Who Invents the Inventors?
I started this before Jeff posted his June 4th article, but it seems a nice follow-up. For as long as Ive been in this field, Ive worked with, read about, and listened to musicians who all considered themselves to be experimental in their musical approach. The number of said approaches is varied to a man, and it gets me to thinking: why use such a vague, universally applicable word for something thats so personal and intimate? To that end, what is it that not only leads a composer to the conclusion that they belong under this umbrella, but drives them to compose in the first place? I remember watching an interview with Stravinsky several years ago, where he relays an anecdote about being at a border crossing, and when asked for his occupation, he called himself an inventor: an inventor of music, as opposed to simply a composer of music. This is a rather romanticized notion for a composer as pragmatic as Stravinsky is often portrayed, so it speaks volumes about how he perceived himself.
