumpet for about an hour, sometimes going to the piano and sometimes opening the refrigerator and looking inside for something, but mostly playing things on the trumpet.

In the proposal for this piece, I said I would make a work with a “single theme” with a “narrative structure” that would “unfold over time” so that each improviser in the group, all of us actually, could “interact with the theme” and “re-shape” its character. According to my contract I actually have to write this piece. This ought to be a challenge, as usually I start with one idea like “this piece will be like a mini-mall” and then end up with “this piece is like a (insert something that is not a building, like a fork.)” In other words, not a straight line from the beginning to the end in terms of how the work is built.

So, I worked with some sounds that I liked, but many of them are very rangy. So, later on I’ll try to keep improvising short pieces and try to work in less than an octave. A lot of good songs happen in less than an octave: Hot Cross Buns, Twinkle Twinkle…..there are too many to name. I am confident that I will eventually triumph, and a theme for this piece will appear in my head like so many bottles of ketchup in the refrigerator. Where do they all come from? This is a question we all ask ourselves.