Hi Fred,

Yes, improvised. The 3rd movement began as a small piece--about the first 20 measures, now given mostly to the clarinet. It was quite a while ago, and consisted of melody in the right hand and some A, D and E chords in the left.

Sometimes I wish I had a piano so I could practice a bit again. But to play the piano part as it's now written would take more practice on some passages than I'm willing to do.

Your mention of practice started me thinking of some of the exercises I used to have to do. Like a thumb under exercise on a dimished chord with a sixth--up and down the keyboard as fast as possible, one note of the chord higher each time, or lower if coming down, thumb under every three notes, with a quarter balanced on each wrist. Ouch. My teacher was also a great believer in Hannon, played as loud and fast as possible, with the ever-present quarter. I think that I need epsom salts even to think about it any more.

I hope you have GPO all in working order and are having fun with it.

best,
mgj