About The Music The Nearness of the Beloved has had a journey which has covered a period of over 20 years. The story starts in 1995-1996. I was inspired by a beautiful poem by Goethe (the poem on the cover of this book in English translation), some late Romantic music and an experience with Dallapicolla to write a melody line and some harmonies. The first version of this piece was for soprano and piano with the words in German (as Goethe originally wrote them). This first version along with an altered version for viola and piano was performed on May 31, 1997 at a concert at the Lutheran Campus Centre at UBC, Vancouver, Canada. A few years passed by and then in 2003 I wrote an organ accompaniment for the soprano part, which by now was also written out for a tenor voice. In the course of my life as a flautist I would play around with the melody. Then one day I wrote the piece out for flute and piano as well as violin and piano. The violin and piano version was given its premiere performance by Patrick Halling at a concert at the Teddington Salvation Army Hall, Middlesex, UK (November 3, 2012). Patrick Halling also very kindly recorded this piece April 16, 2018 at The Riverside Arts Centre, Sunbury-on-Thames, UK. The flute and piano version of this piece ended up being performed by Charlotte Munro (flute) and Robert Coleridge (piano) at the 15th London New Wind Festival (November 23, 2012). Finally in 2018 the viola and piano version of this piece was accepted into the Syllabus of the Canadian Contemporary Showcase of the Alliance for Canadian New Music Projects (ACNMP) So there’s the story. It begins and ends with a beautiful poem by Goethe. Musically this piece is written in a very late Romantic style and filled with melodic and harmonic chromaticism. The difficulty level is around Grade 8 – Diploma. I hope you enjoy it.