Acutely aware that retirement and relocation are within our near future, my wife has been pressuring me - I’m being gracious here, “hounding” is more accurate - to start winnowing the piles of books, piano music, organ scores, choir anthems, recordings, newspaper clippings, magazines, scholarly journals and various other items I have amassed over the years. In other words, I’m to get rid of stuff most likely never to be read, played or used again.

She has a point. While easy to rationalize hoarding, did I really think I would periodically reread all those graduate school text books? Or play Milhaud’s Le Carnaval d’Aix? And why in this era of on-line access have I retained every issue of Sacred Music? When did I forget the local public library is sufficient for many of my needs?

Musicians understandably accumulate items they hope will enrich their craft. Scores, books and recordings are indispensable to meet that objective. If you’re a church musician responsible for scheduling music and your commute is long, there is also a very practical temptation to have at your disposal all the music options at home. That’s why I’ve ended up with basement file cabinets holding single copies that duplicate the music holdings of the six churches where I’ve at one time or other been in charge!

However, having experienced the trials of being executor to both my parent’s and my brother’s estates, I should know better. It would be a major lapse in foresight if survivors were forced to assume the heavy burden of determining which of my possessions should be trashed, sold, donated or kept, particularly since the indispensable music scores that have most nourished me would fit nicely on a single shelf. Well, perhaps two.

What a pity I’m just discerning that now.