h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Battling to find the music for piano, violin, viola and cello which I need to compose in time for our concert. The other pieces I'm having played are the Five Jewish Folksongs, the Elegy for Bob, the In Memoriam and the Theme and Variations, which appears to be a hit with everyone who hears it.

So I've got to find a movement for the forces together, or movements.

I had an idea, but it eluded me. What you must do is hear something for the forces, not just any old idea which you then 'orchestrate' for the forces. No, that isn't how it works - you must hear the music for the forces.

An exception to this is when you arrange something like a hymn tune.

I heard Isaac's music (Andrew's son) and was impressed. I think he has a genuine musicality and look forward to watching his progress with interest. I gave him a couple of 'tutorial' type moments which I'm sure he appreciated - letting him find the answers rather than telling him what to think. Ag, I could have been a teacher in another life, had my mental health been better. But the Lord knows.

I have to admit to an advantage; knowing a culture enough to be able to work from within it but with the advantage of being aware of the outside of it. Unfair? No; everyone has access to books and to experience. It's just a question of where have your priorities been these past 20 years or so. Your own gain? If so, you will lose your life. Yet those who are ready to lose their life, will find it.

She will be forced to come on bended knee and admit that God has loved me. Just like all the rest of them. I am disappointed.

I love little Maggie so much, it hurts.

I have rescued 2 movements of the withdrawn Cello Suite and named them "Song and Dance". It's the 1st movement (the Prelude, now called Song), and the fourth movement, called Round Dance, now called Dance.

Marc said the Prelude was like an Irish folksong, as if that were a disparagement!

Tess said my In Memoriam was "sustained anguish" - both Andrew and Tess rate the piece, although I wonder whether it lacks rhythmic interest. The second movement, the song, was originally a setting for voice and guitar of the Song of Solomon 1:1-4, meant for Lynwen to sing, but that's love poetry, and I seem incapable of writing music to love poetry. Instead it turned out as a piece of "sustained anguish", which is admittedly my normal emotional state, an anxiety and a fear of falling off the edge of a great cliff as I improvise my way through life under the unerring guidance of the Holy Spirit of God. I feel loss and the fear of loss. Nick's death hit me, Chris's death hit me, Surendran is no longer with us.

I should like to write a setting of the Middle High German love poem "Du bist min, ich bin din". I can remember the verse in the original. I think of flowery thirds and music with a bloom of warmth.

I'm in a good mental place at the moment, although terribly emotional, thanks to the glorious welcome I was given at Andrew's.

He said, Must we wait for another friend to die before we get any more music?