i'm doing a presentation on jane austen's music at the end of september. she had a book of piano/vocal music that she transcribed herself. it, of course, is in a museum in england, but i'm just looking for a printed version of the music, which is all unknown songs written by mostly anonymous composers.

i'm having the hardest time finding the music and am wondering if maybe i'm in trouble. there's a CD of the music, which means there has to be a copy of the music out there. i just thought that in this day and age, you could google anything.

apparently you can't.

how amazing is it that jane austen had to hand-write this music, probably because that was the only way she could have it? and how ironic that i might actually have to do the same thing?

she had a slight advantage: she didn't teach 30 students and have several performances a month. did she even do her own laundry?

but when i was a kid, we didn't have internet and i didn't know how to buy music that wasn't in our tiny music store in jefferson city, missouri. some music i even learned by recording it from the radio to a cassette tape, listening to it over and over, and learning it by ear. and we're talking violin music. i learned a movement from a paganini concerto that way! in fact, i know it's paganini, but i honestly don't know what the name of the piece is, because i've never seen the music. isn't that BACKWOODS and depressing? but impressive at the same time? ha! that's me.

sometimes i listen to "from the top" on NPR, which showcases young performers all over the nation. it's so amazing and exciting to hear these young people just tear it up on their instruments. but at the same time, i feel jealous. if i had had the opportunity, the money for a teacher, the money for a good instrument, a freakin' music store that carried more than neil diamond songbooks, what would have happened to me?