Violin Phase ( Reich 1967 ) done on an electric guitar with bridge humbucker I would guess on a high gain modern valve amp by Dominic Frasca in 2001 � what a joy. The emerging patterns have been reinforced in the studio to get the energy levels even higher.. I�ll not spend �8.50 more enjoyably this year.

Also thrown is is the Kronos doing his 1999 triple SQ � four minor dominants equidistant � on Em, Gm, Bbm and Dbm � as Reich himself says � pretty expressionistic and rather after Bartok. Then a reconstruction of Music for Large Ensemble 1977 by Alan Pierson. This stuff wasn�t scored when it was first recorded � Rob and I heard the Britten Ensemble do it a few years back in Cambridge along with Zappa and Noncarrow and I would guess they used this reconstruction rather than the original process. This was not long we�d heard Music for 18 Musicians in the presence of the composer on the South Bank and I would go along with the view that this earlier piece is the better one. I have to say that this Eastman School recording is acoustically much more favourable than the space where I first heard MfLE without a PA system. The South Bank version of Mf18M was put through a pretty big PA and we were near the front � so you could still feel it going through your nervous system when you woke up the next day. The timbres on this Eastman version are bright and clear � what you might call a mescalin mix � and it sways and ripples and skips along very nicely indeed. It reminds me a bit of the earlier mallet instruments piece which first pushed him down this path at the start of the decade. I wonder if there are special psyco-acoustic effects arising from all those transients.

I did some more on the Cleveland WAVS this morning � taking some of the middle out to get the piano in perspective more. I really like the first Schubert song � it�s a very dramatic construction. I have to confess I sampled and looped one of CW�s long notes to see what kind of drone possibilities there might be. Actually part of this seems to have found its way into the third short story � which is already in a pretty outrageous state.

The final piece on the Reich CD is the 1981 Vermont Counterpoint � which I don�t know even though it was first written for flutes. Its played using a device to trigger customised marimba and xylophone samples � apparently with acoustic devices it muddies up too much. So this version is called Tokyo/Vermont Counterpoint.

I listened to some of Gilbert�s 1996 solo CD and wondered about ripping some of this for some further pieces

I tidied up the accounts on the Cleveland Recital � I think with recent CD sales we will be able to send Lynn a cheque for �700 � before any CD sales. I wrote to Jean Burge at the URC with the good news on the financial front.

There was a barn dance at Holy Trinity � the band was from the university � two violins, two recorders, two guitars, keyboards. They had some really interesting equipment. The main mix from the desk was run through a Behringer computer controlled graphic equaliser which had sampled the acoustic characteristics of the performance space and was adjusting the frequency profile of the mix accordingly. As a result in a very challenging acoustic space, the mix was pretty clear. The leader also had some condenser mike assemblies which the recorder players wore � powered from the desk. I mentioned to him that I used the little Sony mikes � he said that he used to use those but had moved onto these.

There is something that challenges me about the symmetries in barndancing reminding me about a remark in the Book of Changes which says that if you really understood some of the patterns that are used in social life you would possess the deepest wisdom.