The sounds of the low female singing voice are in the air at the moment. Kathleen Ferriera turns 100 this year (or would have done if she had not died half a century ago) and her voice is being heard on FMR. Travelling to work today I switched on the radio. We were being treated to Janet Baker’s rendition of Elgar’s Sea Pictures. I came in at song number two. ‘Where Corals Lie’ was to come. This is a favourite B minor song of mine, and I featured it in the Keynotes B minor programme for this reason. The opening bare fifths in the strings, the mezzo voice and moderate speed are perfect for B minor, the colour beautifully evinced by Elgar (or the reverse, Elgar chose the key because of its hue). What a relief to me when it came to the song to find it that I could appreciate Baker, Barbarolli and B minor as pleasurably as usual. One side of me asked ‘why has it not shifted?’, but the other said ‘enjoy it!’ and I did and entered the hospital with jaunty step.