Hi everyone. It’s been way, way to long since I’ve prowled these “threaded corridors”. I think the last posting of mine was last summer.
Unfortunately, I had one of those malevolent life-altering events which we’re all faced with eventually at some point in our lives.
I developed Crohn’s disease and ended up in the hospital a couple times, once for a whole month. I’ve been quite ill for 6 months but I’m happy to say that I’m finally turned the corner and have stabilized. They had me on so many drugs that I became quite “loopy” and couldn’t write a note if my life depended on it. The drugs also made me lose my short-term memory, so I forgot how to use any of the software programs, and even anything regarding composition techniques for that matter. I also had to sell my landscaping business, which took years to build up, because I could no longer perform the work. On top of all that, a common side-effect of Crohn’s is the onset of arthritis which hit me in a big way. My hands became completely paralyzed…..I couldn’t even play Chopsticks! Add severe depression, and that was my life for the last 8 months.
Now that the arthritis has abated quite a bit and I’m taking a lot less medication, I can once again start to focus on music. Hooray!! I’m learning to play the piano all over again. I’m starting with easier pieces such as the one’s here, some Chopin waltz’s and Scarlatti sonatas. Their not perfect by a long shot, mainly because of the unevenness due to my motor-neurons not firing quite in sync yet. But I’m so happy to just to be playing again, I don’t care and I thought I’d share it with you. (links below)
As you may remember, I spent most of last year, before my illness, writing piano pieces and was about to master a CD before this all happened. It’ll be awhile before I’m back to speed playing, so I’m currently working on orchestral compositions to get me back into composing again. Hopefully I’ll be able to post those in a month or so depending on how long it takes me to relearn the software!!! I find that I’m almost giddy when I sit down to compose. It’s such a delight to be able to compose again.
Anyway, I’m glad to be back!
Chopin Op 70 Nr. 1
Chopin Op 69 Nr. 1
Scarlatti sonata in C Major
Scarlatti sonata in E Major
Cass
PS ( before I get chastised for my omissions, upon listening to these I discovered I forgot to do the repeats on 2nd half of BOTH Scarlatti sonatas and left out a middle chunk of music in the Op. 70 Chopin. I played these from my "Swiss cheese" memory, and I guess it's is still somewhat on the fritz....can't remember if I repeated something or not. Did I just say this in the above paragraphs? hmmmm....Anyway, sorry for the omissions.
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