Sweet, sad and impossible to fully convey:
Getting off a plane tonight, a musical idea arose. As I walked through the terminal, it grew stronger and I altered and embellished it in my mind. Just before I got to the exit I just had to sit down and give myself over to it, listening as if it was a concert, knowing that if I even remembered it when I got home I didn’t have the skill or recording technique to even attempt to work out the notes on an instrument or play it. I sat entranced for nearly ten minutes, half ‘composing’ half ‘listening’, all the while knowing nobody else would ever hear it – indeed I’d never hear it again.
Two hours later, it’s gone. I can remember the components, I can remember something like the sound, but it’s all like a ringtone version of a symphony, just the traces, not the essence. And you know what? It feels fine.