Not sure about that line

... at eleven P.M. on a Tuesday afternoon after a successful day at work ....

23:00 is a time of day I simply don't think of as afternoon. Although eleven o'clock at night is certainly after twelve noon.

Thought as the shade of the music

I have not actually heard any version of "Little Drummer Boy" on the radio yet (and that is how I like it).

But I've seen complaints on social media about "Little Drummer Boy" on the radio, before Thanksgiving especially. (I am largely sympathetic to the complaints.)

So, I've not yet heard a note of "Little Drummer Boy" this season. Normally, that would mean I just don't think of it (and that is how I like it). But the amusement of the on-line complaints has necessarily evoked thoughts of "Little Drummer Boy." But, I am not complaining . . . I am not thinking about any to-me-odious recordings of "Little Drummer Boy," but of one or two recordings which I do genuinely enjoy.

I may not need actually to play them; enjoying the thought of them, may quite suffice.

Still at work on the turkey

(Culinarily speaking.)

An interesting and musical morning . . . it's raining, which is keeping me from my walk (even though I am not made of sugar) and I am not complaining because we are in sore need of the rain.  I started with sending Lux Nova Sibelius 6 files of the Op.126 № 3 (flute version) and № 7, and so, since my eye fell upon the folder containing the Op.126 pieces, my eye was drawn to № 2.

I've told my buddy Jonathan of the Midtown Brass that I was working on a new arrangement for them (I don't think I told him yet that this is the jazzed-up Wachet auf).  And in the back of my mind was the thought, Do I continue work on that, now?  I am unsure I can get it done in time for it to be useful for their Christmas events (it's a piece they will want to practice, and from here through year's-end, chances are they do not have much practice time.

Now, I did find my Public Domain version of "I Want Jesus to Walk With Me," and seeing my arrangement in the Op.126 folder reminded me that I need to prepare the surgery theatre.  I began by looking at the present state of the Op.126 № 2, and making little rhythmic improvements.  (These of themselves will not "clear" my arrangement;  I need to check for textual "watermarks."  Though it does increase my motivation to get my work clear of any conflicting claim, as my arrangement waxes yet better.)

And then the idea occurred to me that, as a short-term contact-renewer with both Jonathan, and Kevin here on the North Shore, a brass quintet arrangement of the Op.126 № 2 would prove a signal success.  So that is what I was up to today.