The imagination is one of every thing in the universe as a song of praise ... the world as symphony. If one note in a musical composition is played off-key, the whole composition is off. If a musician decides to go his or her own way in the middle of a symphony in order to express freedom, the free play of the whole is destroyed. On the other hand, musicians find true freedom when their individuality harmonizes with the whole.
I'm coming to believe in the importance of silence in music.The power of silence after a phrase of music, for example: the dramatic silence after the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, or the space between the notes of a Miles Davis solo.There is something very specific about a "rest" in music.You take your foot off the pedal and pay attention.I'm wondering as musicians whether the most important thing we do is merely to provide a frame for silence.I'm wondering if silence itself is perhaps the mystery at the heart of music.And is silence the most perfect form of music of all?Songwriting is the only form of meditation I know.And it is only in silence that the gifts of melody and metaphor are offered.