As with the chamber music, some of his songs were requested. A German friend of Arnold’s who appeared as Wotan in Wagner’s ‘Ring Cycle,’ didn’t particularly like Copland’s arrangement of ‘At The River’ and asked Arnold to arrange another version for him. A patient of his who had also been a painter/poet, gave him some paintings in exchange for writing a song (‘My Schedule’) that used one of her poems. Others like the popular music were constructed during a phase, either on his own, or with his friend Clarence H. Ostby, whom he knew living in Concord, CA from 1952-56.