toccata and fugue in d minor.

I had some wedding-related paper crafts to do, and I needed sheet music. Used sheet music is easy to find; the Durham Rescue Mission Bargain Center has a stack of it in the book section, next to the greeting cards. But most of it is for beginners. So the notes are big and spaced-out and occasionally labelled with numbers. I wanted something that looked complicated, with lot of notes. I can't play any of it, so it might as well look cool.

Among a stack of beginner books, I found Bach for Marimba. Count on old Johann to write a piece with a whole lot of notes.

So I had a small book full of Bach, but I needed about fifty sheets of music. We picked out our favorite piece and headed down to Office Depot to make copies. Our favorite piece, picked because it had a lot of complicated-looking parts, was the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. The fact that it turned out to be one of the most famous pieces of organ music was just a happy coincidence. Not that we can play it on our organ, but we do have the music to play it on the marimba now (needed: a marimba, ability to play the marimba).

I picked out some nice pale blue parchment paper and gave it to the lady working the print shop that evening, Christy. Then I went to check out the new beer store across the shopping center while my marimba music was printing.

When I got back, Christy looked around and leaned in to tell me a secret.

"I just got told that I could go to jail for copying this."

"What?"

"It's copyrighted. I said, 'She's a music teacher copying stuff for her students.' Aren't you?" She gave me a conspiratorial smile, as if we both knew what kind of nefarious purposes I was really copying this music for.

"As far as you know, I am."

She nodded, satisfied that no one was going to go to jail for copying Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for marimba tonight.

As it turned out, the nice pale blue parchment paper did not work for the original intended purpose, as the blue was too pale. I needed another way to use it, so that Christy and I had not risked imprisonment for naught. I bought a fancy heart-shaped hole punch (extra-large - what a world we live in that you can buy such specific items in 3 sizes), and I turned the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor into petals for my flower girl to scatter as she made her way down the aisle. Now no one would be able to recognize the music, so we were safe.

You'll have to trust me, it's blue.

AND, because we live in such a world, here is Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on marimba!