Finding Resonance

Listening and responding constitute a different attitude from planning, doing, and calculating.—Hartmut Rosa, The Uncontrollability of the World, 2020

"All things are not shining, but all the shining things are."—Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly, All Things Shining, 2011

In my teens and twenties, I composed and arranged music in a variety of styles—from rock and jazz to extended classical traditions and modernist atonality. I was searching for musical materials to work with that I found deeply resonant. A lot of my explorations led to dead ends—to materials that, for me personally, lacked sufficient resonance to sustain my interest.

I have learned from the writers quoted above that the things any of us finds exceptionally resonant are only semicontrollable.¹ The “shining” things that move us deeply as individuals are partly idiosyncratic, and may change as we age. To sense resonance, we have to remain open to the world as we experience it.

Fortunately, in my explorations I discovered a range of musical materials that for me have remained deeply resonant—materials that I continue to relish working with. I get the greatest sense of resonance by composing music that establishes a clear sense of propulsive direction in melody, counterpoint, harmony, and rhythm.

I discovered that exteriorized expression is a key value for me. Like Verdi, I sometimes like to deliver knockout punches if I feel a work’s dramatic intent calls for them. My mature style began to develop only after I began focusing solely on materials and techniques I intuitively found deeply resonant.