Shall the stars wheel again?

Henningmusick: Leaves no harmful residue. Never did.
Porridger’s Almanack (Breakfast of Ganglions)

I thank God to find myself still a writer and at work on something as ‘uncontemporary’ as I am.

— Evelyn Waugh in 1945

Mostly gauzy (and therefore unreliable) memories of 1999. So it is helpful that I set down some thoughts here. I remember first meeting Yoichi in a Dunkin Donuts in Cambridge. I seem to remember dropping something off in Watertown on a mild not-quite-rainy evening. The score and parts? I don’t quite recall. I’d guess I was dropping off hard copy but that leans on an equally unreliable guess that I was not yet at the time in the habit of e-mailing pdf files. It was a very exciting time: my first commission for a large ensemble piece. (Only such commission, to date, but my heart hoped for better at the time.) And the concert in Quincy was a very emotional experience, though also nervous, so my remembrance of that notable date is very thin.