How many times have you compared a Rondo to a seven-layer salad? Never? (I am having a really hard time believing that). You take your average seven-layer salad, found at some supper parties and at all basic family reunions, the kind made in a glass trifle bowl so you can see all of the layers, and you’ve got the recipe for a Rondo: Start with the main theme A, then add a contrasting theme B. After it has contrasted long enough, repeat a layer of theme A. Another contrasting theme, different from the first contrast, needs to be added. (This should be close to the other themes but different enough for taste). This is the C theme. Spread it on then add the A theme again to bind it all together. If desired, a D theme can be added, or you can go straight to the Coda, topping it off with a flourish. This can be served in large or small portions, depending on what other tasteful items have been included on the menu for the evenings’ event. A few suggestions would be a nice ice-box ribbon sandwich in binary form, a creamy free-form potato salad, or a cheesy ternary lasagna. Follow it all up with a Sonata-Allegro blueberry cobbler with nuts and I promise you you’ll never look at another recital program in the same way again.

Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms, Bartok, etc, etc, etc…we have all heard about them, read about them, and possibly played them (their music, that is).  The famous composers are all high up there, on tall white pedestals that will never crumble over time.  Handel, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Kabalevsky, (does it seem like I’m name dropping?) are all revered and adored by us. We are amazed at their talent and honored that we, as mere mortals, are privileged to play their compositions.  Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Clementi, Haydn, Schubert, Schumann, Telemann…all are geniuses who got hit real hard by the talent stick and have made their place in history because of it. Although we humbly learn each precious note choreographed carefully by their golden quills and pens, we feel inadequate to actually try to construct something in the way of musical compositions ourselves.  We just wouldn’t measure up.  How dare we even try!

If this is why some of you musicians out there aren’t trying to write down your own musical creations, may I offer this?  Architectural edifices come in many varieties.  Forget the pedestal and go for the curb ( no, you won’t end up in the gutter).  Maybe if you start small, you’ll be that much further along when the guy with the talent stick starts swinging again. If he never hits you, don’t despair.  At least you’ve become better acquainted with the music you love while actually trying to write it down instead of just playing what some guy on a pedestal wrote hundreds of years ago.