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The busyness of my business has continued into the start of the week, and I am following my rhythm of working for myself in the morning if possible before heading out into the bid wide world. Sometimes that working is taken up with administration or lecture notes, but on a good day it can mean putting some notes onto paper and progressing with a composition.

While Monday was a day for teaching I did also manage to add a rehearsal accompaniment to the score of He Makes His Messengers Winds, and I will create some audio files for the performers within the next couple of days. The idea is to make it easier for them to approach the piece before its first performance, which will be somewhat tight on time.

Tuesday was a day instead for checking lecture notes, creating presentations and heading into town to deliver a lecture about Erik Satie and Les Six. I must come straight out and admit that I am not a fan of Satie or his music, however influential he has turned out to be. I find his “furniture music” to be against what I believe music should be, but he is clearly hugely important for some, John Cage included, so he needs to be discussed. I am much more interested in some of the members of Les Six, Poulenc, of course, but also Darius Milhaud, whose bizarre but entrancing music is fascinating to me. I can do without the incessant rondo of Le Boeuf sur le Toit, which outstays its welcome, but there’s plenty of interest to be found elsewhere in his output, and it is strange that he sits so far out on the periphery of many people’s knowledge.

With Tuesday done it is time again, at last, to concentrate on my own work, and that will mean finishing the rehearsal recordings for Messengers, writing and scoring the remaining interludes of Why Should We Not Sing?, tidying up a piece for a competition and performing a slight bit of rearranging on Everyone Sang. It would be encouraging to get all this done by the weekend, but we shall see how things go. I certainly want to have some time off as well.

Next week is the usual round of teaching and playing, though with more time to get my writing done, so any loose ends should be easily tied up by the end of the month, and I would like to get my teeth into a couple of new projects before too long. There is the possibility of a rather large endeavour in November, playing rather than writing, which could be an exciting venture, but it will depend on several details falling into place. In the meantime I need to keep working, keep sending out scores, and keep putting in those small efforts day by day.

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