Have you ever immersed yourself in a trivial pursuit while important tasks needed your immediate attention? Well, a friend recently added six inches of sheet music to my growing stack of unarchived early 20th century compositions. I went through the new arrivals to process significant items for the archive and the rest accumulated in a growing stack sitting on a groaning table awaiting a fate. Thus, while recovering from a recent medical condition (described by five new pages on my medical chart), I decided to just look through that stack of music for pure enjoyment.
Not being able to read musical notation was no liability in this pursuit as you will see. First, as I spread out the sheets on the bed and nearby tables it was apparent that this accumulation had come from performers and not “scormatologists,” that is serious collectors. Many were copy machine pieces and most were taped together, accordion style, for ease of reading on a piano rack. Many of the marvelous old, oversized pieces and been cut down and holes punched along the edge for notebook keeping.
Since I was not interested in the actual music, this was quite acceptable—so what I thought might take an hour or so, went on for days. You see, I enjoyed researching many of the covers out of curiosity, so time just melted away. I also have renewed appreciation for the generous and talented souls who post their performa
