On the way back from basketball today, a snippet of a melody popped into my head. I didn't recognize it right away, though, and that means the rest of the afternoon was going to be spent trying to trigger a memory that could lead me to the piece in question.
At first, I thought it was Chopin, because his mazurkas seemed to be drifting in the right direction, generally. Yet there was something a bit too bombastic for him, so I moved on. (Also, the snippet in my head was orchestrated, and that was so rarely Frédéric's way.)
Next, I thought perhaps it was Grieg's "Holberg Suite," which is rousing and (frequently) orchestrated and seemed to have the right tone. But no, that wasn't it.
Next, I headed over to Schumann, whose "Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood)" had the right flavor, but tends too much to the minor side (key-wise, not quality-wise). Still no luck.
Lastly, grasping at straws, I tried whistling the melodic shard over and over again, hoping to coax the faintest of memories from the back of my head, somewhere. Eventually, the word "Haugen" came to mind (which was weird), and then, the word "wedding."
That (and Google) took me the rest of the way home: Grieg's "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen."
BOOM! Mystery solved!
Now, I find myself wondering if detailing these sorts of Musical Free Association exercises is a good thing or a bad thing. Are some obsessions endearing? Or are they all simply terrifying?