Over at Sequenza21 they’re making resolutions and still debating if a composer becomes a greater composer if they attend a brand name college of the arts. Nevermind if they need a college at all. Elgar would have enjoyed this conversation and if he were in, say, Yoda form, he might argue vehemently in defense of the self-taught approach. Satie, funny enough, I think would agree with the scholarly approach seeing that even after getting the boot from the conservatoire, he came back again to smooth out those self-described rough edges.
But its all really empty rhetoric (with the exception of Toub and others I agree with), so its extra-refreshing when Steve Layton shares his resolution. He has a way with putting things in perspective. Not to mention that he has mad talent composing.
“Nothing much more than to keep it going… With 30-some years of this under my belt, I’ve got a little over 30 hours of music “in the can”, over 300 pieces and counting. And still there’s always something new and even slightly wondrous that pops up, often when I least expect it. So here’s to the “pop”, for all of us, in 2009. And just to waft out the old and in the new, you’re all welcome to download this 2008 piece, “Aurora”, for piano and treated recording (Ysaye’s 5th violin sonata):
http://www.niwo.com/steve/music/layton_aurora.mp3
You are the here and now of everyone who’s been, and you’ll be present in great things to come by people you’ll never know. Salud!” – Layton
Salud to you as well, Steve Layton! From AAM!
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Steve Layton is da man. And Aurora is a great piece.