Has spring sprung yet where you live? It usually boings up suddenly here, but this year it is dragging its feet, with snow at the Hilltop only a week ago. Since then, the temperature has been wildly up and down. We do have lots of bulbs’ leaves popping up. But it’s mostly been so frigid that I have spent the last two weeks indoors composing more of my new Symphony no. 4: Scenes from an Enchanted Lake, movement 1 (demo below).

Last time I posted a short excerpt of this new movement, and now it’s grown to seven minutes long, which is the whole “Exposition” of the movement’s Sonata form, with two main themes and an introduction also used as an interlude between two statements of theme one. Click below (be sure to use good bass headphones or speakers) if you’d like to hear how it’s coming along. The second theme is typically lighter, by contrast with the first, after the first five minutes. (I first composed all of movement no. 2 and posted it HERE on Dec. 18. Just scroll down to the picture of the Loon.) But here is the program note for today’s much longer excerpt of the “Swan”:

Symphony No. 4: “Scenes from an Enchanted Lake” — I. Dusk: The Swan

As dusk nears against a bright pink and yellow-orange horizon, a lovely but mysterious white swan glides silently and gracefully across the lake, seeking the source of a sadly enchanted melody that seems to be coming from all directions. Then, in a sudden blaze, the sky is swallowed into the lake.

A few people have asked me if this new fourth symphony will differ generally from my previous ones. Most composers do evolve in style. I feel this one simplifying a bit. For example, there is not always a countermelody now, nor so many complex fairyland textures – this opening is rather stark and plain, but still haunting. This might have to do with the calm-lake program notes, which describe a more serene and still tableau.

However, it is rather the case that the program notes came later, to describe the music I had first composed without any program note! My music doesn’t really ever need a program note at all, truth be told, but I think that if people can picture something, it can help them find a way into the music the first time. After that, they don’t so much need it and can just hear it purely as music. It usually takes a few hearings to get to know a new classical piece and come to love it.

Also, and again consistent with the program notes, I am even more inclined than ever in this symphony toward dreamy, lush melodies, a mood I love in Rachmaninoff’s slow movements. I also like that dreamy mood in some of the film themes by John Barry, like Out of Africa, Somewhere in Time, and You Only Live Twice. Of course, my themes are presented in a more classical, developmental kind of form, but I do love the floating, romantic feel of those kinds of themes. I hasten to add that it is possible to be inspired by a mood without copying another composer’s actual style. I only paint my own impression of a dreamy musical portrait, just as Monet’s dreamy Water Lilies differ from Van Gogh’s dreamy Starry Night.

On such a “dreamy” note, for any cocktail afficionados out there (with apologies to non-drinkers), I have recently tried, in my dream of having been born at least fifty years earlier, making for the first time two classic cocktails, the Negroni and the Rob Roy! Both are very easy to make and worth trying for, ahem, purely historical research, of course. The Negroni, invented in 1919 by Count Camillo Negroni in Florence, Italy, can be made simply of 1/3 gin, 1/3 sweet vermouth, and 1/3 Campari, plus a half-slice or a peel of a fresh orange. Some people increase the proportion of the gin, and some add a splash of triple sec (orange liqueur) for more orange or more sweetness, or a dash of bitters.

Be sure to buy sweet vermouth, not dry (dry is for a martini). Campari is a red, fruity liqueur that imparts a pretty pink color. Both are inexpensive and can be found at any liquor store, as can Angostura Bitters which are not actually bitter but add great flavor; it comes in a little bottle the size of a small soy sauce bottle. Be sure to store your vermouth and Campari in the refrigerator, or they’ll spoil! Even in the fridge, they will only stay good about a month.

The Rob Roy cocktail, named after the famous Scottish outlaw born in 1671 and celebrated in a novel by Sir Walter Scott, is a variant of a Manhattan, made with one part Scotch instead of the Manhattan’s whisky. To that, add one part sweet vermouth, plus a dash of bitters and (traditionally) garnish it with a cherry (I used an orange slice). For both these drinks, stir the ingredients with ice for thirty seconds and strain into a “rocks” cocktail glass with ice, like the one shown here.

According to the all-knowing, all-seeing Google A.I., the Rob Roy cocktail was invented in 1894 by Charles McPherson at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. It was created to celebrate the premiere of one Reginald De Kova’s operetta Rob Roy for those theater patrons to drink before or after the show. There was also a 1995 movie version of Rob Roy with Liam Neesen in the heroic title role.

Now, what do I do at the cocktail hour at home in the late afternoon, when I’m done composing for the day? I avail myself of the company of our affectionate cat, Oliver, shown here sitting on my non-cocktail hand. That one drink of the day (mind you) is my afternoon classic gin martini, lately with about a teaspoon of dry vermouth, stirred not shaken in ice (shaken is for vodka, which Mr. Bond always had), poured into a martini glass chilled in the freezer, and adorned with two blue cheese-stuffed olives. The Negroni and the Rob Roy were worth trying but too sweet for me for every day. And my martini is usually accompanied by the music of composers like Delius, Debussy, or Chopin on Pandora – but sometimes it’s the light 1960’s bossa nova of Antonio Carlos Jobim! Groovy, baby.

And to go with it, I often have my British murder mystery novels! Since I last wrote here, I have finally finished reading my fat volume of the complete Lord Peter Wimsey short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers. Marvelous! I’m going to dig next into the complete Miss Marple short stories by Agatha Christie. For murder mysteries, my preference is short stories rather than long novels, though, because there are too many characters and details in those novels for my feeble mind to keep track of, especially when a few days have passed between readings.

I will be thrilled if  you tune in HERE to see our complete Raffaella ballet, the movie, on YouTube, Friday, March 7 at 8 p.m. EST! A final bit of good news to share is that if you enjoy watching the ballet video, Parma Recordings has now Mastered it for an audio-only CD/ album, so that is also in the pipeline. I’ll post the release date here when I know it.

Till next time, I wish you “the best of times” and an early spring!