Reminiscence by Margot Vesel
Reminiscence was first written and published in 1984. It will reach an international audience of listeners on the 40th anniversary of its creation.
Margot Vesel, née Stoffel was born in Watertown, South Dakota, the daughter of musicians. Her parents emigrated to the US from Germany in 1929. Margot’s mother studied opera and wrote poetry. Her father played piano, organ and violin and worked first as a band director and later Superintendent in public schools.
Margot Vesel’s goal was to write music first to please herself, but also to please the musically untrained listener—as well as the trained musician. Her music is neo-Romantic in style and developed from her many years improvising at the keyboard, without purpose or goal beyond producing music which was inside of her. When Margot sent her music to three large publishers, she received polite refusals from all three companies. Completely self-taught, Margot formed her own publishing company under her married name at the time of Margot Vesel in Sandstone, Minnesota. Her pieces soon found acceptance in regional music stores.
As her pieces gained recognition locally, Margot published more. In total, she composed nearly 100 pieces for solo piano, piano ensemble and vocal solo with piano. “I have not”, Margot remarked, “reached out as far as I would like, but perhaps someday people from coast-to-coast will have heard my music. They may or may not like it, but at least they will have had an opportunity to hear it. I only wish that I had been actively composing all those years I spent improvising just for myself.” The family of Margot Vesel has given permission to digitally re-engrave her scores for publication for a new generation to experience.