New York Times, Tuesday, May 10, 2022

I've always been into music and wordplay, so I liked the idea of a theme that had both, which is how I settled on orchestra section names as parts of phrases that have nothing to do with orchestras.

"Pulled Strings" came quickly and went into the grid easily — I love the wordplay in the clue, substituting "know-who" for "know-how" #dadjokes. "Pentagon Brass" began life as "Military Brass" but I just couldn't come up with surrounding fill that was up to snuff.

I got lucky on the revealer — I had titled the puzzle "The Sounds of Music" in my head, and when I was having trouble coming up with a revealer, it occurred to me at some point that it was staring me in the face. "The Sound of Music" has 15 letters, which was perfect for matching to "Prevailing Winds."

My heartiest thanks to Rodgers and Hammerstein for not calling their show "The Sounds of Music" and also to Robyn Weintraub for her gentle-but-firm feedback and generous mentorship along the way.

WINDS, STRINGS, BRASS … cue the MUSIC for the major parts of a symphony orchestra.

The percussion section has lodged a complaint, but until a phrase like DEEP PERCUSSION catches on more widely, they're going to have to march to the beat of their own drum.

*gooooooong*

Solid job disguising the theme. Although woodwinds are similar to PREVAILING WINDS in that you play them using your "wind," tucking that keyword at the back of a phrase helped to delay the a-ha moment. PULLED STRINGS did it even better, since as a cellist, I don't often pull my strings. (Pulled my hair as this subpar cellist struggled to keep up, that's another story.)

This one reminded me of another music theme that also pulled some strings. It made me wonder if today's would have been more or less interesting if the phrases had been interpreted punnily, i.e. PREVAILING WINDS = [Clarinets who come out on top?]. But that's a different concept entirely, and I like the simplicity of today's for an early-week solve.

I struggled mightily with one cross: AMON-RA / OOH. In hindsight, it couldn't be anything else since neither EOH-la-la nor UOH-la-la make any sense. I'm much more used to seeing the Egyptian god as AMEN-RA (or sometimes AMUN-RA), though. Along with some dabs of MTG STA MONO TNN and kicking things off with the discontinued IPOD, it wasn't a perfect grid.

As a constructor who values complete sets, it was tough to ignore the absence of an important part of a symphony. Great revealer, though, and I bet many solvers won't even notice, much less take outrage at the cymbalic omission.

*rimshot*