I listened to Rhonda and Brian’s concert yesterday. It was flattering to be included. They played well, but the sound is not so good. The balance at the beginning of the “Lord I want” obscures the trumpet line. But I’m not complaining. I’m embedding the video to begin at my piece but I recommend the entire recital especially  “Flatus II.”

Reading the comments makes me think that the sound might be attributable to how I listened to it (on my Roku TV).

I got up this morning and wrote two different versions of a hymn text we might use for our opening hymn on Advent I, II, and III at Grace. I did a riff on the hymn written for Jen: “People of Grace.” I tried to combine it with some Advent ideas and used “Lift up your heads” quite a bit. I’m curious to see what Jen thinks about it.

The Sunday service was gratifying to me. We finally played the Bach we have been working on and pretty much nailed it. Lovely stuff.

I need to plan next Sunday’s music but I’m a bit burned out today.

Here are some limks.

I lived through a stupid coup

The Coup Stage of Donald Trump’s Presidency | The New Yorker

The Historical Record Shows America Was Founded Against Racism

Airwars

This is an amazing organization that tracks wars.

Factually: Global fact-checkers find strength in numbers – American Press Institute

American Press Institute and Factually. Resources to learn and stay sane.

I am feeling very lucky this afternoon. I have made up music most of my life, but haven’t pursued a conventional career in it. I guess I haven’t been too conventional about much. But today is a very satisfying day when I spent several hours working with and performing some of my own compositions.

Yesterday I got up and instead of doing Greek, I sat down at the computer to work on an arrangement of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” for my piano trio. I worked for about an hour and was very unsatisfied. I was talking to Eileen and said I had struggled with the composition. She was surprised. She said i thought you were pretty much done with this piece.

I then recalled that I had thought that all of the work I had done prior in the week on it seemed at one point to have enough material for a final arrangement. So in the afternoon, I backed it up a little and followed my original game plan. By martini time I was printing off final copies of it and the other arrangement I did recently of “What Child is This.”

Today at piano trio rehearsal we read through them. It was a pleasant surprise that they worked as well as I thought.  Dawn and Amy were very complimentary.

After that rehearsal, I stopped by the house and picked up Eileen. We drove to Zeeland to sit in on a rehearsal  of my trumpet/organ piece by Rhonda Edgington and Brian Reichenbach. I invited my friend, Jordan, to come by as well.

It was very satisfying to hear them working on this piece. it sounds even better than I had hoped. Also, I enjoyed the back and forth we had regarding it. Very cool.

This Friday at 7 PM, Rhonda and Brian will be streaming a concert. I’m not sure if they are going to play my piece then or not. They didn’t mention that today. But here is a link to their YouTube Channel where presumably they will stream tomorrow night.

I am grateful that at the age of 69, I continue to have opportunities to compose music for people to perform. Even though I didn’t make a conventional career of it, I feel like it’s sort of a theme in my life.