After releasing Péchés d’âge moyen, my short collection of twelve original piano miniatures, I took a short break from composing to take care of some other items.  Now that my insane two-or-three weeks of work have subsided into what is (hopefully) a quieter week—the eye of the storm—I’ve jumped back into composing by hand.

At the time of writing, I’ve composed six more short miniatures 11-14 March 2022.  In order of composition they are as follows:  “Diminished Minuet,” “Another L’il Divertimento in G major,” Three Rhapsodies in G major and Bb minor (consisting of “Largo in G minor,” “Poco allegretto in Bb major,” and “Adagio for a Rainy Day”), and “Pi Day.”  To match Péchés d’âge moyen, I’ll compose at least six more pieces, with a goal of releasing more lo-fi recordings by the next Bandcamp Friday (1 April 2022—a fitting date, indeed!).

As with Péchés d’âge moyen, I’ve been scribbling down these little pieces in my music journal, sometimes while sitting at a piano, sometimes not.  I’ve been using a beautiful Sharpie S-Gel pen (0.7 thickness) that I found on the ground somewhere, and it’s glorious.  It’s even more satisfying than the thinner-tipped pens I had been using, which were also remarkable writing utensils.  The Sharpie pen is a bit thicker, which can make composing in tiny scraps of staff paper more difficult, but I love the bolder notation:

There’s the manuscript for Three Rhapsodies in G minor and Bb major.  The description on the left-hand page reads thusly:

3/11/2022 – Péchés d’âge moyen, Vol. II

While I have not sold any copies of Péchés d’âge moyen, I am going to compose and release a second volume.  I will probably shoot for another twelve pieces, thought they will probably be slightly longer in general (but still quite short).

So far, I’ve composed five [now six] short pieces today:  “Diminished Minuet,” “Another L’il Divertimento in G major,” and Three Rhapsodies in G minor and Bb major.  Those three pieces are on the opposite page.

Those Three Rhapsodies include “Largo in G minor,” “Poco allegretto in Bb major,” and “Adagio for a Rainy Day” (also in G minor).

We’ll see what else I can whip up by the next Bandcamp Friday—on April Fool’s Day!  Appropriate!

Here is the most recent (as of the time of this writing) piece:  “Pi Day”:

It’s a little rough around the edges, but I’ll clean it up after some more practice.  For those who are curious, here is the manuscript:

Give it a try yourself!  Just as the the mathematical pi spins out numbers infinitely, I played around with repetition of the “A-B-C” notes, with slight variations between the first five measures.

Here’s to more composing!

—TPP

P.S.—Thanks to Son of Sonnet, I’ve sold my first (and only, so far!) copy of Péchés d’âge moyen.  Thanks, Son!