Composer, member ASCAP (piano/organ/synth) Philosophy
"The Dark Ages were an era of intelligence on strike, when men of ability went underground and lived undiscovered, studying in secret." - Ayn Rand
I compare the act of composing music to the work of an architect designing a building, to be built not in stone and steel, but in musical sound. A composer engineers/designs/creates/innovates solutions to musical problems; he is neither curator of the past, nor caterer to popular whims. He composes primarily for himself, and for those who understand [or desire and attempt to understand] his work as he wishes it to be understood. A "sungrazer" is a type of comet which, because of its extremely elliptical orbit, passes quite near to the solar globe (the comet "grazes" the sun), and thus furnishes a spectacular show for earth-bound observers:
Quotes:
"'John Galt' is Prometheus who changed his mind. After centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought to men the fire of the gods, he broke his chains and he withdrew his fire, until the day when men withdraw their vultures." - Atlas Shrugged II.5
"If there is a more tragic fool than the businessman who doesn't know that he's an exponent of man's highest creative spirit--it's the artist who thinks that the businessman is his enemy." - ibid.
"Those who try to be all things to all men end up by not being anything to anyone." - Ayn Rand
"What glory can there be in the conquest of a mindless body?" - ibid.
"Kings rule according to law over voluntary subjects, but tyrants over involuntary; and the one are guarded by their fellow-citizens, the others are guarded against them." - Aristotle Politics iii.14.7
"Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them." - Aristotle
For the Parochial (= the local, narrow, restricted in scope):
"It contributes greatly towards a man's moral and intellectual health to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate." - Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter)
Do you get it?