This piece was started a couple of months before the birth of my son, Miles Joseph Borden. I performed the slow movement, Meditation, at his 100-day party. The fact that it is still incomplete 3 years later is testimony to the amount of time left for composition when one has two small children to raise.
Barcarolle (pdf of opening idea) Opening Improv
I composed the melody for this movement and have progressed in my working out of the harmony somewhat recently. The structure of the rest of the movement after the opening is not yet clear to me. The melody is very lyrical and (I think) beautiful. It makes me think of a rocking song for a baby, or a gondolier song (like the Mendelsohn G-minor Song Without Words), or a barcarolle; perhaps a baby resting in the birth canal, or gently floating in the womb.
Meditation (pdf) Original Improv
This movement began as an improvisation late one night, recorded on an old hand-held casette tape recorder. I transcribed it and reworked it slightly, but it held up well from the original improvisation.
Carillon (pdf of A-section and start of B-section) – B-Section Improv
The Carillon is intended as a great ringing of bells to welcome the newborn. The Carillon has an opening A section which I'm very satisfied with, and a B section has been improvised and sketched out, and I am working it through musically. The current PDF includes some of my efforts on this. The MP3 linked here is an old improvisation for the B-section (the quality is terrible, but it is all I have to work with as I transcribe my original improvisation, which I consider rhythmically strong though needing work and fleshing out with the proper pitches and harmonies, as well as some contrapuntal-rhythmic “punching up”). The A-section can be discerned from the PDF; this is complete.
Full Score (April 2012)