January Has a Face Like a Turnip

This posting was intended to be something other than another piano piece, but I was inspired by a brief, unexpected cold (for here) snap to write a little celebration of winter, just as it was officially ending. (Note: This was finished back in March or April; not sure why it took so long to get around to posting it.) It might not sound very celebratory to most, but hey, it's my celebration, so I get to celebrate my way: very slowly, and in G minor. But hey -- at least it's not another Perenepsis, so there's at least that as a difference from the last two.

And then there's the title. I think it's one of my better ones, at least of my posted pieces up to now. It's a true statement. And it's not a put-down of January or of turnips, both of which I like. January is my favorite month; it's one of the cooler ones, a plus in my book, and it's also the month during which I was born, which I consider to have been a pretty decent thing. Turnips are great in a vegetable soup, go good with pork, and add a nice twist to mashed potatoes. Very underrated -- kind of the vegetable equivalent of January.

This started out as a kind of ground bass variations thing, but only the first two bars of the bass pattern actually repeat throughout. Elements of sonata form crept in, and something happened that I kind of like, especially the sequence of chords starting around 2:19. I'm not even sure what to call a couple of those chords, but I like them, and how the whole sequence keeps increasing in density but then ends in just 4 octaves of D in preparation for a return to the tonic G for the beginning of the recapitulation of the sonata aspect of the piece.

I'd like to say what's coming next, or when, but at this point I have no idea. Too many ideas fighting for attention right now -- old ones still in progress, some less old ones near completion, a few recently started ones at an indeterminate state of progress, and some even newer ones that currently exist only in my head, or as scribbles at the end of current scores. If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably going to be another piano piece or something for string quartet, and in terms of when, probably not until July or August, possibly depending on when I take my summer vacation.