It's a mystery.

This past weekend we hosted a flock of my wife’s relatives and a great time was had by all. One of them is an accomplished musician and is very linked-in to the music scene in Washington, D.C., particularly the early music scene. She was very puzzled at my being able to compose the music I showed her when I have absolutely no formal training to do that.

I guess my best answer should have been, “I’m self-taught, just picked up knowledge as I went along,” but I’ve never considered myself “self-taught,” because — again — I have not in fact learned anything beyond basic music theory. So how do I do it?

Part of that answer is that I’ve listened to classical music my entire life, and so I’m able to STEAL FROM THE BEST in what I hear in my head and then transcribe onto the page.

Another part of that answer is that I tend to think in terms of structure, especially at the moment with “Little Waltz No. 10 (Finale)”: It’s a waltz, as in Strauss, which means it’s episodic. You get sixteen measures of a melody, and then that’s over and you get another sixteen measures, different melody/orchestration/texture/mood. You may return to the opening theme, either at the very end or as the setup for a big finish. And so forth.

This is the kind of thing I’ve talked about previously, the opposite of a shinyperfect. I have an idea for what I need to plug in to what I already have (GESTALT/SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATION), and then comes the fun part of discovering what that might be.

In the case of “Little Waltz No. 10 (Finale),” I have three sections plus the actual finale done. Those are a little over two minutes long, and I’m thinking I probably need another two minutes to make it as much of a finale as it needs to be. At the moment, I have seven ABORTIVE ATTEMPTS just sitting there between the opening and the ending, none more than eight measures long and none that are inspiring me.

So it really is like connecting the dots: I know where I started and I know where I want to end up. All I have to do is fill in the blanks, right?

If only I knew how…

Sorry, Helen, I still don’t know what the answer is to your question.