Anthony Joseph Lanman

I just got back from the Guitar Foundation of America International Guitar Competition, where I saw Duo 46 perform my piece Sonata 46 in concert. Of course, they ripped the hell out of it, like they always do. It got a huge reaction from the audience like it always does - thunderous applause, hooting and hollering, shouts of “Bravo!”. However, the response after the concert was not quite what I had hoped it would be. I was approached by a few people (one was David Tanenbaum - that was pretty cool), but not a whole lot - and no one asked me if I had any music for sale, or had a CD, or web site, or anything - kind of dissapointing.

The concerts I saw however, were not.

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I’m sitting here, in the middle of working on my newest Hommage for Piano, the “Hommage a Mandy Morris”. I started the piece 2 days ago, and I’ll likely finish it tonight, or tomorrow. It’s coming very quickly, but it’s also a struggle at the same time. I’m using a fragment of one of Mandy’s pop songs as the genesis and basis for the piece. I’ve been sitting here for 3 days now listening to a recording of her singing and playing piano - hearing her voice over and over again. Then, I listen back to what I have written, and I hear Mandy again. The music is like Mandy’s song run through some kind of Tony Lanman plug-in. It’s my music - and it’s her music - somehow fused into one. It’s clearly me, but it’s also clearly her. It’s difficult to think in a clear, compositional way, because it’s extremely difficult when my eyes well up every time I listen back to what I’ve done.

I guess it represents something - the only possible union between us. I’m creating that union out of some part of her that she left behind. That’s a power that I think only music has - it’s an incredible thought - I only hope she can hear it when it’s done…