Hello MG,
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Did you slap your forehead and say "of course," when you came up with the idea for the finale?
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Lots of times over the years it occurred to me to write a final piece using just (or mostly only) octaves. But, yes, when it hit me that I should reuse the themes of all of the intervals, it was exactly like you suggested: "Duh".
I suspect that for many ears, these Parallel Interval pieces will sound somewhat mechanistic. Indeed, they do exhibit sort of a software developer's structural way of thinking about composition. However, if the pieces feel "cold", then I've failed.
My composition teacher, Robert Ward, told me when I was in my early 20s, and he was about my age now, that my composing tended to indulge in lots of ideas but needed craftsmanship to reign them into coherency. He promised me that if I continued working on the craftsmanship, then by the time I arrived at his age, I might find myself having fewer musical ideas jumping out of nowhere, but with those fewer ideas I had, there would be more craftsmanship to shape them together.
Alas, now I'm at that age (56) where indeed there do seem to be fewer spontaneous musical ideas. This also seems to be true in my software development work. In the case of software development, I do have 35 years of experience to better evaluate which of the fewer ideas are worth exploring-- and to not spend as much time rashly going down unproductive paths without first considering them calmly beforehand. I wonder whether if I had spent 35 years writing music instead of developing software, whether I would have far better judgment about which musical ideas to pursue, rather than just indulge in them in my usual improvisational method of exploring ideas.
Yes, there's distortion in the recording of the Parallel Intervals when things get loud. I'll have to re-record (and also practice more playing the pieces.)
Cheers
-- Mark