I bumped into a few kindred spirits in the course of today. I went along to the lunchtime concert at the RSAMD where Rob Mackillop and Steve Player were entertaining (in several senses) with various kinds of lutes and guitars, and with Steve's dancing. They nattered to the audience in the tuning breaks, and Steve came up with an interesting piece of linguistic trickery, where the Galliard's 5 steps in 6 beats became 'cinque passes' in French and, nearly, Syncopation in English. And I thought it was Greek ... .  Alison was there, much to my surprise (we just missed each other in London on Wednesday) so we had a chance to look at the contacts of our photo session.

Now I'm sitting in the bar at St Andrews in the Square waiting for Bob Deegan to arrive and deliver a harpsichord for Olivier Baumont's recital tomorrow. Olivier's chosen a very appropriate programme, including Alexander Reinagle's variations on The Lea Rig, a piece written by Du Phly for a captain in the Royal Scots Regiment, and a little piece by William Selby, who like Reinagle emigrated to the States. It's odd to sit in a bar and hear Scottish lute music on the jukebox. I wish it happened more often.

I rang the BBC Pronunciation Unit today for some hints on how to pronounce Reinagle.  Their Hungarian expert didn't recognise the name at all, but would have pronounced it as though it were German, "so that is our advice".  So there.