For the Love of the Markings

I value the marking left on my music by my teachers more and more as the years go by. Opening up one of those beloved, old, tattered, and marked scores brings back all of those memories of encouragement, successes, and passed on advice. One time my dear college professor, Dr. Carrol McLaughlin, suggested that I might want to treat myself to a new copy of one of my more "loved" scores. I said that all those markings are now a part of the piece for me, just as integral and the printed notes. They are part of the experience of the piece for me. She understood. I do own a clean copy of the Grandjany Rhapsodie, pictured in this post, but I do not use it, preferring the nostalgia of all those markings. On this page I have markings from myself plus three different teachers. I find the hand of multiple lessons with Carrol Mclaughlin, the markings of Catherine Michel from studying in France one memorable summer, and the markings passed down from Grandjany himself to Kathleen Bride, to me, in a Master Class. Now this score is a treasure to me!