Dear Alice,

This is probably a foolish question ... I listened to a symphony by a woman composer on the way to Taiwan once (on the airplane) ... I am almost certain the name of the composition was Return to Green Mountain but I haven't found any such composition anywhere. Well, anyway ... my apologies for both not having more information and my garbled memory!

john b

Dear John (or john if you prefer),

We'll bung it out there, regardless, in hopes that someone might know ... It must have made a strong impression on you, to still want to find it.
Good luck!
Alice

Dear readers,

I have long preferred to save my Louis Bazin bow by covering its lovely frog with rubber (something Jacqueline du Pré also used to do). I recently had my bow rehaired, only to discover, to my consternation, that I had no orange rubber tubing left!!

I was about to buy around 194 metres of rubber tubing from a surgical supply firm (or roughly 193 more metres than I'm likely to need before I die) when I noticed that my googling had also produced a company new to me: Stringvision. Curious, I checked it out, only to find that they have (patent pending) a brilliant new invention for the violin, viola or cello bow, making it unnecessary for me to write the following:

'Dear surgical supply firm, Is there any chance of your cutting just a single metre of your rubber what's-it ...?'

My bowgrip arrived earlier today, and I couldn't be more thrilled. Stringvision says (and says truly) 'The Stringvision Bowgrip is an elegant anti-fatigue bow covering for the string player, allowing the fingers to stay is place with a light touch. One model stretches over violin, viola or cello bow without removing the frog'. (In other words, tough luck, bassists!! Perhaps they're working on one for you!!!)

I think that, if anything, they're underselling it, personally. For a start, ye Stringvision Bowgrip gives ye string player confidence when playing in ye hot conditions and/or when nervous, giving the sensation of being effortlessly and fully in control. Secondly, it preserves (for the better provision of one's non-string playing kids) the fading mark of one's famous bow-maker for which one -- naming no names -- forked out one helluva lot of money around fifteen years ago. Thirdly, it doesn't make the bow feel heavy, something, frankly, that the surgical tubing can do. And fourthly, being see-through, it is likely to shield one from the sort of dull questions one can easily get fed-up with on educational dates (example: schoolkid -- brightly -- 'Why is your bow orange and that guy's bow black?' Me (smiling sweetly): 'Ask your mother, darling'.) And fourthly, it is dead easy to fit, unlike the perspiration-inducing efforts I used to have with my orange surgical tubing.

So, wait no longer!!!!!!!!!!!! Contact www.stringvision.com NOW, and get your thrilling, nimble, see-through, easy-fit Stringvision Bowgrip!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cordially,
Alice

PS And no, I haven't been bribed to write any of this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PPS If anyone out there has tried Stringvision's keypeg or key pickup, do give me a yell with the low-down, as I am seriously interested.