Grief leaves us in darkness (Address, funeral service of Jean Curwen (June 18, 2018)).
7.45 am: Breakfast:
8.30 am: Two objectives today: 1. To make progress on the ‘That One Day’ composition; and 2. To compress and subdivide the length of ‘Wisdom is Better …’ . I began with the latter. This would be the simpler technical operation but the harder conceptual strategy to resolve. The length of the whole (the superimposition of all the sides of all the albums) stands at 48 minutes. This is disproportionally large in relation to the other works on the CD. I don’t want to impute to the composition the status of being the major work on the album. Q: What would be the rationale for shortening the source material? This has to arise out of the structure and divisions of either Bible or the mode of recording. It cannot be arbitrary. No solution was forthcoming. Often, the regulating idea arises when I’m attending to another composition. So …
10.30 am: I addressed the day’s first objective instead, for now. Looking for an ‘are’:
There was no way of hurrying this. I had to listen to a great deal of recorded text before discovering which chapter of the book I was in. The quest amounts to locating a second within up to 40 minutes of text.
2.00 pm: I attended the funeral of Jean Curwen, a member of Holy Trinity Church. I’ve lost count of the number of services that I’ve attended during the last few months. We’ve lost eight members during that time. Her husband and surviving daughter delivered a very considered and constrained eulogy. Jean was of a generation which prized courtesy, politeness, restraint, and modesty:
2.45 pm: On with the word extraction and fielding emails as a distraction. I was half way through the process. By the close of the evening session, I hoped to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Reflecting on the first of the day’s objectives again: I should consider permutations of speed.
7.10 pm: I ploughed on through Exodus, Leviticus, and Proverbs. When I arrived at Isaiah, I just dropped the tone arm on the record and hit Chapter 17, verse 51 first time. The law of averages, I guess:
