The first draft of Memento is complete. It’s an interesting piece — far different from the likes of Turkey in the Straw. First of all, it’s a much more lyrical piece; that is, it’s way slow. At a dotted quarter note equals 48, this baby clocks in right around 7 minutes totalling 89 measures.

Even though it’s probably classified as a “ballad,” it’s far from the warm and fuzzies we often hear. The word “memento” literally means “something that serves to warn or remind.” Musically, the piece is somewhat haunted by dissonance and an ascending 3-note motif. Its structure is, for the most part, classical:

INTRODUCTION
THEME A
THEME B
DEVELOPMENT
EPISODE
THEME A’
THEME B’
TRANSITION
CLIMAX
RESOLUTION 

–though its style is somewhat minimalist. That is, beginning in the Episode, a 16th note figure begins to add a mechanical motion to the piece that, without it, would resist any forward, flowy, flowery motion. I think there is something profoundly beautiful about this “resistance to movement” within phrases. Two examples I can think of that epitomize this concept are Elgar’s Nimrod from the Enigma Variations and John Mackey’s Turning. 

I’m extremely anxious to hear it. It’s always a struggle during this part of the process. As a composer, you live a piece for months — you love parts of it early on, but the more you live with it and after 100 times of hearing the computer play it back for you, the more expected, predictable, and plain it sounds to you. It’s easy to let it get to your head and go crazy (especially with MIDI), but the promise of real, breathing humans is always something to look forward to. During a first reading, it’s always incredibly obvious what works and what needs revision.

Hopefully the revisions will be things like “put in missing dynamic markings” or “rescore trumpets down an octave” and not “rewrite” or “cut half the piece.”