Words and Music, Take Two

Writing About Music (Revised 3-6-16)

The characters in my books are musicians, generally performers of classical music, and since music is a vital part of their lives I attempt to use words to show the reader some of the music they love. This music can be so magnificent and so complex that it’s not easy to give a reader a sense of how overwhelmingly beautiful it is. 

It’s gratifying to read in a review that even though the reviewer is not versed in classical music, they found the descriptions enhanced the story. So I must have given them at least an indication of how much a character’s life is dependent on this love of music which drives them to perform.

Here’s a brief section from my work in progress, which until recently has had the working title Jamie’s Children.  Jamie Logan, stellar operatic tenor worldwide, is father to Laura, a violin virtuoso, and her younger brother Niall, who despite his bipolar disorder discovers his own music as a folk singer-songwriter.

A family friend and renowned accompanist has been Laura’s mentor since her gift was discovered at the age of four. A child prodigy himself, pianist Eli Levin becomes Laura’s mentor and is an important part of her life: he understands her as no one else can because of the common bond they share. When Laura is fifteen he dies unexpectedly at the age of forty-one, and it takes Laura years to understand the repercussions of that loss.

Some years later she performs a work at the Aspen Music Festival with pianist Anita Foscari, who later becomes Laura’s accompanist. This is an excerpt from Jamie’s Children. Laura and Anita are rehearsing Poulenc’s sonata for violin and piano. (This sonata is a personal favorite of mine, and I enjoyed listening to it repeatedly as I wrote this section. Yes, a very difficult part of my work – listening to wonderful music!)

(This section of the book has been revised. If you read the original, it might be interesting to see what I did with the revision.)

     “Well, Poulenc called this a sonata for violin and piano, but I think of it as a piece for piano and violin. You have at least as much music as I do.”

     The two women were hard at work on Laura’s solo recital, and played straight through the sonata. They smiled at each other when they finished and Laura said, “Let’s see what we need to do with this intriguing piece.”

     “First movement was a little rough,” Anita commented.  “Lots of changes … not just in tempo. Sometimes the entire mood is totally different.”

     “Yes, two different styles at play here. Some real musical humor and then some really nice lyrical stuff. And the transitions are a little tricky.” Laura stood by the piano and pointed to different passages with the tip of her bow as she talked.

     “I have to be careful not to cover you at times. He’s written a very strong piano part here … and here,” Anita said, flipping pages and indicating the passages she meant.

     Laura’s favorite was the second movement, in which Poulenc provided one gorgeous, lyrical moment after another, and she and Anita both let themselves soar with what the composer provided them. The movement seemed to drift away on a final moment of haunting tenderness.

     When Laura had first learned the piece, she read that the sonata was intended for performance by a young French violinist, Ginette Neveu; but when she died tragically young at thirty in an airplane crash, the composer made revisions which reflected his reaction to her premature death. Laura felt a definite connection to the piece because of her own experience with a great artist who had died prematurely.

     The last movement was bittersweet and tinged with sadness, ending with a uniquely wistful coda. Laura tried to reflect what she thought Poulenc had wanted to convey, a farewell to the violinist for whom he had composed it. She heard the sweetness as she drew a plaintive sound from the strings with her bow and as she held the final note, she let it grow softer and fade away to nothing.

     

     

Photo: Rocky Mountains National Park (NPS)

If this excerpt has intrigued you, you can read more about Eli Levin in Eli's Heart, and about Jamie Logan in You Are My Song. Both books are available on Amazon. You can connect through my website, www.susanmoorejordan.com I'd love for you to visit!

The Girl Who Won ELI’S HEART

Eli’s Krissy

     It sometimes concerns me that people might look at the blurb for Eli’s Heart and see it’s about a classical pianist with a bad heart, and think it’s not something they’d enjoy reading. It is all the above, but it’s also about a young man who wants what most young men want, a happy and fulfilling life, which includes being with the person he loves.

     There is a lot of music in the book, to be sure, and quite a bit about Eli’s heart condition, Tetralogy of Fallot. There has to be, because it’s a constant part of his life and later his and Krissy’s life together. But Eli’s heart condition doesn’t define him. And as young newlyweds he and Krissy are learning a lot about each other. The book begins in the nineteen fifties, a period when people tended to marry young if they wanted to be together – and Krissy and Eli definitely want to be together.      
     The first year of their marriage has highs and lows, and they wanted me to share all of that with the people who read their story. Here’s an excerpt.

  

     A week later Krissy decided to try her hand at lasagna. She shopped for the ingredients a day ahead, following Kim’s instructions carefully. When she got home the next day to start cooking, she placed her portable record player on the dinette table and put La Traviata on the turntable.

     First the meat sauce; as Kim had instructed, she browned the beef and drained it through a colander, then added the tomato sauce and seasoning to taste. Kim’s recipe called for a third of a cup of red wine. Krissy had a bottle of Chianti that had been a wedding gift. She thought, if wine is good in the sauce, how about a little in the cook? She poured some Chianti in a small juice glass, stirred the sauce and tasted it, and took another sip of her wine. She had lots of time; Eli had a rehearsal for the trio and wouldn’t be home until six, so she planned to put the lasagna in the oven by five-thirty.

