The joy of music, for the sake of music

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A friend, fellow composer and previous instructor posted some of his music on SoundCloud the other day (actually he posted his links to SoundCloud on Google+ which is where I caught them). So, I took a moment to listen. We don't always see eye-to-eye in terms of what is listenable music. To my great delight, his posted pieces were really interesting, very much in "his sound" and just delightful to listen to.

It made me reflect on my own recent writings. Much of what I've been attempting to do is complicate the music, obfuscate the rhythms, add greater angularity to the melodies, harmonies and tonality to veer away from romantic tonality. The result has been an increased sense of frustration on my part, with no better results in terms of getting pieces performed.

While I still like a couple of my most recent orchestra pieces, Insecta and Chasing Dark Matter Galaxies, and Flute Toys (still in progress) has been enjoyable to write, however a little piece for flute and guitar I wrote numerous years ago still thrills me when I listen to it.


In a previous post when I asked the question, "What sort of music should I write?" lots of people told me to follow my heart. Well, for the next few weeks this sort of music is what my heart is telling me to write.

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