Finally—some new music for New Music Tuesday! I’m still working on “Japanese Trapdoor Snails,” but I took a quick aside yesterday to jot down a quick little piece.

You see, dear readers, the pond hobby creates an insatiable appetite for more aquatic critters. My next planned addition to the pond is a trio of weather (or “dojo”) loaches. These are cold-hardy bottom-dwellers that look like an eel and a catfish had a baby, but the baby is somehow cute and not a hideous monster.

Naturally, I had to write a trio depicting these odd but adorable (oddorable?) creatures, three of which I hope to add to the koi pond soon.

A tuba solo with trumpet accompaniment, “Loach” depicts the eel-like swimming of the humble weather loach:

Here is the original manuscript, before adding in the minor section:

And here’s a second look at the “cover” for the piece, just because my loach doodle is cute (and looks more like an axolotl without limbs):

What do you think of this little piece? Did it put a watery spring in your step? Or did it leave you feeling like you’d seen an eel instead of its cuter fish cousin?

Happy Listening!

—TPP