Wednesday, April 21, 2010

the score is as three-dimensional as a sculpture

Terrific interview at the Guardian (from July last year) by Paul Morley, after a year studying composition at the Royal Academy of Music, with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Christopher Austin. Morley couldn't read music when he started; Austin said there was often a tendency to tell the student that it didn't matter, but he had been adamant, if you're going to be serious about this we have to address this. Morley said once he started he became completely obsessed, realised the score was this wonderful, magical thing...

I found this moving, a reminder of the value of demanding teachers, the who don't settle for the limitations 'imposed' by a student's lack of preparation.

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