     While the noodles were cooking, she tasted the sauce again and poured herself a little more Chianti. She started the opera over and started singing with Violetta when she got to “Sempre libera.” Krissy started to feel creative, and decided another half glass of wine in the cook might be a great idea.

     Putting the layers together was kind of like making a piece of art. She was liberal with the parsley; Krissy liked parsley. She finished the dish by topping it with Parmesan cheese and put her lasagna in the oven, pouring a little more wine in her glass so she could toast the cook. She had a loaf of French bread she sliced, and added butter and a very light sprinkle of garlic powder. She put the record player away but continued to sing as she set the table, switching to “Torna a Surriento.”

      Eli walked in as she was taking the dish out of the oven. He couldn’t believe it was his apartment; a delicious aroma hit him as he came through the door. Krissy met him with a passionate kiss, flushed with Italian opera, Italian cooking, and Chianti. She took off his coat and ushered him to the table and served his food, pouring a glass of wine for him and another half glass for herself.

     When he took his first bite, she loved seeing his eyes get very big. “Kristina ... this is delicious!” He took another bite.  “Maybe even better than Kim’s.” He took another bite, and said very little through the rest of the meal. He was too busy eating. Krissy had to agree with him, she had made good lasagna. “How did you do this, wife? I mean, I know you’ve been learning to cook, but this is ...”

     Krissy laughed, “Eli, I’ve been an awful cook. You’ve been so sweet to put up with all my experiments in the kitchen. Kim was a big help; she wrote out her recipe and told me not to be afraid to add stuff. She says that’s what Italian cooking is all about. I’m happy this turned out so well. Maybe I should stick with Italian.” She took another sip of wine. “You know what ... maybe I was Italian in another life.” They both laughed.

     Eli finished his second generous helping of lasagna and Krissy wrapped up the casserole dish and put it in the refrigerator for dinner the next day. One really nice thing about lasagna was that there was enough left for another meal. Her first leftovers. They scraped their plates and washed and dried the dishes.

     “Maybe I won’t have to add ‘good cook’ to my list of Things That Aren’t Going to Happen,” Krissy told him. “Oh, I never told you about that list, did I? Ballerina, opera star, famous actress ... that’s the list so far. All my limited talents.”

     Eli put his arms around her. “There’s one talent you have that’s definitely not limited, my love,” he said. “Fortunately for me, it’s something you do for an audience of one.”

     “Well, it’s a big help that the audience is interactive,” she said as he led her into the bedroom.

 http://smarturl.it/elih

www.susanmoorejordan.com

The Inspiration for ELI'S HEART

A Courageous Musician

Eli’s Heart was inspired by a friendship I had decades ago with a brilliant teenage pianist born with the congenital heart condition Tetralogy of Fallot. Samuel Sanders was fifteen when I first met him and heard him play. He was visiting a sister who lived in my hometown and he came to my house several times, and we listened to recordings of orchestral music, played piano duets (which was definitely daunting for me!), talked about books and baseball. His activities were restricted because of his congenital heart defect.

With a lot of help from Dr. Aarti Asnani, a cardiologist with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, I finally developed a grasp of the condition. There are four separate defects of the heart: a hole between the lower chambers (ventricles) of the heart, which means unoxygenated blood is mixing with oxygenated blood; a narrowing of the valve between the right ventricle and the lungs, which means not enough blood is getting to the lungs to be replenished with oxygen; a thickening of the wall of the right ventricle; and an aorta which is misplaced and is drawing blood from both ventricles. 

The result is a considerable reduction in the amount of oxygenated blood distributed to the body. The average person receives between 90 and 95% oxygenated blood. TOF patients receive sometimes less than 50%. Breathing is a struggle. Any physical activity, even walking, becomes difficult and can be life-threatening. Many children died in infancy, or did not survive puberty. Cyanosis (blue coloring of the skin, especially fingers, toes and lips) is a primary symptom.

In 1944, Drs. Alfred Blalock and Helen Taussig, with considerable help from Blalock’s assistant Vivien Thomas, developed a procedure to alleviate these children’s suffering. A shunt was created by attaching a branch of the aorta to the pulmonary artery which increased the flow of oxygenated blood. Sometimes this increase was dramatic; sometimes enough to at least ease their symptoms. From my understanding, patients who survived the procedure lived more normal and longer lives. However, the heart was not repaired. The Blalock-Taussig procedure was considered “palliative” ─ it eased the worst of the symptoms, but all four defects of the heart were still there.

