Friedrich Nietzsche Wagner is a composer who has beautiful moments but awful quarter hours. Gioacchino Rossini M. Ravel refuses the Legion of Honor, but all his music accepts it. Erik Satie A creative artist works on his next composition because he is not satisfied with his previous one. A composer knows as little as anyone else where the substance of his music comes from. The current state of music presents a variety of solutions in search of a problem, the problem being to find somebody left to listen.
Musicians take all the liberties they can.
When I am with composers, I say I am a conductor. When I am with conductors, I say I am a composer. You must have the score in your head, not your head in the score. The conductor has the advantage of not seeing the audience. There are a million things in music I know nothing about.