08 August 2017

A few thoughts

Always, a composer first; an adopter/user of method second (if at all).

My own reasons, and not those of any other, whether of the well-established, or utterly obscure.

In my timeline, I am an active participant, but of it I am hardly the controller. I stand ready to answer for my participation;  but for the timeline itself, I shan’t apologize.

The quality of the work is what matters. Circumstances which do not socially favor nor materially promote my work, are out of my control.  My composition, I can control.  Doing good work, is the best answer.

The quality of the work is what matters. If I am pleased with the volume of work I have created, it is because that volume has served my own purpose, in refining my craft.  Never have I been obliged to create anything to the demands of another person or body to my artistic detriment;  where another person or body has been a participant in the process, the project has been consonant with my musical inclinations and interests.

Said Samuel Johnson, No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.  He lived in a different era, a different culture—we might almost say, a different world.  If I had written only when I was to be paid to write, my body of work would be scant indeed.  It would, in fact, be less than the present bucket of paid-for pieces, because I should have written too seldom to have learnt to write, and I should have been out of the path of most of even those ducats which have found their way to me.

Always, a composer first; an employee second (if at all).


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