About ten years later an open-heart surgery (called the “total correction” or “total repair”) was performed which patched the hole between the ventricles and widened the opening to the lungs, giving the patients a chance at a better quality – and quantity – of life. Over the past decades, as TOF patients have lived longer (some into their seventies and even eighties) other surgical procedures have been developed and refined, and a range of medications also exists to help treat the condition. It was at first considered a congenital heart defect. It is presently considered a congenital heart disease, a life-long struggle with a heart which can never be made “normal.” From my understanding, there is no one “standard” procedure for these patients. One comment from Dr. Asnani in our extensive correspondence stands out in my mind:

“With regard to treatment options for (adult) TOF patients, it’s definitely not a straightforward decision to pursue surgery, so we will often try to manage with medications for as long as possible.  Newer technologies like cardiac MRI are helping us figure out when the heart dysfunction is progressing to the point where heart surgery is absolutely necessary to prevent a further decline, though we’re still wrestling with defining the exact timeline.”

One of the first things Samuel Sanders told me was that he didn’t expect to live past the age of thirty. Other than that, and telling me about the cyanosis and that he’d had surgery, he didn’t discuss his condition and I didn’t ask questions. We concentrated on enjoying the time we had together.

After hearing him play – brilliantly –  the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto a few months later, I lost touch with him. Some thirty years later I met a young man who was studying accompanying with Sam at Juilliard, so he’d have been in his early forties at that time. His student also told me Sanders had opted to work professionally as an accompanist rather than pursuing a career as a virtuoso pianist. I was very glad to hear he had survived past the age of thirty and was still sharing his extraordinary gift.

I thought of him again when I watched the HBO film “Something the Lord Made” (highly recommended) and wondered how he was. Internet searches revealed that he had died at the age of sixty-two. He’d had the B-T procedure when he was nine and two additional surgeries (the total correction and a heart valve replacement), and eventually not one but two heart transplants. The second one failed, sadly. While not a household name, he had a long and illustrious career as a collaborative pianist and performed with some great musicians who definitely ARE household names. I list a few of his many recordings in the discography at the end of the book.

My book is fiction, and my character Eli Levin is the product of my imagination. I did not know Sam Sanders beyond that brief friendship when we were both little more than children. However, his passion for music certainly had a lasting impact on me; he was indeed an extraordinarily gifted pianist and musician. We don’t meet many musical prodigies in our lifetime, and if and when we do, we never forget them. The fact that this one also had a damaged heart made him even more unforgettable.

(First published in July, 2014)

ELI'S HEART is available on Amazon as both paperback and e-book.

http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Moore-Jordan/e/B00IBZ731U/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1411935465&sr=1-1

Cover design by Tristan Flanagan

TWO MUSICIANS

You Are My Song/Eli's Heart

     Writing You Are My Song was a very different experience from writing Eli's Heart. Eli Levin's story is full of drama because of the two challenges he has faced from birth: a prodigious talent and a frightening congenital heart condition. I recently described Jamie Logan, the young tenor in You Are My Song, to one of my readers as “an ordinary guy with an extraordinary talent.” Jamie has an unusually beautiful singing voice and excellent musical instincts, and he works hard to develop his talent. 

     It’s interesting to compare Jamie to Eli Levin. Because Eli was born with a prodigious musical gift, it’s a given that he will be a professional musician. The only question for Eli is how he will use his remarkable skill as a pianist: as a virtuoso, performing solo recitals and orchestral appearances? That is the manner in which most pianists endowed in this way spend their lives.

     Eli chooses instead to work with other musicians, as an accompanist or collaborator. The early part of the book includes descriptions of his battles with his mother over this choice. Because of who Eli is, with these dual challenges there is of necessity the sense of a fairy tale in his story. He’s different from most of us. He’s very different from most of us. He was performing professionally as a soloist at the age of twelve. When he is twenty-four, he’s completed his master of music degree and has embarked on a busy career as a collaborative artist that takes him all over the world.

     Jamie, on the other hand, starts his adult life with an associates’ degree in business and an early marriage that is in trouble. In high school he had enjoyed singing, and like most of us, sang in the school choirs and the high school musicals. Unlike Eli, Jamie has actually heard very little classical music until a voice teacher plays him a recording of a tenor singing a particularly beautiful and moving aria. Jamie is excited by what he hears to the point of returning to college at the age of twenty-three and eventually attempting a career in opera.

     Many professional opera singers don’t begin serious study until high school or even college, as opposed to instrumentalists who sometimes demonstrate talent and even genius at a very young age, as early as three or four. Serious singing requires muscular and mental development that doesn’t begin to take place until the mid-teens for most men, and the early to mid-teens for women.

     One difference between Jamie and Eli, it seems to me – and I know them better than anyone does – is how they perceive their talent. Eli has the ability to play anything to near perfection the first time he reads through it. Yet he practices hours on end, striving for absolute perfection. He has a very revealing moment in the book when talking with his psychiatrist (I think I did him a great service by putting Pete in his life):

     Eli was aware of how quiet it was in the room. They were high enough above the street so that traffic noise wasn’t audible.

     “You know something, Pete? Nobody ever asked me if I liked playing the piano. It came easily to me, and I could sight read anything, so everybody figured that’s what I should do. What else was I going to do?”

     Eli thought a minute. “I love music, Pete. I don’t mean to say that I don’t like playing piano, because really, I do. I’m hard on myself sometimes because I want it to be perfect. But when I’m working with another musician, it can be exciting to feel what’s happening.”

