Pursuing a Passion

PURSUING A PASSION
 By Terri Andersen
A year or two ago someone gave me a cassette tape of Chopin Waltzes by a pianist I never heard of, but I loved all the songs on the cassette and decided I was going to learn to play them on my piano. I especially loved the last song on the cassette because it was lively and lilting, and it made me want to dance. In fact my granddaughter and I did dance every time we heard the song. The only trouble was that the song didn't have any identification as to Opus or No. like all the other waltzes had - the last two songs on the cassette were just listed as “Posth.” (for posthumous I guess). Looking through the music books I had at home, I was able to find a book with a lot of Chopin waltzes but it didn't have the song I wanted most. The cassette was dated 1990, put out by a company with an address in NJ. I wrote to the company to see if they could tell me where to find the music for that last Song, but they never answered me. Then I went on the Internet and looked up the brand name, the pianist's name, and any other name that was on the cassette, but nothing worked. When I told my son in NC about my search for the song, he mentioned that there was a music store in Raleigh that claimed to have almost every piece of music ever Written. I asked him to see if he could find what I was looking for, but without having heard the Song himself, he was unsuccessful. He did say though that he'd take me to the Store the next time I visited him in NC. True to his word, when I came to NC that summer he took me to this huge music store (it looked more like a warehouse) and I was as excited as a kid about to get the toy she was hoping to get for Christmas. One part of me warned not to get my hopes up too high, but another part of me said, this is the place where my song is hiding. I actually said a prayer when I entered the store. “Dear God, if that music is in this place, please let me find it.” My son suggested we go right to the Chopin section (they had every composer and music type you could think of) and the first thing I saw was a book of Chopin Waltzes. I looked through it and tried to read the music enough to figure out the melodies, but Chopin's music is not as easy to sight-read as popular songs of the day. A person standing next to me said, “Why don't you take the book to one of the piano rooms in the back and play some of the notes?” Totally surprised that the store even had that available, I found a piano and played a few notes of the last song in the book first - and Wonder of wonders, it was the song I was looking for! I was ecstatic and couldn't have been happier if someone had handed me a thousand dollars. When I learned to play the piece but was having trouble memorizing it, my husband said something cute like, "Don't forget you're getting older now and might not be able to memorize anymore.” Well, that's all it took. I practiced that song every day until I got it down pat in my head and it’s now a song I can play all the way through without music and without forgetting where I am if I make a mistake.
Passion pursued - satisfaction realized.