(from Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn As Told by a Friend by Thomas Mann)
". . . the draught from him had got abruptly stronger, so that it went through my overcoat and pierced me to my marrow. Angrily I ask: "Cannot you away with this nuisance, this icy draught?" . . . He: Alas, no, I regret not to be able to gratify you. But the fact is, I am cold. How otherwise could I hold out and find it possible to dwell where I dwell?" . . . I (involuntarily): "You mean in the brining pit of fire?" . . . He (laughs as though tickled): "Capital! Said in the good robust and merry German way. It has indeed many other pretty names, scholarly, pathetical, the Herr Doctor ex-Theolugus knows them all, as Carter, exitium, confutatio, pernicies, condemnatio, and so on. But there is no remedy, the familiar German, the comic ones are still my favorites. . . "
Back in the early aughts I remember feeling a bit 'behind the times' regarding digital music, that is digital recording and reproduction of my music. So I read some 'dummies' material and played around until it gradually became more comfortable. After a spell of attempts at marketing original pop songs to other artists, and knowing (and being comfortable with the fact) that I was not nor ever will be a 'vocalist' of any particular distinction, at the suggestions of my three sons, I began recording my compositions as solo piano arrangements - stripped-down, bare-bones, jazz-inflected melodies with generous amounts of improvisation within each. Using a digital four-track machine (TEAC maybe?), I made the recordings then had an album mastered at a local studio, filled-in all the CD Baby forms and released Chromatose.
Who, irrespective of religious affiliation, disposition or lack of any at all, can't appreciate a well-done spiritual song? And by the way, one sure-fire way to determine if your sore throat is serious enough to call in sick to work is to recite, as low, serious and slow as you can, the line, "Why me lord?"
