Inspiration

While we were waiting for permission to take the field for rehearsal the day of our World Bowl performance, the band spent a fair amount of time hanging out in one of those huge concrete tunnels that leads directly to the playing field from the outside.  And when you're waiting around with nothing to do for over an hour, and you have a horn in your hands, you're going to noodle.

Our trombones and horns started playing Mahler 3.  At the time, I was out on the field, but you could hear this huge sound coming from the tunnel, even though this was a reasonably large stadium with a lot of ambient noise.  One particular passage coming from that huge echo chamber sounded like something that would work well in the Meyerson lobby in Dallas...wait a minute...let's think about this...

And that's sometimes the way things happen.  Just a couple of notes in succession of people just fooling around can catch your ear in a unique way and start the creative juices flowing.  I had no intention of entering the Dallas Wind Symphony fanfare competition again; I thought the success I had before would be tough to top.  But just a week has passed since that moment and I have a decent start on a piece that only has to be two minutes long (but it is due in two weeks--can I work that fast?).

So, dear reader, you may expect a posting of my next fanfare effort, Galaxy Portals, coming soon.