a small, simple rant

I am a composer and a musician. What I do is relevant and necessary for the perpetuation of culture. I bring meaning, however small, to a life that is otherwise matte, grey, and dull. I bring a set of skills and a particular knowledge into a world that pays lip-service to "creativity" and little else. I can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the bassoon, woodwind and brass fingerings, string instrument bowing and positions, how to compose a piece of music in any medium from the ground up, anything about post-war experimental music, most things about phenomenology and aesthetic theory, and give a rundown of Western art music's history in surprising detail, from roughly 800 CE to present, in about an hour, and I can go into even greater detail for the Reformation period, the Ars Nova, the Ars Subtilior, and American, German, French, and Latin American music after 1890. Of all of these, I create works of art the best.

A few ground rules.

No, I won't write you a piece just to get "exposure" - I do have bills to pay. No, I won't perform for free for you "as a favor" - it takes time to prepare. No, I won't get a "real job" because this IS my real job: it takes time, effort, labor, skill, and patience to do what I do. I'm damn good at it, even though I'm continually learning and striving to improve.

Let's observe this differently.

Can I borrow your skills, sir, as an accountant? It will give you exposure to potential clients! Can I borrow your time and well-honed abilities as an architect to design a structurally-sound and aesthetically pleasing building for my friends? I can't pay you, but you should be lucky you get to show off your skills in public with the finished product! What about you, there? Can you, bricklayer, carpenter, and mason dwell over a blueprint for a while and build a house perfectly in front of a live audience that has seen houses built faster and better than what you may be able to do? Pay you? You should be lucky we all get to participate in your gifts!

See? See how stupid that sounds?

Beethoven got to get paid, son.