ClefHangers are stories connected to specific pieces of music. Some trigger the memory for a fragment of memior. Others for an essay about some aspect of life, memory, or art. Some pieces of music may set my mind to musing. Other pieces have a vivid association with a time of life or an event. ClefHangers are always an integration of music and words; just not in the form of a song.

A Decade or Two in the Making

This project has been on my mind for at least ten years. But, as so often happens in life, other cares and endeavors sidetracked me. By the time I finally decided to reserve a domain name, the ubiquitous .com was already reserved. So I’ve settled for the .us top-level domain.

Writing for Pleasure

ClefHangers will be a place where I write for pleasure only. I don’t intend to publish these pieces or see if I can generate some income with links to advertising, etc. Perhaps a few people will chance upon this humble blog. I certainly hope some family members will read and enjoy many of the entries. Google, of course, will crawl and store these pages; perhaps for centuries to come.

Potential Copyright Issues

I’ve been researching the copyright issues around streaming clips of music with each ClefHanger post. Wikipedia’s guidelines seem reasonable and that’s likely the standard I follow. My intention is to give artistic credit and offer information and a link to purchase any music that’s part of a ClefHanger. So ultimately, my postings and hosting should increase an artist’s ability to earn more for their music, not diminish it. Time will tell whether this is acceptable to copyright holders. Given the rampant piracy on YouTube, et al, my little project seems harmless enough.

Conclusion

So this is what the website is about. I’ve already sketched out nearly 50 pieces of music around which I can weave stories. As soon as I get a few hours of leisure, I hope to start writing an average of one per week. This means it should take me at least a year to exhaust my initial list. No doubt other pieces will suggest themselves as the first ones take shape.

As I said to my wife Diane the night I proposed: “I’m not sure where this journey together will take us, but I’m going there with you.” Join my journey through reflection, memior and musing if you like. And when the time is right, consider creating one of your own.