The Gradual Read Online Free PDF

those?’
    ‘No, I haven’t,’ I said, beginning to realize how my endless preoccupation with work was isolating me from other people, even those in my own profession, and the subjects they would be talking about. ‘What difference would travelling north or south mean?’
    ‘He said it makes getting a visa less of a problem.’
    I shook my head, not understanding. ‘What about you?’ I said to Alynna. ‘Are you living here in Glaund City now?’
    ‘No. I’m still in Errest. You too?’
    ‘Yes, the same. I’m really pleased to see you again, Alynna.’
    ‘Why did you think I had moved away?’
    I was feeling again my lack of experience with women, in particular with Alynna, who to my astonishment appeared genuinely happy to see me. I was struggling with a feeling of possessiveness, brought on when I found out she was already on first-name terms with this other composer. What had been going on between them?
    When Alynna went back to take her place in the orchestra I noticed that Mytrie went across to speak to her, making her laugh. Mytrie had a generous smile and briefly touched her hand with his while they were speaking.
    Alynna’s presence in the studio took my mind off other concerns as I watched her first rehearsing with Mytrie and the other musicians, then playing his piece. It was called
Woodland Love
. One of the recording engineers told me that it summoned up life on Muriseay, using variations on certain folk tunes. Ordinarily that sort of thing would have interested and involved me, but I had trouble concentrating. It sounded smooth and conventional to me. All my interest was absorbed by the small, dark-haired woman sitting in the second row of violins. I watched the intentness on her face as she played, the responsive movements of her head. She sat, poised and elegant, her shoulders and neck straight, her control of the instrument fluid and expressive.
    The recording was completed after four takes, but the Muriseayan rhapsody had barely impressed itself on me. It sounded sweet and familiar, music that gave comfort, not stimulation. I felt that my work was at a different intellectual level, and that it was wrong that this Mytrie and myself were being packaged together. The fact that his work and mine were to occupy different sides of the same disc suggested a link of some kind, a similarity of purpose where none existed.
    I was hoping to speak to Alynna again, but as soon as the recording manager announced that the session was complete she left her seat to mix with the other musicians. When she had put away her instrument she left with the others. The remaining musicians took their places for
Tidal Symbols
. The other composer walked across to me.
    ‘Sir, I believe you are Alesander Suskind. Would that be right?’
    ‘Yes,’ I said, too startled to correct what I knew was becoming a common mistake about my name.
    ‘I am Denn Mytrie, and I am visiting from Muriseay. I’m proud to meet you, sir.’ I shook hands with the young man. I immediately liked his firm grip, the open way he looked at me, the sincerity he radiated. His words were unaccented, but there was a lilt to his voice, a kind of musical inflexion that you would never hear anywhere in Glaund. Previously I had no idea how islanders might sound, and briefly wondered if this might be it. ‘This is a great honour, Msr Suskind,’ he continued. ‘When they told me we would be recording together I could hardly believe my good fortune.’
    ‘Well, thank you,’ I said, embarrassed, pleased, feeling my prejudices against this young man dissolving away.
    ‘May we get together briefly for a drink after this? There is so much I’d like to discuss with you.’
    ‘Well, I will have to catch a train home—’
    ‘Let’s see if we can make the time,’ he said. ‘I would love to discuss your quartet
Dianme
. I listened to the record properly for the first time just before I had to come away.’
    ‘I didn’t know it had been