The subtitle "2 a.m." here refers to the approximate time of day (night) this idea first came to me; it is another slow "nightmare"-type Perenepsis, akin to #5 (located here on YouTube) from way back in 2013. Like #5, this is almost atonal, but not quite, but also definitely not tonal, nor is it serial. It just is. Delicate ears might want to skip this one, as there is a more user-friendly entry coming any day now. For the background, I was looking for a late night photo of a dark sky, but this abstract watercolor from Circe Denyer seemed to provide the correct mood better than any photos I could find.
Now, I was planning to alternate piano and string quartet pieces for a while, but it seems that the piano pieces are multiplying like bunnies, so next up will be Perenepsis XXIV (Skipping Steps), and then another "color" piece for string quartet (either Yellow or Silver), followed by Perenepsis XXV and XXVI, then the other quartet, and then Perenepsis XXVII, at which point I'll need to finish something else (if that hasn't happened by then). This will get me up to 10 before the end of March, leaving me 9 months to finally hit my goal of 12 new pieces in a year, something that wouldn't be much of a challenge if I didn't keep on coming up with new ideas that steal my attention from ones that are nearly done... or if I had no other interests to take my time, such as sleeping.