Some sounds from spring ...

I did NO composing this weekend... just too tired. Meanwhile, I heard back from the young bass to whom I had offered "Deep River" -- he received the music and is again overjoyed, and has scheduled it for work just after Easter. So: that whole story will be up again later in the month... meanwhile, I rested on the weekend and much of today, and so I noticed that in San Francisco I am hearing one of the sounds of spring:

Pigeons are basically doves ... just the gritty urban variety. Yet, in the spring, they make that sound that gives them away, that "mourning dove" song. People find it sad for a reason obvious to those who read music; the interval goes downward a major third and then stepwise to a fourth, which in the key of E flat suggests E flat minor, one of the "darker" minor keys. In addition, there is a poignancy to the song, which I have represented by combining the softness of the flute with the pungency of the oboe.

(By the way, the choice to use the oboe also reflects the exclamation -- "oh, boy!" -- when you realize that now that spring is here, these birds are getting up and singing WAY earlier than people want to get up on the weekend)

But remember that discussion of Phrygian Dominant mode I was having last week -- a "majorish" form of a minor mode? To me, the sound of the "mourning dove" is like the sunshine working through and clearing away the clouds and cold of winter. I REFUSE to leave it in sad territory!

As I was playing around with that, I started hearing the flutes, oboes, and other stuff ... this could be the start of something big... every so often I do compose a symphonic piece...

I ought to take the weekend off more often...