However, each artist must rediscover first principles in his own way, and this is my attempt to articulate what I have found. Finally, although my art is music, many of these observations apply to the other arts as well. A personal definition of musical composition Musical composition aims at the creation of an imaginary world in sound, coherent, intriguing, seductive, and satisfying. As such it is set apart from everyday life, although of course elements from the latter may enter into it. Composition involves the selection of material for maximum effect, rather than just accepting whatever comes easily to hand.
Music can stimulate the mind to range widely and freely, through directed imaginative experience.
A work of art is like a map that allows us to visit imaginary places outside our ordinary experience, and, at its best, to return seeing the world in a new light. When I listen, the first thing I listen for is a professional technique. The mature artist needs a very concrete knowledge of the general principles of his art. Such principles arise either from the practical limitations of performers and instruments, or else from the limits of human perception and memory. Artistic technique is not a collection of rigid rules based on any particular historical practice.