Scottish premiere

After the hands across the frames event yesterday where I blipped myself for the first time, I wondered what would form today's .

I observed some panel members at a hearing- but not all wished to be photographed for web publication which was fine.

A few shots from Princes St gardens, one of a photographer bending down to Simao the daffs. And the daffs themselves. These will go on Instagram as the evening event I attended merits the blip.

A former colleague - Robert Marshall - conducts in his spare (!) time. Tonight he conducted the 2nd ever performance of a musical piece by Cecil Coles. The composer wrote the tune - Sorrowful Dance - in 1917 for his wife. Sadly in 1918 he was killed helping to bring some casualties back from the front line before he ever heard it played. He was a pupil at my old school and his name is on the war memorial but I had not any awareness of him then.

The piece was only discovered in recent years and had its world premiere last year. Tonight was the Scottish premiere held in the Signet Library. The performance was combined with a dramatic presentation of the writings of a Lt Bennet-Clark who was a Writer to the Signet (WS) and who survived the war. He was played (excellently) by David Clark- a local history teacher - dressed in the uniforms of the time and recounted the often moving stories of those WS who fought in the Great War and those who gained gallantry medals and even a VC.

The piece itself was haunting and the combination of photographs, drama and music made for an emotional evening.

What was fascinating was to see (on loan for the night from the National Library of Scotland) was - on the left - the score written by Cecil Coles of Sorrowful Dance which had been orchestrated for tonight by Martyn Brabbins. On the right in the cabinet is another score of a piece by Coles. Of interest is the manuscript on the bottom which was written by a close friend of his, Gustav Holst, he of the Planets fame.

As we head towards a solar eclipse what better combination of things for a blip!