     Jamie has come much later to music and the realization he might have a career as a performer. But he battles self-doubts, partly created by the early marriage that ended badly after only two years. More than once these doubts surface as Jamie works hard to become as good a performer as he possibly can. At one point his second wife asks him:

     “What do you want, Jamie? I mean what do you see as the fulfillment of your dream?” She was surprised she had never asked him this. She knew he wanted to sing. She wasn’t really sure what would make him feel he’d “made it.”

     He said without hesitating, “Singing Don José at the Met.” He looked a little troubled. “It may never happen. But I guess it’s good to have a goal, and that’s mine.”

    Eli's Heart and You Are My Song are both available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. They are good stories. I have a friend who says everyone has a story, and I believe she is correct. It's been absorbing, challenging and rewarding to follow Eli's and Jamie's paths.

Covers designed by Tristan Flanagan

The Music in "Eli's Heart"

Music and Books       

     While I was writing Eli’s Heart, which is a novel about a piano prodigy born with a complicated and terrible congenital heart defect, I listened to the music I was describing in the book by way of YouTube videos. Last night I had the satisfaction of hearing some of this music performed live by some extraordinarily gifted musicians who live right here in the Poconos.

     Thanks to the generous Pocono Community Theater which is very “local author friendly,” I had a perfect venue for a book reading/signing and a musical program featuring three local artists, Scott Besser, pianist; Chris Souza, violinist; and Kara Snyder, soprano. We all used social media and word of mouth to spread the word about the event and had a surprisingly nice turnout. I’m sure many people came to hear Scott, Chris and Kara. While jazz performers thrive in the eastern Poconos, mainly at the Deer Head Inn and the annual Celebration of the Arts in Delaware Water Gap, local audiences for classical music programs tend to be small.

     All the music performed last night plays an important role in the book. My character Eli Levin meets Krissy Porter when they are young teenagers, and what might have become a romance is abruptly ended by Eli’s concerned mother. I don’t like to call her interfering, because I can understand Ida being protective of her son … what do you do with a child who isn't expected to live past the age of thirty, and has this amazing musical gift? How do you protect that child and try to help him live as good a life as he can, however short it may be?

     Eli and Krissy eventually find their way back to each other and marry when they are college students. They are both challenged with the dual burdens he must deal with daily. Krissy at first doesn’t completely understand what his early death will mean to her, but during the first year of her marriage she comes to an appreciation of what she needs to do in order for Eli’s life to be a happy and fulfilling one.

     It was truly a thrill for me to hear Scott play the difficult and demanding music Eli plays, such as the Rachmaninoff Prelude in G Minor; to hear Scott and Chris play two movements of a violin and piano sonata (Franck Sonata in A Major) which plays an important part in the lives of Eli and violinist Warren Anderson; and to hear Kara sing two selections from the beautiful Schumann song cycle, Frauenliebe und Leben which Krissy and Eli perform together on both their graduating college recitals.

     The music and readings lasted under an hour. The audience was most appreciative of the splendid performances they heard and seemed to enjoy hearing selections from the book. I appreciated their coming to hear our music and it was also nice to sell some books.

     I think I am fortunate indeed to write about music and musicians and to have friends to help me make more people aware of this wealth of beauty, this power in the universe, available to everyone. It may be a serendipity that people coming to a “musical book reading” will be introduced to classical music and perhaps want to hear more of it.

     It’s interesting and a sign of the times in which I live that my “discography” in the back of the book indicates all of the pieces listed are available on YouTube. Eli and Krissy would have no earthly idea what that is … they live in the fifties and sixties. They write letters and make long distance phone calls. 

     Another era.

"Eli's Heart" available on Amazon.com, paperback and Kindle

ELI'S HEART: THE INSPIRATION

Take Two: The Inspiration for ELI'S HEART

Tegralogy of Fallot, the heart condition my character Eli Levin lives with, is a complicated and frightening disease which is present at birth. Physicians have been aware of it for centuries. According to Wikipedia, "It was described in 1672 by Niels Stensen, in 1773 by Edward Sandifort, and in 1888 by the French physician Etienne-Louis Arthur Fallot, after whom it is named." 

Eli’s Heart was inspired by a friendship I had decades ago with a brilliant teenage pianist born with this congenital heart condition. Samuel Sanders was fifteen when I first met him and heard him play. He was visiting a sister who lived in my hometown and he came to my house several times, and we listened to recordings of orchestral music, played piano duets (which was definitely daunting for me!), talked about books and baseball. His activities were restricted because of his congenital heart defect.

With a lot of help from Dr. Aarti Asnani, a cardiologist with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, I finally developed a grasp of the condition. There are four separate defects of the heart: a hole between the lower chambers (ventricles) of the heart, which means unoxygenated blood is mixing with oxygenated blood; a narrowing of the valve between the right ventricle and the lungs, which means not enough blood is getting to the lungs to be replenished with oxygen; a thickening of the wall of the right ventricle; and an aorta which is misplaced and is drawing blood from both ventricles. 

