WFH: DAY 135. Last night someone wanted to buy one of my eBay items, and they wanted it NOW. 8.00 am: My ‘express-packaging’ service was initiated. A shoe box is ideal for parceling guitar pedals. ‘Bye, bye! Do well:

8.30 am: A customary review of the inbox, before clearing my head to begin work. Unlike my experience of the previous CD suites, the compositions for this one (with the exception of the first three pieces) have developed piecemeal. That’s to say, many have begun to coalesce, but only in part. Inevitably, they will all fall into place. I’ve confidence, because I trust both my instinct and grasp of the parts in relation to the whole. This is not an expression of arrogance but, rather, of a wisdom and skill accrued over many years.

9.30 am: I began my review of the processed harmonics samples, particularly those modified by the pitch-shifter to 3rd, 5th, and 7th above. The Perfect 5th version worked perfectly. The sample sound is complex but with sufficient repetitions, and a long enough period before the loop recurs, to appear like a single, extended melody. I returned to the account, lest my enthusiasms misdirect me, and I lose sight of the essence of ‘The Tune of the Fairies’. That tick-box moment. The processed harmonic sample was: ‘pleasant music’ (although, appropriately, dark in complexion); possessed of ‘curious parts’; ‘brisk and long’; and ‘expressive’ of a strange ‘condition’ and ‘disposition’ (if only my own). Check!

10.30 am: ‘More tea, please!’:

Dr Rhydian Griffiths kindly posted me Edmwnd Prys’s Welsh translation of Psalm 105 (c.1621), and the suggestion of a tune (possibly a Welsh original) to accompany it. The composition entitled ‘John Williams’ could now proceed further:

12.30 pm: Having invested most of the morning fitting together as many elements as was presently possible of ‘Sound Expressive of Something’, I explored my processed samples of ‘leaves’. Amid the rustle and tumble, there was usable material. Before lunch, I tidied the studio table tops.

1.30 pm: Sourcing and worktop reconfiguration. 3.00 pm: Computerisation: ensuring devices are up to date, safe and secure, and (given the age of some of them), still functional. 3.30 pm: Review, re-listen, re-evaluate compositions in progress. ‘Hear the one that you least like, John … again and again! Listen not just to the sound, but from inside it.’ The exercise was encouraging.

4.30 pm: I launched into the world before the sun declined. An end of things, for now:

Signs of the times: