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

OK, that's enough entries in Gnomon's Guide for the moment. I think I'll do something else now. Like singing, and walking, and gardening. Spring is here.

With afternoon temperatures (locally) hovering around 90F/32C, finally warm enough to wake me from my winter torpor.

Or maybe its just hours of daylight, bearing no relationship to temperature at all.

I've planted some grape seeds inside, and tomorrow I'll plant some chrysanthemum seeds.

That time again.

I look forward to it all Winter.

New to Gnomon's Guide today:

Entry A87869759 'Westminster Mass', a Musical Work by Roxanna Panufnik

My big choir will be performing this in the National Concert Hall in three weeks' time, along with Mozart's Requiem.

Are we allowed to comment on entries in Gnomon's Guide? Well, not so much a comment, but I just have one little question - there is a huge leap between "she studied music" and "she was commissioned to write a Mass for Westminster Cathedral" - can you say anything about how she was picked out of all the students or how she distinguished herself to earn the honour of writing for the Westminster choir?

The rest is, as ever, impeccable and now I'm going to see if I can track any of it down on Youtube.

It's available on Spotify.

I always welcome comments. Most things here end up in Peer Review as well. So any improvements will benefit both guides


I decided not to give an extensive list of all the stuff she"s composed, but perhaps I should.

Ola Gjeilo is another young composer who seems to have a bright future. My choral group sang his "Sunrise Mass" a few weeks ago.

Sounds interesting

TC, I've added a sentence to that first paragraph:

"She has written works in many different genres, including opera, ballet, music theatre, choral, chamber and film music."

This smooths over the transition between her being a student and being commissioned to write a major work.

Panufnik will be at the Irish premiere of this work. These notes will be in the programme. I wonder what she'll make of them.

Yes - I was going to ask if she'd be there at the performance. She certainly seems a hands-on composer and very approachable.

New to Gnomon's Guide today:

Entry A87869542 Howth Cliff Walk and the Bog of Frogs

My sister had a favorite walk during her college days, along the front of a frog pond, just as night fell, with the frogs chirruping.

She'd turn to face them, then address them, saying, "Frogs!"

The frogs, of course, would fall silent.

I like to take evening walks in my neighborhood, along a street that goes near some marshes. This time of year, the sound of peepers should be audible.

I grew up in a house which had a golf course behind it. There was rough ground immediately behind our back wall, with pools and frogs. I often caught frogs and let them go again, but I never heard them make any noise. I wonder do European frogs not make a sound?

Maybe the sounds they make are too high-pitched or low-pitched for us to hear?

Like the crickets, the frogs I'm acquainted with (over 20 separate and distinct species) usually begin chorusing around nightfall and cease abruptly and completely if they hear an unexpected sound or sense anything larger than they are moving in their vicinity.

If one waits, they usually begin again in a minute or so.

Rates are at a maximum during their spring breeding season.

I always find either frogs or crickets chorusing comforting on wilderness camping trips, chorusing their 'all is well' message unless they sense something which msy be a threat in the vicinity.

Of course, from a frog of cricket point of view, even a mouse is a threat animal.