The result is a considerable reduction in the amount of oxygenated blood distributed to the body. The average person receives between 90 and 95% oxygenated blood. TOF patients receive sometimes less than 50%. Breathing is a struggle. Any physical activity, even walking, becomes difficult and can be life-threatening. Many children died in infancy, or did not survive puberty. Cyanosis (blue coloring of the skin, especially fingers, toes and lips) is a primary symptom.

In 1944, Drs. Alfred Blalock and Helen Taussig, with considerable help from Blalock’s assistant Vivien Thomas, developed a procedure to alleviate these children’s suffering. A shunt was created by attaching a branch of the aorta to the pulmonary artery which increased the flow of oxygenated blood. Sometimes this increase was dramatic; sometimes enough to at least ease their symptoms. From my understanding, patients who survived the procedure lived more normal and longer lives. However, the heart was not repaired. The Blalock-Taussig procedure was considered “palliative” ─ it eased the worst of the symptoms, but all four defects of the heart were still there.

About ten years later an open-heart surgery (called the “total correction” or “total repair”) was performed which patched the hole between the ventricles and widened the opening to the lungs, giving the patients a chance at a better quality – and quantity – of life. Over the past decades, as TOF patients have lived longer (some into their seventies and even eighties) other surgical procedures have been developed and refined, and a range of medications also exists to help treat the condition. It was at first considered a congenital heart defect. It is presently considered a congenital heart disease, a life-long struggle with a heart which can never be made “normal.” From my understanding, there is no one “standard” procedure for these patients. One comment from Dr. Asnani in our extensive correspondence stands out in my mind:

“With regard to treatment options for (adult) TOF patients, it’s definitely not a straightforward decision to pursue surgery, so we will often try to manage with medications for as long as possible.  Newer technologies like cardiac MRI are helping us figure out when the heart dysfunction is progressing to the point where heart surgery is absolutely necessary to prevent a further decline, though we’re still wrestling with defining the exact timeline.”

One of the first things Samuel Sanders told me was that he didn’t expect to live past the age of thirty. Other than that, and telling me about the cyanosis and that he’d had surgery, he didn’t discuss his condition and I didn’t ask questions. We concentrated on enjoying the time we had together.

After hearing him play – brilliantly –  the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto a few months later, I lost touch with him. Some thirty years later I met a young man who was studying accompanying with Sam at Juilliard, so he’d have been in his early forties at that time. His student also told me Sanders had opted to work professionally as an accompanist rather than pursuing a career as a virtuoso pianist. I was very glad to hear he had survived past the age of thirty and was still sharing his extraordinary gift.

I thought of him again when I watched the HBO film “Something the Lord Made” (highly recommended) and wondered how he was. Internet searches revealed that he had died at the age of sixty-two. He’d had the B-T procedure when he was nine and two additional surgeries (the total correction and a heart valve replacement), and eventually not one but two heart transplants. The second one failed, sadly. While not a household name, he had a long and illustrious career as a collaborative pianist and performed with some great musicians who definitely ARE household names. I list a few of his many recordings in the discography at the end of the book.

My book is fiction, and my character Eli Levin is the product of my imagination. I did not know Sam Sanders beyond that brief friendship when we were both little more than children. However, his passion for music certainly had a lasting impact on me; he was indeed an extraordinarily gifted pianist and musician. We don’t meet many musical prodigies in our lifetime, and if and when we do, we never forget them. The fact that this one also had a damaged heart made him even more unforgettable.

ELI'S HEART is available on Amazon as both paperback and e-book.

http://www.amazon.com/Susan-Moore-Jordan/e/B00IBZ731U/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1411935465&sr=1-1

(first posted on July 3 - edited)

An Unplanned Trilogy

AN UNPLANNED TRILOGY

As it happens – a very useful phrase for a writer, by the way – the three novels I have written/am writing are actually a trilogy, something I had neither expected nor planned.

How I Grew Up, my first novel, was based on an actual incident from my high school years, many decades ago. A close friend went through an unimaginable family tragedy: her estranged brother-in-law shot and killed both her parents, and mortally wounded her other brother-in-law. These things happened the weekend before Anita (she became “Melanie Stewart” in the book) was to audition for our spring musical, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. Auditions for the show were delayed for a week, and “Melanie” was cast in the leading role of Julie Jordan. How her participation in the production helped her to work through her terrible shock and grief and deliver an inspiring performance is the essence of the novel. Though it is based on this event, the book is fiction, as are the characters.

One of those characters became a protagonist in my second book, Eli’s Heart. Melanie’s close friend Krissy Porter met a young pianist only a few months before the Carousel production took place. They became good friends, and might have been more but for the interference of Eli’s family. Krissy recounted that experience to Melanie in a chapter of How I Grew Up. When Eli’s Heart begins, Krissy is in college, and she and Eli manage to reconnect and eventually marry. The courage with which they deal with his congenital heart condition, the strong love they share, and the importance of music in their lives are the story told in this book.

