Ah, yes. Had Alex D'Urberville been subjected to a bout of Rough Music (a country community punishment for outrageous blokish behaviour), the ending of Tess might have been different, but a bit too much like The Mayor Of Casterbridge.

Yes, it IS hard to lay aside the crutch of having the music in front of you when you have a background of classical training. I still need to write down a tune before playing it. Learning to trust your ears is hard, but doable.