Hi Mark, Sherry,

I guess the bass in the middle section comes from playing, in a much more limber time, so many Chopin waltzes and Mazurkas and Joplin rags. It does focus attention on the right hand, while describing the beat. The piece was an intellectual exercise, with everything pre-determined but the specifics of the harmony and what the right hand would do in the middle section (which uses the chords from the A section, with the 1st and 3rd beats being represented by only one note of them), and the final tempo, which I left indeterminate.

As for future uses, like the B section of Prelude XIV, which is a waltz, part of this one will probably make it into "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," this one where pa is awakened by noise outdoors.

all best,
mgj