Now I am working on a third book that again begins with that Carousel production. Working title You Are My Song, this is Jamie Logan’s story. Jamie played opposite Melanie in the show and they were drawn to each other, partly because of their friendship and Jamie’s sympathy for Melanie’s tragedy, partly because of the characters they were portraying. Jamie is a gifted singer, a tenor, who marries his childhood sweetheart and learns fairly quickly this marriage was a mistake. Five years after graduating from high school Jamie, now divorced, begins serious study as a vocal performance major in the music department of a state university. He wants to sing opera, a very difficult path for even the most talented and determined singer.

So I have a trilogy, unplanned and unexpected. The common thread is that all of these characters were part of that high school Carousel production. I will need some guidance at some point as to how to market what were three separate novels as a trilogy. Jamie’s story is proving to be a joy to write, as I revisit the world of music school and the world of opera.

Memory recall is fascinating. One memory opens up doors into other memories, some wonderful, some distressing, some very humorous. I walked this path with my tenor husband (who is NOT Jamie Logan, though some of Jamie’s experiences are based on those I have recalled) for several years. Opera is similar to musical theater, but there are definitely differences. Opera is a form of musical art, and in its truest – not necessarily purest – form it is a combination of extraordinarily wonderful music and great theater. Incidents can happen in an opera company that I don’t believe happen anywhere else. With many people, opera is an acquired taste. Jamie has the same experience I had: hearing the beauty of the music and the amazing ability of the singers to produce the sounds required by the art form, Jamie instantly fell in love with it, as I did at the age of thirteen.

I don’t want to project a publication date for my third book, because “there is no opening night” for a novelist (I’ve quoted my wise and extremely helpful friend Eric Mark before, but it’s something I always need to keep in mind. I’ve had many, many opening nights for musical theater productions!). I hope to have it in print within a few months, but I hope to make it my best effort to date, so I won’t release it until it’s ready. In the meantime – if you haven’t read How I Grew Up AND Eli’s Heart – you can purchase them on Amazon, paperback or Kindle. We authors who self-publish start to get very good at Shameless Self-Promotion!

Passion and Classical Music

THE BEAUTY OF CLASSICAL MUSIC AND “ELI’S HEART”  

You may have heard me say this before, but I grew up … many decades ago … in a home where classical music was often heard. My parents had a large collection of recordings which continued to grow. It began with orchestral music, primarily, and eventually included music from ballets (much by Tchaikovsky), piano music … both solo and with orchestra, and my contribution was the opera that I discovered by hearing a Met Opera broadcast when I was thirteen. My dad played trumpet, and he played everything from jazz to big band to marches to classical.

During the “golden age of films” … I guess prior to television becoming so much part of our culture … there were a number of films made about the lives of classical musicians, primarily composers. I recall a film about Rimsky-Korsakov, and one about Robert and Clara Schumann. I recall a film about a woman who has to choose between her love for a classical pianist and a classical violinist (Rhapsody, starring the stunningly beautiful Elizabeth Taylor).

The most recent film about a composer was the very excellent Immortal Beloved, in which Gary Oldman gave to my mind a stunning performance as the fascinating composer. He had quite a life. That was twenty years ago. Through that film, people heard the performances of a great classical pianist, Murray Perahia.

They heard works of the composer who, my late husband liked to say, “left the classical era in a cloud of dust.” Beethoven’s work was epic, and he opened many doors for generations of composers to come.

I wish there were some way to introduce the beauty of classical music to more people. I try to do that in my novel Eli’s Heart, by describing the music that is so meaningful to my two young people who love each other so much, Eli and Krissy. In the book, Eli has an opportunity to provide music for a film sound track. It was great fun to write that part of the story. 

Eli and Krissy are denizens of the last century, though, and realistically I wonder if and when another such film will make it to the movie theaters. It’s very sad. Most people have no inkling how much passion there is in classical music. Henri Duparc wrote some of the most suggestively sensual songs imaginable, not through the lyrics, but through the incredibly gorgeous music. Krissy comments on one of those songs the morning after her wedding night. She and Eli are very passionate. Duparc’s song “Extase” unabashedly describes the wonderful act of lovemaking which Krissy has just experienced for the first time.

Yes, this is a shameful self-promotion for Eli’s Heart, because I love the book and people who read it tell me they do as well. Right now … I mean right now, as in today, July 31, 2014 only … the Kindle version of the book is on sale for $.99. You read that correctly. Tomorrow, August 1, it will be on sale for $1.99, and the following day for $2.99.  

Listen to some classical music, folks. You might be very surprised by how it moves you. It can be thrilling, passionate, soothing, ethereal, and altogether wonderful.

UNTITLED BOOK THREE

WRITING, WRITING, WRITING …

Being a self-published author is an adventure. Publishing Eli's Heart through CreateSpace was a good experience; having some skills on the computer definitely was a plus in doing my own formatting. The folks I spoke with on the phone were without exception pleasant, helpful, and never made me feel rushed. No wonder so many people publish on CreateSpace, especially if they can do what I did: handle everything but the actual production of the book. I was lucky enough to have two very talented young men and an accommodating pianist friend to provide the cover I wanted. Marketing is another matter entirely, but we won’t go there today.

