Archives for 2016

A recent discussion with my friend Robert Carl has me pondering the ways we think of epochs in art.  As many are quick to point out, there aren’t hard-and-fast beginning dates for various periods – Classical, Romantic, Modern – these are trends that gather steam over time.  Armchair musicologists like to play the game of spotting antecedents -- compositions that anticipate features that would … [Read more...]

In 2003-04, I served as Interim Dean at the North Carolina School of the Arts.  It was quite an education, an introduction to the niceties and nastiness of arts administration.  I made a good-faith effort to set aside my personal needs to work for the greater good.  Ate way too much finger food because I was seldom sure when I’d be able to have a sit-down meal.  Was the Answer to questions from … [Read more...]

A dreamy child, I was given to extravagant fictions, imaginary journeys that scattered my mind and dimmed my perceptions.  The benefit of these fanciful excursions was that I was never bored: there was always something fascinating to engage me in even the dreariest surroundings.  The drawback: a tendency to drift, disconnected from the world of physical objects and human interaction. But there … [Read more...]

At some point in my younger days, I got it in my head that a musical composition, like a chain, was only as strong as its weakest link.  That meant that the final stage of the compositional process was a meticulous search for those weak links, to remove them or strengthen them, making the entire composition as sturdy as could be. More recently, I considered whether a musical composition might … [Read more...]

Artistic collaboration is finally getting the respect it deserves.  No longer looked down on as Art by Committee Meeting, interdisciplinary work is being celebrated for its ability to bring multiple voices into a single event, to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. We see this in arts reporting; we see it in arts funding.  In arts reporting, there is an added benefit: it’s much … [Read more...]

Young composers are frequently pointed to late Beethoven as an example of the highest achievement of their art, and late Beethoven indeed rewards repeated study.  But there are lessons in late Beethoven that have little bearing on composers who are still finding their way through the compositional process.  Late Beethoven is impossible without early Beethoven: it is innovation built on a … [Read more...]

A few months ago, a friend informed me that he was including my Mister Blister on an upcoming program of unaccompanied violin music called Solitude.  I have a happy relationship with Mister Blister, which I wrote maybe ten years ago, but the notion of solitude stuck in my head, and I asked if I could write him a new piece with that title.  He said by all means, and now the piece is done.  It … [Read more...]

We live in a democratic culture – in so many aspects of our day-to-day existence, there is at least the perception that the majority should rule.  This goes for our elections, it goes for artistic trends, it goes for interpersonal interactions -- at least in theory. In the interest of fairness (as well as self-preservation) it is important for the majority to listen to non-majority voices.  If … [Read more...]

Alex Ross’s thoughtful essay on vicious uses of music left a few interesting stones oddly turned.  At the conclusion, he asks us to “renounce the fiction of music’s innocence,” citing the damage that music can do.  “Either music affects the world around it or it doesn’t,” he says.  It’s a curious dichotomy, as is this one: “It is a mistake to place ‘music’ and ‘violence’ in separate … [Read more...]