Las Cruces I

This is the beginning of a new set of pieces from the same materials as the "Catch" series, and still making basic use of the piano's middle pedal. "Las Cruces I" is measures 70 to the end of Catch XXIV at a slower mm 60 - with A 440 "caught", and therefore ringing undamped whenever it is played. I am calling the new group 'Las Cruces' to describe the note groups I am using -- with the same note series as the "Catch" pieces - but with five notes vertical and five horizontal in a cross, each sharing the central note, so a maximum of nine different notes, but usually fewer than that - there are 15 different crosses. Often more than one is sounding simultaneously. All have the same interval set in the horizontal , but not in the vertical. (Celtic and Saxon crosses often have a wide circle with writing or images around the crossing point.) Las Cruces, which I have never visited, is a small city in southern New Mexico, the state where I now live . Thank you for being here. Paul Betjeman