6.00 am. I completed the adaptation of a set of slides of works by Rothko and Newman in readiness for today’s Abstraction lecture. 7.10 am. Ablutions and breakfast, followed by a time for reflection and scriptural reading. 8.30 am. The week’s teaching was allocated, emails considered, and my desk cleared in readiness for the meat of the morning’s work. The low light of an overcast Autumn morning can dull and enervate the spirit:

9.00 am. On, then, with the new book proposal. To begin: I drafted notes on the scope of the themes, disciplines, media, and theories that could be included, and on the limitations of existing scholarship. 11.00 am. A change is as good as rest: back to the mixing deck to make some minor modifications to the I Saw Her Soul Fly Across the Clouds tracks:

Having listened to them repeatedly over the weekend, certain less than obvious flaws in the timing, editing, and the continuity of the three pieces had pressed themselves upon my attention, such that I could not rest without resolving them. (The coda to the third piece sounds very like Shostakovich.) 12.15 pm. Completed. Back to book. I’m careful not to over-tighten the proposal’s content, for I cannot, as yet, fully anticipate the publisher’s ambitions for the publication.

2.10 pm. The Abstraction lecture on ‘The Existential Sublime’:

3.00 pm. My PhD Fine Art application appointee was waiting outside my office door on my return from the lecture theatre. We discussed the nature of the PhD, their intent and aspirations, and the practicalities of undertaking this adventure. This is a big moment in their life; we both need to be sure. 4.00 pm. A much needed interval in which to gather together the threads of some outstanding module admin. In the background, I played my three new compositions repeatedly, listening either closely or ambiently to any glitch, crease, smirch, or stain that might otherwise mar by enjoyment. I must be able to engage any composition that I’ve written with the same abandon as I would another artist’s work. When I can, then I know for sure that it’s finished. That point has now been reached.

6.20 pm. Practise session 1. 7.20 pm. The evening shift:

Number crunching; I endeavoured to calculate my teaching-time commitment over the academic year. (It appears quite appalling.) 8.45 pm. A review of an undergraduate student’s pre-submission draft report and, finally, of material for tomorrow’s Vocational Practice class.