Blog Post No. 8: String Quartet No. 3
Back to Bartok.
Béla was the model for many of my early works.— that is when I wasn't busy stealing from Copland, Stravinsky, Ravel, Manuel de Falla, Debussy, Respighi, J.S. Bach, Machaut, Palestrina, Gregorian Chant, Brahms— now that I think of it, I didn't start borrowing from Brahms until later.... but OH yes... how could I have forgotten, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky...
Beethoven became my god gradually, starting with his late quartets, assorted piano sonatas, especially Op. 110, which I studied for years. I played a half a dozen, the rest i would stumble through at 1/10th speed— and eratic at that– just so I could sort of feel what he was doing firsthand.
One of the reasons I composed so little when I was young, compared to my later years, is that I was always looking over my shoulder, thinking, "I should delete these bars because they are too derivative."
Even though many of my peers prayed to the god of modernism, minimalism, or a variety of other isms and looked askance at my quirky brand of neo romanticism often appearing far too simple to them, II started to wonder whether being original was such a lofty goal. Sure, lots of composers thought that was the holy grail but not Mozart or J. S. Bach...
I'm reminded of my first day in middle school. A kid said to me, "take off your tie. Be a nonconformist like the rest of us."
I wonder if he ever looked back, laughing at his side-splittingly hilarious naive irony.
Who would I prefer to learn from: J. S. B. or Anton Webern?
Or how about a little of both.
