"There are no two points so distant from one another that they cannot be connected by a single straight line -- and an infinite number of curves."
Composer Lawrence Dillon has produced an extensive body of work, from brief solo pieces to a full-length opera. Three disks of his music are due out in 2010 on the Bridge, Albany and Naxos labels. In the past year, he has had commissions from the Emerson String Quartet, the Cassatt String Quartet, the Mansfield Symphony, the Boise Philharmonic, the Salt Lake City Symphony, the Ravinia Festival, the Daedalus String Quartet, the Kenan Institute for the Arts, the University of Utah and the Idyllwild Symphony Orchestra.
Although he lost 50% of his hearing in a childhood illness, Dillon began composing as soon as he started piano lessons at the age of seven. In 1985, he became the youngest composer to earn a doctorate at The Juilliard School, and was shortly thereafter appointed to the Juilliard faculty. Dillon is now Composer in Residence at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he has served as Music Director of the Contemporary Ensemble, Assistant Dean of Performance, and Interim Dean of the School of Music. He was the Featured American Composer in the February 2006 issue of Chamber Music magazine.
A and B meet, fall in love, splice bank accounts and live happily ever after.
Shortly into the happily ever after, A notices subtle shifts in the relationship. B begins to gently criticize her clothing, the way she walks, the books she reads. As time goes on, B becomes more outspoken: why does she click her teeth like that? Why does she talk so loudly? Why doesn’t she get rid of her foolish friends?
And then one day it dawns on her: B never loved her.
B just fell in love with the way love made him feel.
That’s the image I have when I hear composers say they want to change the definition of music, to create a completely original kind of music. Seems to me they have fallen in love with what they believe is their power over the art form, rather than the art form itself.
I’d rather invest in the relationship, grow with it over time, and watch it grow with me.
A little bickering here and there is fine, but there is something to be said for high fidelity.
