"Music from DNA"

Track 01 C.Todd Acoustic Piano mp3
3 messages
Catherine Todd Sun, Nov 25, 2007 at 1:11 PM
To: Susan Alexander
Dear Susan,

I have yet to send out this acoustic piano piece to anyone; still embarrassed since I hadn't played in over two years, but thought you of all people were someone I should send it to. Let me know what you think. Actually, I did give it to two other musician friends of mine who liked the pieces (there's actually three) so I'm not quite as timid as I normally would be, but I haven't and don't promote any music I do.

I never play for money and rarely play in public, just when I have to if I don't have a piano around. Then I go to a hotel or piano store... people seem to really like it, and I never could really "hear" it until these little recordings up in VT at Ackerman's Imaginary Road Studios. Pretty simple but nice. What DNA does this match? :) smile

I forgot to tell you: Will Ackerman hates the name "New Age" too, and never wanted it associated with HIS music! But of course, he "set the standard," so there you have it. He started out as a carpenter and builder, and his business card says "Musician, Carpenter." Hah! These skills seem to go along with computer programming also, so there's definitely "something" going on, even if I don't know what it is.

GREAT talking with you today. Gave me lots of inspiration, hope and good cheer!

Your friend in Art & Music, and add "Science" in there too...

Catherine Todd

--
*** Traveling:

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board..." ~ Zora Neale Hurston

"A child on a farm sees a plane fly overhead and dreams of a faraway place. A traveler on a plane sees the farmhouse and dreams of home." ~ Carl Burns

Words to live by: "Best of all is to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song." ~ Konrad von Gesner

Catherine Todd
3007 Bent Tree Dr. Oxford NC 27565
H 919.693.0853 U.S. cell 919.605.0727
Track 01 Catherine Todd.mp3
6406K
susan Alexander Sun, Nov 25, 2007 at 1:57 PM
To: Catherine Todd
Catherine,

These are beautiful!!!!! Exquisite, and I don't mean sort of.
Please, please consider sharing them with people as much as you can.
You are pure music here. Do you know the music of Liz Story? You
are kindred sisters, and altho she is a professional, you have the
gift as well - you both hear sounds the same way. (Her best, I
think, is "The Gift," a Xmas album). Please record more, send more,
play more. It's truly wonderful, and I have heard a LOT of people
play music. If there's one thing I know, it's quality and
sensitivity. You have an unusual voice, disguised as simplicity.
Can't say more - but I want more! Thank you for this. I'm going to
listen again and again.

Blessings and energy - Susan
PS - here's the article on the elements. If you can't open it, I'll
send a hard copy.




On Nov 25, 2007, at 10:11 AM, Catherine Todd wrote:

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noname
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Catherine Todd Sun, Nov 25, 2007 at 8:14 PM
To: susan Alexander
8:00 pm Dear Susan,

I thought I sent this other one, guess I didn't! Now I see you've written more, but I'll send this one anyway. I'll send you the 15 min. piece on CD when I send you the CD copies. So happy you like the song. I can't believe it; here a "real musician" is giving me hope and inspiration and courage to carry on! I also see that you've sent the mp3 ; it got buried in the rest of the email so next time, send it separately if you can. Can't wait to hear it!

Your friend, Catherine


Dear Susan (original response earlier this afternoon)

"These are beautiful!!!!! Exquisite, and I don't mean sort of.
Please, please consider sharing them with people as much as you can.
You are pure music here. "

Oh My God. Wow! I am so glad we met! I have a feeling that this is somehow going to "change my life." I am so happy I sent you the mp3. When I send back the transferred DNA Cd's I'll include one of the three little songs I did up in VT. One is just a 15 min. "lost in time and place" bit, really just warming up, but it's wonderful to listen to (at least for me, and apparently for you and others, too). It's too big to email, but I'll put them on CD. I've also got a few songs from the electronic keyboard but they don't sound much like anything to me, especially in light of a real grand piano. But who knows? We will see what you think.

You can use the music and promote it if you just include my name. I was in NYC back in the late '60's and early '70's (Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Bob Dylan days) and I worked at the Gaslight in the Village w/ a good friend of mine, Sandi Sylver (she's a storyteller / songstress now, living outside of Chicago). Then of course we had the Fillmore, Neil Young and the Eagles living around the Bay Area when I was at Foothill College and living up in Skylonda / Woodside in the early to mid '70's. As you might imagine, all that "rock 'n rollin" turned me away from performers and performances ever since. But this music deserves to be heard and to be shared, since you are the third person I have dared to send it to, and everyone says the same thing. In fact, I've played all over the world whenever I find a piano somewhere, and no matter what the language or the culture, people always come up and say "What is the name of that song? I heard it when I was a child!"

Of course, it has no name; it's just "sticking one's toe or finger into the Silver Stream," and sometimes being able to dive in and under the water falls and drift deep to the bottom and back again, but without a piano I haven't been able to do that for awhile. That was always my meditation before... I could play an hour and a half, and then boom that was it. Door closed, out of the river, out of the waterfall and deep dark pool, dry off and back to "real life." (Allegory, of course). Whenever I'd look up there'd be a whole crowd of people listening to me, and I hadn't really heard a note I played. Just the sensations of the vibrations going up through my arms and my legs on the pedals, and when the "chill factor" set in and the hairs stood up on my arms, I knew I was "home." That's all that this music is / was for me, it was a way to try and find my way home.


For the first time in many years I am effectively "pianoless," which is about like being "homeless" in my own mind. I'm going to test out another M-Audio semi-weighted electronic keyboard, that only weighs 17 lbs, but there's nothing like a real acoustic piano. There is only ONE that I know of in Panajachel ("Pana") where I live at Lake Atitlan, an old beat-up upright that's probably 50 years old, but I go in and play on rainy days so I get some practice time in. Even the Guatemalans seem to like it, despite such difference in musical styles.

Thanks so much for writing! I forgot to include one of my most favorite images right now, which I also use on my Macintosh Desktop: "The Lute Player."

I found this image on Jessee Winchester's website, and wrote to him asking which painting did it come from, and what instrument is it, since a lute seems to be a lot larger, and I never got a response. I did about a song I had written to him, but not about the artwork. Maybe you have an idea?

Talk to you soon... your envelope is in the mailbox so you should have it in a few days. Send my package so it won't take forever to get here (come in a week?), and I'll reimburse you if need be.

Right now, I'm reading " Carl Munck, Archaeocryptography" from "Conversation for Exploration" a talk show hosted by Laura Lee. http://www.lauralee.com/munck.htm

which I came upon from your "articles" list on your website for "Music from DNA." I don't even remember how I came on your site, but am so happy I did! http://www.oursounduniverse.com/articles.html

I will also look up the "Mayan Code" by Barbara Hand Clow. I will have so many new things to do (or things to go "back to" doing) when I get back to Guatemala, I just can hardly believe it! I really can't wait. I hope this coming year I can spend most of my time down there, as long as I can figure out how to make money to pay bills here in the states.

Yours, CT

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board..." ~ Zora Neale Hurston


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On Nov 25, 2007, at 10:11 AM, Catherine Todd wrote:

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Lute Player.jpg
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