When I started this piece, I had decided I wanted to do something different - something in a major key that wasn't D minor, something not in 6/8… and I mostly failed. It seems that I am made of minor 6/8 waltzes! At least I did manage to do this one in F minor, not D minor - but even though I actually started with a 4/4 meter, the melody really REALLY wanted to be in 6/8. So. Here you are: another Betsy Cello Waltz!

I haven't found the perfect name for it yet, but the title that keeps coming back to (haunt) me is "Waltz of the Hamsters". Why hamsters, you ask? I have a mild anxiety disorder in which my brain keeps presenting me with little (or not-so-little) worries, which then go round and round like hamsters on a wheel, and which refuse to be placated and often keep me from sleeping at night. My hamsters have been particularly problematic during the past few weeks, due mainly to the confluence of Conflikt and the UK trip. So the entire time I was working on this piece, my hamsters were dancing in circles in my head in the background, with the sweetest little hamster smiles on their sweet little hammy faces. (Despite this, the piece really turned out rather pretty… makes me almost (almost!) want to bring those pesky hamsters back to dance along with it!)