Here is some feedback from composer/conductor Joel Thome

Your blog is inspiring, articulate and profound. It should be read by every music student and every composer!
With thanks and warmest regards, Joel

Infinite Permutation as a Creative Principle

Consider the following process as a manner of invention for musical material. A medieval composer takes a melodic fragment from plainchant, sets it in longer note values as a cantus firmus, and composes polyphony against the cantus firmus according to the contemporary practice. The new music sounds like medieval polyphony instead of plainchant. A bebop musician in the 1940’s takes the chord changes of a standard popular song and composes a new melody using the same harmonic structure. The new tune sounds like bebop instead of a standard pop song.

Now consider that the medieval composer takes a line of the new music and makes it the basis for new polyphonic composition using the same process. Or the bebopper makes substitute chord changes for the new tune and then composes a new melody over the substitute changes. These processes can continue ad infinitum, and the new music will always retain a seed of the original, but it will not necessarily be recognizable to the causal listener. Furthermore, the new work may sound radically different from the original or the most recent creation and the composer can create a new musical language in this manner. There is no end to the different directions this process can take, and there is no reason why the new creative work may not deal with any of the parameters of music (besides melody, harmony and counterpoint) and reframe the old model with, for example, new tuning systems, structural principles, rhythmic systems, instrumental, vocal or electronic settings, etc.

Artistic Vision and Craft

I define artistic vision as: the generating ideas for works of art; and craft as the power and technique to carry out the artistic vision. Much of our training as musicians consists of mastering the techniques and skills used to execute musical ideas. Less training is spent on the development of artistic vision. People who earn graduate degrees in music are not generally expected to do original research until they reach the doctoral level; even then, their topics of research are often suggested and always approved by their graduate advisers. Contrast that with the musical originality of the giants of music history: Machaut, Josquin, Monteverdi, Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Ives, Parker, Cage, Ellington, Partch, Monk, Stockhausen, Xenakis, and Gaburo, some of whom were self-taught or didn’t earn graduate degrees. Many composers with advanced degrees have superior craft, but lack original vision. Many musical visionaries possess original artistic visions, but lack the technique to completely realize their ideas; they either limit their musical visions to match their technique--or else they eventually master the craft necessary to realize their visions.

The ideal, of course, is to develop an original vision and possess the craft to realize that vision. Vision and craft go hand in hand. I have sometimes been criticized by performers for composing music which is technically difficult if not impossible. Of course, the technique is necessary to realize my ideas completely and distinctly. If performers approach my music with a sincere desire to understand the artistic vision, and they dedicate themselves to realizing that vision, the technical mastery follows naturally. Good musicians who work hard make great performances with an intensity which is excellent and rare.

My Music Is For Everyone

My music is for everyone. Those who listen with open minds will find their hearts opening and feel love for every lving being. Those who listen with open hearts will find their minds opening to infinite possibilities. Those who listen with open hearts and minds will find their bodies responding to the deepest rhythms of the universe.