I decided to put down a list of ten things to do this week in the office � the way to start a plan-do-check-act cycle is somewhere � and I thought this might be one place. Just to have a simple plan that led to some action and then say at the end of the week

The Plan Check phase should be easy enough � the trick is always in the final evaluation leading into the next cycle. You can make that phase the subject of a PDCA cycle and that is in the direction of double loop learning. In fact I had quite a long discussion on this kind of issue with Barry Oxtoby. He has been working in this area for a long long while and has some very well developed views on what makes for a learning organisation. We went out to lunch at a sandwich bar in the middle of the business park � I didn�t know it was there � its pretty good value and the walk there was through some water gardens. Barry has a great range of contacts.

I have started listening again to Prince�s triple CD from the mid 1990s � its even clearer than before that it�s a masterpiece as far as I am concerned � a supreme demonstration of ability in many black music genres plus the aim to say something serious about how things are. Despite this I impulse bought a collection of Rod Stewart early 70s music in the supermarket � can I think of mitigating circumstances � I suppose it might be the beery warmth and familiarity.

I have just finished a pastel abstract � somewhat after Kandinsky � it might be about the form and the page. Vita says she is fed up with forever having to study K � there are worse people to think about. I�d rather think a lot about K than Picasso. I intend to study Schiele in greater depth � another Viennese strand � music to go with free atonality quite as much as K.

I was reading about Barnet Newman at the weekend in the wake of having been to the exhibition � about how he did the first zip painting and looked at it for a year before he concluded whether it amounted to anything. The more I think about him the better he gets. I think he is up there with Rothko if not quite with Pollock

I have started my 2nd Leamington piece � actually it�s a rework of something which was a fairly close adaptation of an early John Adams piece � maybe one of the Gates.

I have pushed it further in the sense of getting the elements to modulate in a not over coherent way and I have pulled the different strands apart too. I have just been jamming some guitar figures against it and I think it may be possible to construct a guitar part from a fairly open ended set of instructions. I can see that it could be quite long.

Gilbert mailed to say that he has bought a Scandinavian work about atonal themes with plenty of exercises. Sounds very good to me. I have a Scandinavian serial duet for horn and flute that I have yet to try out with John Gillbe � I think its an interesting piece. I imagine Gilbert will find that working through this stuff quickly has an impact on his playing/writing.

I am still working through Potter � he has some good pages on Reich and form � how at one stage say around the end of the 60s, Reich�s aim was to make musical form manifest. This is a really good point � and makes a clear link between musical and fine art M � in the latter case form is often very easy to identify � not always though. Sol De Witt sometimes has a quite complex formal structure. Reich describes pieces from this phase as like �etudes�. I think this is right and they make you want to explore the ideas which are near the surface of the work for oneself. This could make the pieces even more important. The climax of this phase is apparently �Drumming� � this is one of the hardest pieces in my view.

Things begin to shift with Six Pianos � this was the first Reich piece I ever heard and I found it extremely exciting. He had a spell on Deutsche Gramaphone and this resulted in a set of recordings which are now available mid-price � a fantastic bargain. This was a Christmas present maybe around 1994. My family (rightly) wondered what they had let themselves in for.

Everyone agrees that the phase after the �etudes� climaxes with Music for 18 Musicians which I had the privilege to hear introduced by the composer � and sitting pretty near the front. I thought that was about as powerful as sitting in the front of a club where Elvin Jones is playing. It was so good I haven�t yet got round to buying a recording.

The Adams piece I am interfering with really follows that climax in the evolution of M � it is about that time that Adams finds that certain aspects of M unlock his creativity and kick start his career.

One of the ideas in my mind is the issue of chromaticism in M. The Dream chord is chromatic in many manifestations. You could make a case that it had something to do with the blues which is part of LmY�s genius. The unperformed 2 Pianos by Reich which I am hoping to colonise with Gilbert is about 9 chromatic chords many of which sound like Monk. Dayin Dayout an interpretation of which I am about to mail to G is about the contfrontation between M�s in its stripped down harmonic form with momentary forms � a grid on which energetic gestures are located � also about the emergence of the grid as the piece opens up. I suppose its most like Sol De Witt in that respect in as much as I can find an equivalent � this is not a brilliant parallel. One of the ideas from it definitely comes from J Johns � maybe pop engagement with AbsX is a better metaphor.

Maybe today I will find a way of mailing Mark some contributions to BBC 500. I need to find a post office so I can get the CD off to Gilbert.