Variations on a theme by H. Cowell

The announcement of the new competition brought this to my mind.

In fact, only the 4 first measures are by Henry Cowell, and it's not part of a work. It's the start point for an exercise proposed by the author, just to make it polytonal. And so I did (I'll understand it's not for all ears). The idea was to keep the spirit of the choral.

This is really great. I love the fact I can tell the melody through the quarter note triplet figure, while everything cascades to the right cadence. Some of the whole note bars cut the action a little too abruptly sometimes, but I can tell that's a transition. How long did it take you to write this? You'd do well for the fall competition!

I wrote it quickly. Just in an afternoon. Ok, afterwards I madre some corrections. It was an exercise...

Great! I think you succeeded in keeping the spirit of the original. In spite of the polytonal language, the music isn't "ugly" to me.

Is this exercise from "New Musical Resources"? I've been wanting to pick that book up for a while, if only I could find an affordable copy. 

Yes it,s from that book, which is very interesting.