Dear Guests, Welcome to my blog which I treat like a creative garden where I regularly plant and change this and that be it poetry, philosophy, an Oboe Brilliance lesson, an essay of some kind, or a journal about composing. Visit every Monday for oboe coaching which is also helpful for many melodic instrumentalists. Musically yours, Kathryn

"How do you compose?" That is the most commonly asked question I hear.
This blog is a window into my creative process and philosophies as a composer and instrumentalist. At times it may contain music, photos, and poetry as well. May you enjoy, return, and benefit!

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Dec

1

Personal philosophy of life purpose and composing

Dear Guests,

My personal philosophy in life, simply put, is that our only duty is to relish our life.

I use the word, our, singularly as individuals, and collectively as in the one life we all share ourselves.

My personal purpose in composing, simply put, is to relish our lives through sounds. Music is a celebration of the myriad of what can be felt, experienced, reached, and expressed through sounds. Much can be accomplished and achieved through music.

New sonic worlds can be discovered, rich emotional landscapes can be explored and enjoyed. New emotional states can be experienced. Sorrow can be transformed into delicious joy. A human body can be healed, an emotional body can be healed, an altered state of consciousness achieved, an ecstatic spiritual high shared, myriad of mysteries delved into and more.

How can music do all of this? How does music affect us emotionally, physically, mentally, socially, spiritually?

Quite a subject.

I compose because I've been hearing music in my head as long as I can remember. Before I started grammar school, I realized that I hear music in my imagination and other people can't hear it unless I share it. At a young age, I decided to learn the language of music in order to share the sounds I imagine and hear internally. This desire to share grew into a need and an addiction to create music. Now it is a joy I choose to share as my favorite way to relish my life and to hopefully uplift the lives of others while I'm at it.

I compose because it's interesting and fun. I compose because I love the positive effects great music has on the people who play it. Countless hours of human life have been spent learning the masterworks by Bach and other great composers. Hours enriching lives through music.

So, I continue to weave sounds, ideas, feelings.

I ask myself, "What music lasts the test of time and why?"

The music which continues to be enjoyed for generations share similar traits. They are emotionally and mentally liberating.

My desire is to create music which is emotionally and mentally liberating. Great music doesn't require a Doctorate in musical theory to fall in love. Beethoven's 9th - for example - speaks to people who feel. Beethoven's 9th speaks to people who ponder the depths of musical design.

I strongly believe that music has a strong influence on society and that society has a strong influence on music.

As a woman in the US, I find capitalism dominating the arts a very challenging stage in which to create deep, liberating, sincere music to uplift and expand the boundaries of music, on the one hand. On the other hand, I cherrish the theory of artistic and spiritual freedom allowed in our culture.

As an oboist carrying the torch of tradition into the now and into the future, I am passionate about my "Oboe Brilliance" work. Composing solo and duet music for oboists of all skill levels is some of my most important work.

Right now, Dec 2009, I'm busy composing "Now Point" a 10 minute ballet for full orchestra. This is serious fun, and I hope it is enjoyed in significant ways. At the very least, it is exalting for me to imagine and commit to the page, but I hope that more fun comes of it. I will be submitting the piece for review in February.

Anyone wishing me to compose a work for an individual instrumentalist (or vocalist) or ensemble is welcome to commission me to do so. Anyone wishing to help me publish Oboe Brilliance or help it get destributed is welcome to contact me.

All the best and musically yours,
Kathryn