March 3. 2015
Two more bags of dumb Xeroxes – on their way off the shelves of my music library to the recycling room. Yea!
I’ve discovered that I have some music where I do not have the actual published music and the Dumb Xerox is all I have. But I have absolutely no reason to keep it when, if given the chance to perform this music again, I could purchase the score.
I read today that the last music store in New York is closing. I spent much more time at Patelson’s, back in the day, than at Frank’s, but it saddens me to see this type of store go. I loved shopping for music. The real pros would come into the store while I was there and just belly up to the counter and say, “I need the Sonata #X or the Concerto in Y.” I never knew what I wanted so I would just thumb through the scores to let the music inspire me – and it did! I found Schubert or Strauss songs that way and I found American and Old English songs that way. I never knew what I wanted! But I really wanted to shop. And imagine some day I’d be pro enough to belly up.
Clearing out my library has been a real exercise. I am finding that I never ever performed something like half the music I have. So I am going to donate it to a friend who teaches singing. It’s about time the universe heard this glorious stuff, and it’s way past time I got it out of my house and into some use.
The Backpack Press 