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Dangerously Overeducated
Last Christmas I received a black sweatshirt with the above title emblazoned across the front: Dangerously Overeducated. I wear it proudly, and try to live up to the title as best I can.
Two years ago, my brother gave me my doctoral hood for Christmas. Most Ph.D.s don't bother to buy all the academic regalia unless they're actually IN academia and are required to don such rigamarole 2-3 times a year. But since I started singing in an Episcopal Cathedral choir, we are "allowed" to wear the academic hood for Evensong services and other special occasions.
Then I woke this morning with an epiphany - of sorts: I don't want to talk about music. I just want to make the music. I don't want to analyze it to instruct - I just want to know: how does it work? and maybe why? (Do you suppose the nuclear physicist feels this way?) He doesn't want to actually USE that bomb, he just wants to know how it works - for the pure esoteric joy of knowing? And if hypothesis become thesis becomes theory becomes revelation - all the better?
I wanted to compose a choral fanfare: the text (by Alice Corbin) began: "After the roar! After the fierce modern music!" I composed an 8-part arpeggiated vocal exclamation to fit the text - and the first time the chorus sang it, it was wonderful: dissonant, tense and alarmingly explosive, and I blurted, "Oh, my God! What have I done?"
THAT's what I mean about the Genius Life:
"Go home; write more music."
Last Christmas I received a black sweatshirt with the above title emblazoned across the front: Dangerously Overeducated. I wear it proudly, and try to live up to the title as best I can.
Two years ago, my brother gave me my doctoral hood for Christmas. Most Ph.D.s don't bother to buy all the academic regalia unless they're actually IN academia and are required to don such rigamarole 2-3 times a year. But since I started singing in an Episcopal Cathedral choir, we are "allowed" to wear the academic hood for Evensong services and other special occasions.
Then I woke this morning with an epiphany - of sorts: I don't want to talk about music. I just want to make the music. I don't want to analyze it to instruct - I just want to know: how does it work? and maybe why? (Do you suppose the nuclear physicist feels this way?) He doesn't want to actually USE that bomb, he just wants to know how it works - for the pure esoteric joy of knowing? And if hypothesis become thesis becomes theory becomes revelation - all the better?
I wanted to compose a choral fanfare: the text (by Alice Corbin) began: "After the roar! After the fierce modern music!" I composed an 8-part arpeggiated vocal exclamation to fit the text - and the first time the chorus sang it, it was wonderful: dissonant, tense and alarmingly explosive, and I blurted, "Oh, my God! What have I done?"
THAT's what I mean about the Genius Life:
"Go home; write more music."
Blog 
| New Old New Music | January 3, 2010 |
Why we compose.
Comments (2) | Read more »
| Taking stock | May 31, 2009 |
in which I account for my activity as a composer this year...
Comments (2) | Read more »
| Take Heart | December 23, 2008 |
Words of encouragement from
A No-talent Genius
A No-talent Genius
Comments (2) | Read more »
| Surviving the test of time | August 29, 2008 |
You can never know what will last or how it will change people's lives -
http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=94899
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P5l6Q-AyOk&feature=channel_page
http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=94899
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P5l6Q-AyOk&feature=channel_page
Comments (4) | Read more »
| Noodling | August 18, 2008 |
It's the musician's equivalent of doodling...
Comments (3) | Read more »
Music
Collaborations
| Title | Genre | Released | Plays |
| A Christmas Prayer | Holiday | Dec 20, 2008 | 1861 |
