As I looked at my newly assembled Wall o' Music, it occurred to me how many parts of my life are represented on it. One of the vertical instruments (the zhalika- spelling uncertain) was a gift from a college friend who traveled to Russia; the other from a friend who traveled...somewhere far and/or wide. I forget where now. The pan-style flute and the qena in the red case I bargained for in Peru after grad school; the book is the Pocket Book of Great Operas, gleaned from rejected donations to the St. Olaf music library when I worked there. I thought it might be of use in my opera class. It wasn't, but it's still a nice decorative item. The LP's are from an estate sale in Olympia.
Hopefully, the WoM will eventually be dominated by a modest but decent little piano. For now, there's a music stand and my oboe case.
As I was unpacking and decorating the place, I made a conscious effort to include no meaningless clutter. Any objects sitting on shelves would either be consumable (candles, etc.), functional (speakers, metronome), or have personal significance. It turns out that these guidelines still left plenty of stuff to fill up my shelves. In the interest of reminiscence and possession justification, I'm going to begin a blog mini-series called "Objects of My Affection". Hopefully it will be interesting to people beyond myself, and hopefully some of you will see a few familiar faces. In the faceless, inanimate sense of the word. If there is such a sense.
1 comment:
Well said.
Post a Comment