This piece, written in 1978, appeared from a period when I was deeply immersed in atonal jazz but also seeking added personal distractions away from the commercial party work putting food on my growing family’s table. The composition reflects my fascination with the emotional power of sustained single notes and their overtones, a concept that is at once clear in the track's opening orchestration. The central harmonic idea of "A Beginning" revolves around polytonality, specifically
the simultaneous sounding of two major keys a whole tone apart: A major and B major. This contrasts with earlier uses of polytonality by composers like Stravinsky, Milhaud, and Holst, who often used dissonant key relationships (tritone or major third apart) to create maximal conflict. I, however, found that the whole-tone separation of 2 major centers (A and B major, in this case) produced the intriguing, less jarring tension I sought.