February 26. 2015
I cleared more stuff out of the paper stash on my desk today. I found a drawer filled with random product samples that needs organization so that’s where I am going next. It makes no sense to keep a file drawer filled with random, when specific and particular works better. If I need something, I will be able to find it – once I’m finished.
But now, I wonder if I’m starting to protect my stuff. Am I resisting clearing out my music library at home because, what?
I could say it’s such a really big job to pull apart all that paper and toss what I will never use again that I need to wait for an open all-day sometime. Or I could say that I am waiting to figure out where I can donate all that music. But I am worried it’s more that I will be closing a chapter of my book that has been left casually open all these years.
I acquired reams of sheet music and scores over the two decades of my life that I spent as an opera and oratorio singer. I collected music everywhere I went. Schirmer scores at Patelson’s in New York and the Princeton University Bookstore, Ricordi scores in Florence and Milan, and on and on. I have rare copies of Respighi and Zandonai songs, and beautiful autographed scores I will never part with, including a copy of the opera Werther, signed by Alfredo Kraus.
And then there’s all those Xeroxes. Singers back in the day would copy everything twice- it was never practical to cart scores around, so I made two copies of all of my audition pieces. One for me, one for my pianist. And now? I hardly even need the score.
So, starting on Saturday – when I may not have all day, but will certainly have more daylight than I have after I come home from work – I will begin to dismantle my library. I look forward to catching up with my dear old friends.
The Backpack Press 