{"id":{"repo_id":"uno","oai_identifier":"oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-1915"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uno/oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-1915","repository":{"repo_id":"uno","name":"University of New Orleans","base_url":"https://scholarworks.uno.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"Variations on a Theme: Forty years of music, memories, and mistakes","abstract":"How did music play a consistent role through various memories? In this memoir, I look at the sweet, the traumatic and troubling. I use specific songs as connections to lost loved ones. I pin the power of music to the loss of three important people in my life: my sister, father, and mother. Who were their musical touchstones? Did I share them? Did music run through them as it has always run through me? The memoir is sandwiched by a brief extended metaphor that props up the conceit that we are entering a live concert performance. 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In this memoir, I look at the sweet, the traumatic and troubling. I use specific songs as connections to lost loved ones. I pin the power of music to the loss of three important people in my life: my sister, father, and mother. Who were their musical touchstones? Did I share them? Did music run through them as it has always run through me? The memoir is sandwiched by a brief extended metaphor that props up the conceit that we are entering a live concert performance. It is billed as a \"letter to a lost loved one\" because it is indeed meant to address that lost one, my sister, my guide. In the opening section I've lost my voice. 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