Composing

In conversation with Karlheinz Stockhausen, referring to listening and composing he said, “We simply open up rather than create links between specific musical processes and certain feelings or states of being--sadness, joy, or wanting to dance. When that opening happens, one is modulated unceasingly by the music. Whether we are aware of this or not, we are modulated by a specific piece of music in a specific way.”

Composing asks for the craft to be honed to the point of it being a language with which one is completely comfortable. It is like learning a second language. You know when the language is part of your very nature when you begin to dream in all its nuances.

I adhere to this basic principle, as well as the one that calls for a quality of internal listening that knows when a seed of an idea has been planted. Once that seed is embodied, it is simply a matter of giving it the right climate of attention. One cannot manipulate that seed in someone else but a mentor can inquire into the most natural and finest way to draw out its innate quality of expression through composition.

This is what I listen for in myself and those students who approach me for composition sessions.