For some reason, the booklet accompanying the CD of Standing Stone quotes
the final choral lyrics only in part, and the concert programme printed for
the first performance on 14 October 1997 prints those lyrics not at all.
I had better not quote them here, for copyright reasons, but the gist is
that love is the oldest secret of the universe, even the blackbird seeks
only love, love is all we have, the here and now is all we have, and gather
we rosebuds while we may.

On one occasion it happened that just before listening to Standing Stone I
had been listening to the Brahms Requiem, which sets words of St Paul, e.g.
'Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt'.  What a contrast in philosophy
we have here.  St Paul the Apostle tells us that what we have here in this
life is unimportant, transitory.  St Paul McCartney tells us that what we
have in this life is the only thing that matters.

When he wrote that, Linda was still alive.

Alan Moss