Kites (Perenepsis #4)

Yes, this is the long-awaited (hah!) Perenepsis #4, appearing just under five years after Perenepsis #5.  Was time travel involved? Maybe, but probably only in the usual manner of past to present to future. What happened is that this one didn't initially start out as a Perenepsis, but acquired the requisite characteristics along the way, and as I've never been entirely happy with the non-posted original #4 (it has good parts that I'll probably recycle at some point, especially the "chorale" section), this seemed like a better #4 than that one.

The kites referenced in the title are very busy flying back and forth in the sky (where else would they be flying?), a keen listener will detect that most of them end up getting the Charlie Brown treatment, the poor things. More or less, the right hand supplies the breeze that keeps the kites afloat (even if only briefly), while the left hand depicts the kites themselves, but not exactly, and they overlap. That's not at all confusing.

The key is D, but there is no key signature, as it wavers ambiguously between major and minor, accentuated by one of the main themes, which goes up in minor but comes down in major, overshooting the root at the end (D--F--A-F#-Bb). It starts out in 6/8, has a middle section in 2/4, then goes back to 6/8 for the ending.

Inspiration for this piece came from listening to some Sibelius piano works, but don't blame him for this one; all I took was the idea of a quick-moving high right hand with the melody mostly in the left, and then Glornted it all up. The good news is that if you don't like it, it's only 2 minutes long.

Next up: Something for orchestra, along the lines of my Riparian Sketch for Small Orchestra, only different. Still working on the "weightier" ones, getting uncomfortably close to actually finishing one of them. Maybe by this fall...

Violet

I warned y'all that there were more "color" pieces for string quartet coming, Last year, when I finished and posted Black one day into Lent, I wondered whether I should've renamed it Purple. This year, I started one in Lent, and named it Violet rather than purple, as it employs Violins, a Viola, and a Violoncello -- Purple is for Pianos! So, this was intended as a Lenten piece, but as usual, while it was mostly done during Lent, I kept fiddling with it (pun intended) to the point that the final touches weren't done until a few days after Easter. Still, it is what it is: slow, muted strings in 3/4 time and B minor.

Not much else to say about this one, but I do realize that all three of this collection so far have been rather dark. I'll try to make the next one brighter, but no guarantee. I do have White and Yellow in the works, and ideas for Gold, Blue and possibly Green and Silver (there should be an Orange in there, but I may do Brown instead, and maybe also a Gray; I like brown and gray). Maybe between all of these, I'll get one or two of them done this year, but these aren't the only pieces demanding my attention.

Next up, another piano piece, then something else for orchestra. After that, who knows?