A slower day today, more music composed and completed. Wrote out a melody for a poem calked Velvet Gelt, about German hyper-inflation. The poem has a happy, carefree mood of childhood and I've made it an umpah-tune, with an accordion darting between C-Major and F-Major and a simple melody, switching to climbs in 5ths, then the same melody in A-minor for the reflective parts about the war.
The second melody to write is for parts of Richard Dadd's 'Fairy Feller's Master Stroke' poem. I was thinking about Greensleeves and old English forests, and wrote a waltz for harp with the same lilting rhythm:
Generally, this event will push my piano playing a bit due to the requirement for sight reading, and a few ever-so-slightly more complex multi-hand melodies. All good.
I've had a few painting ideas too. I find that the Jackson's stretcher bars I have are no longer made or sold (bah) so I'm stuck with them and can't enlarge or interchange them... and I'll have two spare. I had a painting idea in the night, a sort of portrait of a Tralfamadorian, an idea composed while in timeless space and observing, mentally and philosophically, several temporal selves. My biggest stretcher is a paltry 44 inches (117cm) which isn't big enough for the idea, but, it will have to do. It's been so long since I worked on a large painting I can barely remember how it's done.
I'll prepare the canvas tomorrow, but most of my time must be on music. My mind can't cope with learning all of these tunes and composing a painting.
