I’m nearly done—I think—with Koi Dance.  I’d like to write one or two more pieces for the collection, particularly one based on Japanese Trapdoor Snails.  I should have fifty-five of the suckers arriving via airmail this afternoon, and I’m excited to plop them into our pond.  They should clean up some of the murkiness quite nicely.

Today’s piece is a return to form for me, with the usual sort of counterpoint and tight harmonization I usually favor.  The first section is particularly based on parallel motion between the two parts, but the second section features a multimeter fugal section.

It’s also the only piece based on a fish that doesn’t live in a koi pond (as far as I know).  But when I heard what I’d scribbled down, it just sounded like a sturgeon!

“Sturgeon” is a short duet for two cellos. It features a main section that wiggles between F major and D minor, then a fugal second section that playfully shifts meters. The piece depicts something of the odd, enigmatic appearance of the clownish sturgeon.

Here’s the original handwritten manuscript (I wrote the fugal section in Noteflight):

What did you think of this little cello duet?  Does it sound like a big, weird fish whose eggs are a delicacy the world over?  Or did it sound like the mad, self-indulgent scribblings of a pedantic hedge-composer?

Leave a comment and let me know!

—TPP