Unfinished projects

There are some things you never finish because you run out of time. There are so many things I wish I could have done with Alan -- trips I wanted to take with him, things I wanted to share with him. But it doesn't always take something as dramatic as death to cut plans short. For both Alan and me, there were pieces of music we started playing in high school, and ran out of time to perform in a big way.

For me, it was Zigeunerweisen by Sarasate. This was Grandpa Lee's favorite violin piece, and I learned it, but never polished it for performance.

For Alan, it was the Grieg piano concerto. By this time, he was spending more time playing the chords to I Shall Be Released or All Along the Watchtower (more on that soon) instead of working on the Grieg. He still practiced, and made a lot of progress with his classical playing, but it was no longer his top priority. Here is Evgeny Kissin's interpretation:

When I moved to Chicago, Evgeny Kissin came to play the Grieg with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the whole family came down to see it. It was a mild March evening, and we walked from my apartment to the Symphony Hall. At some point, he broke a string, and had to take time during a long rest to pull it free from the others. Very rock star. His control over his hands made it seem like he could alter the gravity over the keys. There was a series of encores, and later in the program, the original version of Petrushka. This ballet is proof that there is humor in classical music. The contrabassoon is the most flatulent sounding thing ever, and there were some muffled laughs (see 5:17)

Both of us continued to play in the beginning of college, but then let it go a bit. When Alan moved in with me a year ago, we tried to get him a keyboard, but he never really wanted to go do that. His organ stayed in its case, too. Somehow, he did keep up his skills though. For me, music has been an important outlet, both before Alan's death, and especially in this time after.

The mother of one of Alan's good friends posted on his obit that the music in Heaven just got better. If he's up there jamming in Heaven, I'm sure he's disappointed that he beat Bob Dylan there.