Nobody gives a damn about your music.

Have you ever told someone directly what you think of their music?

Me too. Sometimes, without even being asked - it's instinctive - but not always a good idea. You don't want to hurt someone's feelings but something compels you to tell the truth. Then, you get into that thing where you want to be honest without sounding rude. However it comes across, it's better they know...

Like a lot of composers eager for greater success, I try to gather helpful feedback. My friends and family often bear the brunt of my insecurities. When they're sick of the sight of me, I pester 'like-minded' people on music forums and social media platforms. One person gave me a response that I found totally astonishing:

Music isn't anything special anymore, just a commodity...

No, I can't agree. It's something that gets inside you and can change you completely. It can re-route your brain waves, affect every emotion in your body and speak to you in ways that words find inadequate. Commodities can't do that! If you listen to music and find it has the same effect as a simple raw material like "coffee beans", you need to sit yourself down in a darkened room and ask yourself why that is. It says more about you than the music you listen to.

I can't help thinking about the state of serious music making today. No wonder there is a tendency for blandness - a kind of prepackaged, fast-food taste in music - a kind of music that makes an immediate impact but is instantly forgotten. It leaves me feeling cold.

But am I being naive? Competition is frightening. The greatest composers of all time have their music readily available on the internet. How can someone carve a name for themselves when they have to compete against the very best with no reward in sight?

So therefore, I ask only this of you:

If you hear any of my music, please be honest with me. Leave comments that reflect your true feelings. Whatever you say, it's better I know.
But give my music a chance; don't disregard it instantly. Listen to it a number of times before you make a judgement.

And if you are like me and someone tells you in some way or another that 'nobody gives a damn about your music', remember that it's only their opinion; not a very enlightened one either.

What is Stockhausen's legacy?

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In your blog post on "the shadow lurking behind every genius," I delved into the influences behind great composers' output, but you might have omitted a few noteworthy figures. While Arnold Schoenberg is widely recognized as the inventor of the series system in the early 1920s, it's essential to question whether he was truly the only one to devise chromatic methodology. Have you ever heard of Josef Hauer? Interestingly, Josef Hauer was a composer who also explored the concept of twelve-tone composition around the same time as Schoenberg. In fact, the last movement of Arnold Schönberg's Fünf Klavierstücke, Opus 23 (1923) marked the first instance of his 'Method of Composing with Twelve Tones which are related only with one another.' This method, known as serialism or dodecaphonic music, is significantly different from previous compositions because it exclusively employs a set of twelve different tones, avoiding repetition within the series and encompassing ...

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