There’s some angst with proofreading the book, and I requested two printed proofs before I released Eli's Heart. I am very happy with the finished product. Some people have read it; some people are currently reading it, and some people tell me they’ll probably read it at some point in the future. I’ve had some nice feedback. My official readers had been encouraging, but it was definitely nice to hear from someone who hadn’t made the journey with me and loved the book. Maybe I really can do this.

After the book was released and I saw it actually listed on the Amazon site, and added to my author page (a free service Amazon provides, and a very helpful one), I spent a few days taking a deep breath and noticing that the world is still actually orbiting around the sun. I don’t know about other writers, but I get so engrossed … well, maybe obsessed … when I am writing, I really don’t like to do anything else. For some reason, to this point I really have not experienced “writer’s block.” If anything, I write too much. I write words and words that never get into a book. I heard at a writer’s conference that sometimes we write something we need to write, but the reader doesn’t need to see because it doesn’t really move the story forward. I do that extremely well, overwriting (if there is such a term).

All this is preamble to share with you that after that brief break, I had another story idea. So for the past several weeks I have been working on what I refer to as UNTITLED BOOK THREE. (I feel compelled to always write that in all caps, for some reason.) With both my previous books, the title didn’t come to me until I was well into the book. So they had temporary titles (I think they are called “working titles”). The working title of this book is simply “Jamie’s Story.” If you read How I Grew Up you may recognize the name, and yes, indeed, I’ve decided Jamie can’t let that beautiful voice languish. Or maybe Jamie told me he needed to sing.

The work I’ve done so far on this book (somehow, calling it “work” doesn’t seem right … it’s such a source of joy for me) has taken me into the world of classical music again, this time the world of opera, a place I love to visit. Jamie is a tenor, and the music a tenor needs to study and master is very familiar to me. I spent many years with a very fine tenor, my late husband Sam Jordan, and shared in his journey as he pursued a career as an opera singer, oratorio singer, and recitalist. He opted to not pursue that career after a few years. It’s a very difficult life, and I respected his choice. I sang very little opera in college, but my husband and I gave a joint recital about twenty-five years ago, I believe. It was a thrill for me to sing with him.

The tenor voice is in my opinion the most exciting if it is a naturally beautiful voice and used correctly, with no straining or forcing. I’m including a YouTube video of one of my favorite tenors, Giuseppe di Stefano, performing the tenor aria from Gounod’s opera Faust. He does something with the high note in this aria that seems impossible to me, but it demonstrates perfectly why hearing a tenor who can sing this wonderfully reinforces my feeling about how powerful music is.

Just hearing this is a thrill. How wonderful to be able to produce such a sound. How rewarding to be part of the experience, whether as artist or audience. Bravo, Giuseppe!

ELI'S HEART, a novel

ELI’S HEART, A Novel

Yes, my blogs are going to be about the new book for a while. This one will be brief. The book is now in production and should be announced for sale very soon, hopefully within two weeks. It will be available on Amazon as a paperback and an e-book. I decided to go with CreateSpace, and thus far it has been a very good experience. I have to say I am glad that I’ve had experience using my computer in a much different way than most people do; digital notesetting and using a DTP program, Quark Xpress, I’m sure have been a great help in formatting the book interior myself.

Here are the basic information on the book that will appear on the back cover, and the picture of the front cover. Two very savvy and talented young men, Taylor and Tristan Flanagan, came up with the cover concept and then realized it. Taylor had the idea, Tristan took the photograph and added the title and author name. Anybody want to guess to whom those gifted hands belong?

I am very happy with the book. I hope some people will buy it; even more I hope some people will read it. Watch for giveaways and sales! One of the reasons I decided to print it with CreateSpace this time. Those of us who self-publish are also known as “indie authors.” I like that. I like that I own the copyright and have complete control of this book. Of course, there are millions of book in the vast “Amazon” book jungle; more every day. But for me it is a delight to actually see my work in print. I’m thankful I’m not trying to pay my bills this way, however.

**********

“Once upon a time, there was a beautiful boy

 who was born with two things:

a damaged heart and a heart full of music.”

─ Krissy Levin

       

          In the nineteen fifties, ELI LEVIN, a brilliant teenage pianist born with a serious heart defect and not expected to live past the age of thirty, meets KRISSY PORTER on a visit to a small town in the Southeast.         

        They play piano duets, talk about baseball, eat banana splits. A budding romance is ended by interference from Eli’s family, but they find their way back to each other three years later.

        They marry on Krissy’s twentieth birthday while they are both college students. The music they share is a vital part of their life together. Once he begins his career, Eli’s rise in the music world is meteoric.

             Although they are devoted—and intensely passionate—from the beginning, the couple must struggle with never knowing when the various repairs to Eli’s heart might give out.

PREVIEW OF "ELI'S HEART"

ELI’S HEART, TAKE TWO

So this book I began writing in September is almost ready to be released. It’s taken longer than I had thought it might. I rewrote early chapters several times, at one point discarding my initial opening chapters and completely starting over. I woke up with thoughts and went immediately to the computer. More than once I woke in the wee hours of the morning and went immediately to the computer. I would be driving and a thought would come to me that I’d hold onto until I could get to the computer. It’s amazing I didn’t wreck my car a time or two! The book has always in my mind, over these past nine months plus.

