Starting a new blog…
I’m a composer and in this space I hope to talk about music mostly, including my own music. My old blog, The And of One, has been dormant for a few years but still exists and has over 200 blog entries. That site is a pretty good example of what to expect here. I’ve set up links to some of the more popular posts from that blog as entries on this blog—clicking on them will take to the original site.
Ives’ String Quartet No. 2
I have long had a casual relationship with Charles Ives’ String Quartet No. 2. I was introduced to his music as an undergraduate, using it as a springboard to find my way into contemporary repertoire after having grown up hearing precious little of anything written post-1913 that wasn’t Broadway, mainstream jazz or pop music.
Ives opened up a whole new way of looking at music for me, a child-like way of toying with the material until it satisfied both child and grown-up sensibilities. No matter how eccentric, the result always seemed rooted in simple “what if” questions: If music can modulate from one key to another, why can't it be it two or more keys at the same time?