As of today, Hassamarra Publishing has been in business for twenty years!

Does that mean…I’m old?

In 2006 I turned fifty, which felt pretty huge in a positive way. There was a heft to that declaration, “I am fifty!” My reasoning: I had experience, but still had dreams; many plans, and finally the means! It felt like a good year, a power year.

I’d spent most of 2005 getting pop songs into the Finale program that my brother had surprised me with three years before, compiling them into a spiral-bound collection to use as Christmas gifts for musical friends. Eleven piano students were coming to my house in those days, and I’d written some boogie-woogie music for them, too. I also used the program to make more legible copies of several 4-part harmonizations for my church choir.

THE PARLOUR - Home Page of original website

An idea formulated: Isn’t sharing the best part of writing music? How about offering these things to more people? How about putting the boogies into a little piano book? Must I go through an established music publisher? Where do I get a vendor’s license? Does anybody know how to build a website? Me? I could make a website?

Well, I did learn how to build a website, from scratch even, because I started in the days before the easier web packages came out. After a few years, though, my computer-savvy son decided I needed an updated style, and he gave me a start on this current site. Now that Hassamarra is 20, I think it might be time for a little redecorating!

In those first days, I came to realize that the boogies I had written were for second- and third-year students – that the book I’d finished ought to be level three, so I needed to get busy writing levels one and two. There should be pictures for the kids, as I’d enjoyed when I was little, so a ridiculous number of drawing hours ensued as even more ideas flowed in: I should make a spot for my talented friends to share their music on the website. I should incorporate my passion for sustainable living into this enterprise. I should look for a printing company that uses recycled paper and Earth-friendly inks. After months of searching and building and drawing and stocking, the site finally opened to the digital world.

As the years went on, life kept happening – children left home, parents aged, work requirements grew; and more ideas came – for a novel, for a garden, for sewing clothes without patterns; and every year the basement floods, the roof leaks, and spring keeps growing all over the back yard.

Nonetheless, little by little, between piano lessons, choir practices, hospital visits, and sci-fi chapters, I’ve added more finished products to the Hassamarra inventory. There are probably twice as many in the almost-finished category – like Joy and Sorrow, a Kahlil Gibran poem my opera friend Joanna commissioned me to write for her as a soprano solo, still in its hand-scribed format; and Amamelia, a vocal solo with flute and piano written by my college professor, Donald M. Wilson, with just a few more slurs to fix and a cover to create; and the Dorian Mass that my congregation has been singing for fifteen years that still needs the okay from the USCCB before distributing. Putting these on the market is my goal for this Hassamarra Anniversary year.

However, there’s a newer endeavor that is jumping to the front of the line: a children’s musical called The Big Red Shoe, co-written with my long-time writing pal, Charles Wilson. It’s being debuted this very week by The Open Door Drama Club of Crafton Heights, PA. The final touches will take a few more months before I can offer it to customers – those pesky old details – but that’s not stopping the young actors from learning their lines and singing their hearts out.

Yes, the best part of writing music is sharing it – especially when your music is being sung back to you. That is why, at the ripe old age of 70, I’m happily celebrating 20 years of Hassamarra Publishing – and it feels like another power year!

Stay tuned!

Twentieth Anniversary of Hassamarra Publishing