I’m sitting here, in the middle of working on my newest Hommage for Piano, the “Hommage a Mandy Morris”. I started the piece 2 days ago, and I’ll likely finish it tonight, or tomorrow. It’s coming very quickly, but it’s also a struggle at the same time. I’m using a fragment of one of Mandy’s pop songs as the genesis and basis for the piece. I’ve been sitting here for 3 days now listening to a recording of her singing and playing piano – hearing her voice over and over again. Then, I listen back to what I have written, and I hear Mandy again. The music is like Mandy’s song run through some kind of Tony Lanman plug-in. It’s my music – and it’s her music – somehow fused into one. It’s clearly me, but it’s also clearly her. It’s difficult to think in a clear, compositional way, because it’s extremely difficult when my eyes well up every time I listen back to what I’ve done.
I guess it represents something – the only possible union between us. I’m creating that union out of some part of her that she left behind. That’s a power that I think only music has – it’s an incredible thought – I only hope she can hear it when it’s done…
hey, I went to Jenkins elementary with you, we were like 10, you and your brother were the first white kids I ever met who were into rap, in what, like 1982, so it was early rap – “jam on it” type stuff.
we used to go “adventuring” in the woods for like 10 hours a day in the summer – the kinda stuff kids can’t do these days…
looking back you guys were really into music, you used to make fun of your brother for liking corey hart…you used to antagonize him come to think of it, all these weird memories, I only lived there like a year and a half.
I won’t embarrass you by writing about the D&D and all that other nerdy stuff.
anyway, I listen to classical, I’m an audiophile too, tube monoblocks, and a turntable, and I got your mp3’s, great stuff.
mike schatzman
OMG – Mike Schatzman! I do remember you man – thanks for the posts. Please give me an email at tonylanman at hotmail dot com and we can contunue the conversation there – later!