Actually, other than polishing and incorporating a few recent thoughts, the book is complete. It’s been a remarkable journey. I’ve learned a great deal about a difficult and frightening congenital heart disease. I’ve listened to some wonderful music, often in a different way than I had listened to it previously. I’ve listened to some magnificent music I wasn’t aware of. I’ve made nostalgic trips back into the past. I’ve created these two people, Eli and Krissy, and grown to love them nearly as much as they love each other. They experience good times and bad times over the years. How they handle these is the essence of the story.

Yes, ELI’S HEART is a love story, but it is not a “romance” novel. In no way does it fit that genre. I can’t really find a genre for it, other than “literary fiction” … it’s about the characters and the life they share. It’s about the vital importance of music in their lives. It’s about how they deal, separately and together, with Eli’s damaged heart – a heart filled with music. I think the reader will laugh, and cry, and come to care about these people and what happens to them.

And since you are reading this blog, here’s a taste of the book. This is the “Prelude.”  I hope it makes you want to read the entire story.

FLYING HOME FROM MOSCOW

It was the final night of the Moscow International Music Competition. In the aptly named Hall of Columns, with its massive Corinthian pillars, three-tiered crystal chandeliers and plush red seats, the large audience of world-class musicians and music lovers generously applauded the Award announcements.  

The twenty-two year old American violinist Warren Anderson had just been awarded the gold medal. His accompanist, twenty-nine year old American pianist Eli Levin, then received a special award in recognition of his brilliance. It was the first time such an award had ever been presented at this event.

Eli’s wife Kristina was overwhelmed when Eli’s award was announced. The audience stood and applauded, those near Eli voicing their approval: “Well done!” “Très bien!” “Bravo!” “Pozdravlaiu!” Everyone who had heard him recognized his genius, and the judges had as well.

Eli bent to embrace his petite wife and, flushed with excitement, hurried to the stage to accept the award. Krissy watched through tears as her slender, dark-haired husband accepted a medal from the judges.When he returned to Krissy, he pressed the medal into her hands and bent down to speak to her softly: “This is for you, my sweet girl.” He held her close as she rested her face against his chest and wept for joy.

Warren, Eli, and Krissy had traveled to Moscow together. The trip was a surprise for Krissy. Warren’s sponsors had provided her ticket and Eli had arranged with Maestro Aaron Rubin, General Director of the City Opera Company for whom Krissy was Personal Assistant, to give her the more than three weeks she needed to accompany them. Eli knew his wife had always wanted to visit Russia. It meant a great deal to him to make it possible, and Krissy was thrilled.

The evening after the competition ended they were at the airport preparing for the long trip home, flying first to Paris and then to New York. They left as the sun was setting. As the Boeing 707 lifted into the air, the spires and onion domes of the city soon disappeared into the concentric circles of light surrounding the Kremlin. The sky on the horizon faded from a pale blue to a soft rose to a deep purple.

Krissy wanted to give Eli a sleeping pill but he shook his head; he was tired enough to sleep without it. They were in the first class cabin, and Warren was across the aisle from them, the Amati violin he had played positioned securely beside him. That violin, valued at over one million dollars and borrowed from a collector, had not left his side the entire trip.

Eli stretched his legs out as best he could. Krissy asked the stewardess for a blanket, and tenderly tucked it around her husband and herself. He smiled at her, rested his head on her shoulder, and soon after takeoff, he was sleeping soundly in the darkened cabin. She carefully removed his glasses and put them in her handbag.

Eli was born with a defective heart. He had received a second surgery for the condition only months earlier, and even though he had seemed tireless and energetic throughout the competition, Warren noticed on the drive to the airport that he looked exhausted. No doubt that was why Krissy wanted to be sure her husband received some needed rest on the flight.

Warren had also stretched out, and he could see Krissy’s warm brown eyes as she watched Eli sleep. She looked at him as if he were the most priceless thing on earth, a treasure almost unimaginable. He envied Eli this kind of love, a love he seldom saw even between the most devoted couples. He leaned across the aisle and said to her softly, “What are you thinking, Krissy, when you look at Eli like that?”

She said, not taking her eyes off Eli, “That I can’t believe I’m with this incredible man. That I’ve been given a gift I can’t even describe.” She gently touched his head, stroking the dark, curly hair as she so often did. She smiled at Warren.

“He’s very fortunate to have you,” Warren said. “I know he adores you. He’s told me that many times.”

Krissy looked again at her sleeping husband and kissed his temple softly. “I’m the fortunate one, Warren. I lost him, years ago, not long after I met him. Eli brought us back together. I treasure every minute I have with him.”

“Sounds to me like there’s a story behind that,” Warren said, settling back in his seat.

She smiled but didn’t reply. Indeed there is, she thought. With a noble prince who rescues a damsel in distress, a wicked queen, and a sleeping dragon. A story with an unknown ending.