Musically Novel…
…is comprised of two publications:
Blues, Preludes & Feuds is an ongoing musical memoir: a mixture of biography and fiction—and music.
Music for Its Own Sake is an occasional polemic on music, my own and others—also with music.
That’s the helicopter view, the logline if you will, of what’s going on here. The two streams are related in the sense that, a) I write them, and b) they usually include my original music. Otherwise, they are two distinct literary musical beasts:
Blues, Preludes & Feuds (BFF) is written like a story, the chapters are meant to be read in order. In fact, it is structured somewhat like a novel and includes entirely fictional elements. Mostly you are aware of what’s fictional and what’s not. Mostly I’m aware of what’s fictional and what’s not, but BPF is largely about my youth, so I don’t necessarily remember exact details. For example, when you’re reading dialogues I had when I was four years old, you can assume that I don’t remember those exchanges, even if I do remember a few choice words.
Music for Its Own Sake can be read in any order. They are articles, with highly opinionated arguments about music. There is some musical criticism here (including of my own work) but I’m no music critic. I’m a full-time artist—composer, pianist, singer, songwriter, and screenwriter. As much as I don’t like plenty of music, I’m not really interested in wasting my words criticizing it. I’m more interested in delving into the deeper nature of music itself. Music for its own sake.
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