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

The years are flowing past at an ever-quickening pace. It's quite something. Francesca came up with the best explanation; she said that when you are little things are changing all the time, and this makes it seem like time is slower, but the older you get, the less you change, which makes time seem to go faster.

I am fairly pleased with the In Memoriam but it needs revision. I must get around to that. There might be two pieces for cello, the In Memoriam and the Song and Dance.

Oh dear, if it isn't noise from below, it's noise from my bedroom... the maid is hoovering in there. I've closed the door to my den, where I am sitting writing this. I slept in here last night.

Oh, now the noise has started up again below. A horrible electric power tool that makes an ungodly noise.

Well, the In Memoriam is OK actually. I think. I may have to look at it.

The pieces I have, then, are these:

Five Jewish Folksongs (Violin and Piano)

In Memoriam (Cello and Piano)

Elegy for Bob (Viola and Piano)

Song and Dance (Cello Solo)

Sonatina (Piano Quartet)

Theme and Variations (Piano Solo)


Well, we'll see how the Sonatina turns out, how the waltz fits in with the rest of the music. I have no idea at the moment. In a very real sense I don't "compose" my music. I overhear it and write down what I hear.

I've got the second subject of the first movement of the Sonatina, but I've had to transgress the "no repetition" rule, which I suppose I'm allowed to do, seeing it's my music. I guess. In some ways my use of the row is pretty basic; you can hear it as a kind of "key", the shapes and notes of the music sort of form characteristics which belong to the row I've chosen. I wonder if that means I've failed? Cos each note is supposed to have equal value; whereas in mine there are certain qualities to each row, harmonic, as I build harmonies from adjacent notes, and melodic, obviously. In the 2nd subject there's a nice chord on the piano which I might have written anyway, it just happens to have happened, so to speak, from the row. There are adjacent seconds in the row which called out for a rocking motif with the interval repeated ABABAB. This transgresses the rules of atonalism one of which states that no note may be repeated. Well, then, I've adapted the technique in my own way. I write tonal music as well so this is a sort of hybrid.

I've got to go out soon and get more ciggies. It's windy out.

...And relax.

I've been out. Sethu has arrived and announced that she's staying until Friday. Well, there we are. She's in the guest room tucked up in bed, because, she says, she feels cold. Well it isn't that cold outside, in fact there's still the slightest hint of summer warmth, but summer is definitely over. It was a long, hot summer this year.

Martin (Mr Cohen) has just been with a suit for me to try on. I think it looks smashing and so does Sethu. It will be fine with the trousers up at the waist, I can see that. I normally wear them at the hip, but he has measured for the waist, and I pulled them up and everything was fine. Martin told me a tale of woe about the bank. Well Chinua had it about right. Post-colonial studies is quite a simple discipline.

Sethu wants to watch movies this evening. I wish there were seating for two in my den, but there isn't, at least not for watching movies. There is space for someone to sit underneath the screen, but not for two people at this end. If the room were a bit bigger it would be different. But I do like it in here. So anyway, we must decamp to the Lounge if we want to watch movies together. I don't know what she has in mind to watch.

Sue came upstairs and said hello. She wanted to look at the fireplace. She was wondering what to do with it. She loved my interior. She emphasised the point somewhat. I was, of course, delighted with this. I am always so happy when someone appreciates my work, be it in writing, music or interior design.

Sue was awfully nice.

I wrote them a note to say thank you for the CD they made for us all. It's Sue and Chris who own the flat which has had so much work done on it and which made all the noise.

Sethu has invaded my Den . The wind is pretty heavy out. I've put on my cardigan. It's not really cold enough to light the fire, not with two people in here.