Emma Beats The Blowfish

One of my favorite pieces of solo piano music on music2work2 is Emma - along with its accompanying piece, the music was written to help a friend get through chemo.

[audio:emma2.5.mp3 |titles=Emma |artists=music2work2]

Emma chose to visualize her cancer as a blowfish - it gave her something tangible to direct her energy at and guess what - it worked. Emma not only came out the other end and continued driving her boats across the planet, she ended up writing a book about her experience. I think Em puts it best with the following:

"Now I know I am a no-body and not famous, I am not important and haven’t “done” anything special, no feat of amazing endurance like climbing Everest in my slippers but that is hopefully just the point I think. I am an ordinary Jo with an ordinary story that is not unusual - after all there are 44,000 of us each year diagnosed with breast cancer. There is plenty of information advising us how we will feel throughout the experience, the notorious chemotherapy looms large with each leaflet, but there is little to tell us how to handle this disease - how to get out of bed and how to look yourself in the mirror and deal with the daily nightmare.

I think you all know about the book and it’s aim - I hope my story will be inspirational and motivational to women and men who are also battling this horrific disease but I also hope the account is useful to the family and friends who are also affected in a profound way. I hope you can help me get my story and my message out there.

If my book helps to get one person off their sofa and fighting then I will have succeeded!

Thank you all

Em

www.emmapontin.com

Posted via email from Andrew McCluskey

Emma's Numbers - 14 minutes 13 seconds

Second Piano piece written for a friend fighting Cancer

An old friend was dealing with cancer so I wrote her some music. After sending it to her, I asked for her numbers and then produced this piece. When I’m writing for or about someone, I often ask them for a couple of numbers, I use these to denote the meter and beats per minute of the piece – I like the randomness of the process and the idea that the recipient is determining the musical outcome.

Emma survived and continues to Skipper her yacht around the globe – she’s an amazing lady. Having had the pieces for a while Emma and her husband Richard sent me the feedback below.

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"The first piece makes me remember the moment all this shit began, the horrific nightmare and all its tricks.

Rich and I were talking and for us the piece takes us on a little journey from the beginning right up to the post-mastectomy stage. I feel aggression, hatred and fear at the outset and then the music lifts which for us denotes the next step – the positive move forward after the removal of the cancer – the brighter side of this nightmare beginning to shine through if you like, the positive rather than the negative.

The second piece of music takes on the treatment – tentative at the outset taking on the unknown – I can see myself treading carefully through mess, gently with each step, nervously moving forward - sometimes feeling delicate from treatment, sometimes charging forward with stubbornness – positive and almost light hearted, but each step with determination, all the time pushing, pushing to beat this.

This cancer is strange – whilst I have a cast of thousands around me each one supporting, helping in their own different way - I feel like a boxer – ultimately it is me that stands alone in the ring to deal with this, me that has to step forward and take the hit.

I write this as I listen to Emma’s Numbers – I can just see you sitting there, eyes closed, composing, thinking, feeling the music. We were having dinner whilst listening to my iPod last night, we had friends over, and they asked what we were listening to – the second piece – they loved it. Just thought you’d like to know that."

I did - thank you Em!

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Emma - 20 minutes 4 seconds

Piano track written for a friend who was fighting cancer at the time .

For Emma who fought the Blowfish and won.

This piano track was written to give Emma something to listen to while dealing with the chemo crap. After a while I did a second piece for her based on her "numbers" - although I gotta say - this is my favorite. Emma is a remarkable women; her battle with cancer was picked up by BBC Radio Solent and run as part of their 100 Lives project. This article tells Emma's story better than I can - check it out.

She is another of my favorite people and her brother's not bad either!

---------------- Now playing: music2work2 - Emma via music2work2