Yes, it’s Tuesday—the traditional day of the week for Open Mic Adventures.  No need to check your calendars—or to question my sanity.

I wrote this piece, “Chorale for a Sleepy Wednesday,” last Wednesday, 26 April 2023, during one of my planning periods.  I thought it would make a fun sightreading exercise for my Middle School Music Ensemble, and we spent class that afternoon sightreading this piece and “Song of the Bigfoot.”

When I write chorales (as I’ll explain in the video), I tend to do it as a music theory exercise.  I used to write them with the idea of sustaining one or even two notes for as long as possible, and always keeping notes within stepwise motion of one another.  That stepwise motion is largely maintained, with a few exceptions, in the manuscript below.

So, what does it sound like?  Well, it’s a short piece, so I spend a good bit of time in this video explaining my methodology and giving some examples of the unusual chord structure for this piece, then I play it:

The manuscript gives a bit more of the details.  I also wrote a percussion part for this piece, which my drummers had fun deciphering and figuring out (and they did—very quickly!), but that got cut off in my editing and resizing of this photograph of the score:

The stepwise motion is most obvious in the upper note of the right hand.  It starts on G and walks up to Ab, Bb, B, and then C.  It’s present somewhat in the left hand, too, but I have a few third intervals in there.  The lower note of the right hand (the alto?) maintains stepwise motion until the penultimate measure, when it leaps a third from D to F.

I had fun with the chord structure here, too.  The major I chord (C) proceeds to a minor iv (Fm of various extensions).  That iv also functions as v/II (or v/V7/IV/I, I guess?), pointing down to the Bb7 chord.  That Bb7 does not point logically (in terms of harmonic theory) to G7/D, but the Bb resolves to B, the F steps down to D, and Ab resolves to G.  The right hand D on the fourth beat of the third measure repeats, as D is present in both the Bb and G chords (acting as the major third and fifth, respectively).

Anyway, that’s enough theoretical navel-gazing.  You’re probably more interested in the doodle.  That little sleepy guy in the score is “Sleepy Guy,” featured in this past Sunday’s edition of Sunday Doodles over on my SubscribeStar page.

Happy Listening!

—TPP

Other Editions of Open Mic Adventures:

• “Open Mic Adventures I: Oingo Boingo’s ‘Just Another Day’“
• “Open Mic Adventures II: Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’“
• “Open Mic Adventures III: Joanie Sommers’s ‘Johnny Get Angry’“
• “Open Mic Adventures IV: KISS’s ‘I Still Love You’“
• “Open Mic Adventures V: ‘There’s a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)’“
• “Open Mic Adventures VI: Journey’s ‘Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’“
• “Open Mic Adventures VII: ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’“
• “Open Mic Adventures VIII: Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound of Silence’“
• “Open Mic Adventures IX: Journey’s ‘Faithfully’“
• “Open Mic Adventures X: ‘Time Warp’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XI: Spooktacular Supergroup Covers ‘Monster Mash’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XII: ‘Ghostly’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XIII: The Penguins’ ‘Earth Angel’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XIV: ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XV: ‘O Holy Night’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XVI: ‘Please Come Home for Christmas’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XVII: ‘L’il Divertimento in C major’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XVIII: ‘Satiean Motion’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XIX: ‘Two-Day Minuet for Left Hand’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XX: ‘Sleepy Student’s Serenade’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXI: Styx’s ‘Come Sail Away’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXII: ‘Blessed Assurance’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXIII: ‘Gabbi’s Gavotte’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXIV: ‘Softly and Tenderly’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXV: ‘Venite, exultemus Domino’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXVI: ‘Sonatina’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXVII: ‘Heavenly Sunlight’“
• “Open Mic Adventures XXVIII: ‘Song of the Bigfoot’”
• “Open Mic Adventures XXIX: ‘Lavender’s Blue’“