So, that’s the basic stuff I put in a printed concert program. It doesn’t say much about my influences, the things that prompt me to choose the notes I do.

Undoubtedly an important factor is that when I was young I never imagined that I would be a musician. In high school I took one of those personality inventory tests and it scored me in the 96th percentile for music; of course I assumed the test was wrong. I went to college to major in biology. I had grown up in rural environments where I came to be in close touch with, well, the environment. I knew and loved the bugs and critters. Still do. My fascination with these things is more than just intriguing…. it’s also aesthetic, powerfully so. A critter is fascinating simply because it is different from the others. The differences are in the details. And those details - after all the analysis of the data - will provoke an emotional response in the scientist: “Cool!” I said to my students many times: when choosing what to do with your life, pick something in which you do not tire of the details. That’s where you are going to spend your time. Why listen to two Mozart symphonies? They both use the same melodic style, harmonic language, the same forms in the same four movements. So, why? Because - as every close listener knows - they differ in the details, which - almost oxymoronically - are extraordinarily inventive and subtle. They are just plain cool.

So, in college I gradually accepted that I was not cut out ot be scientist and began taking music classes in earnest. This was not decided with any particular insight or inspiration, but my rock band and Intro Chemistry undoubtedly had something to do with it. I had written a few things in high school (juvenalia that will never again see the light of day) and I signed up for composition lessons. My mother had once declared that I could make anything if I just had enough cardboard, and I have always enjoyed the adventure of making something out of nothing, something that had no prior existence outside of my imagination. But I had no musical voice of my own, and I was so naïve that I didn’t even understand that a composer was something that one could become. Like much of the public, I guess I figured you simply were a composer or you weren’t. Then came an important turning point with the band.

One of the band members - who, importantly, owned some vital PA gear - was getting restless. His tastes were quite avant-garde. The music I was writing for the band was too safe, too much like other things that were old news. To keep this colleague interested, I needed to step outside of my safe box. I tried some new sounds and new approaches. And though my initial attempts were not universally successful, enough were that my colleague stayed in the band and I was encouraged to keep experimenting. I quickly grew to like it. My composition teachers - all of whom were wonderful - continued to open my ears and strip away my ignorance. So, to this day, I am very motivated to avoid repeating myself or others. Of course this is pretty much impossible. It’s one of those striving-for-the-unattainable sorts of values.

Though I never pursued science in a serious way, and though that rock band is long gone, the influences linger. They taught me that there are many, many options and forms of beauty if only one is willing to recognize them. Improving one’s ability to recognize these different forms can only enrich an appreciation of the arts and life in general. Like the different critters, they are cool. You can read a set of tips for better listening that I wrote for my students is here.