Message written at 10 Feb 1998 09:51:00 +0000
In-reply-to: <34DE4E5A.34A2@hexagon.se> (message from rasmus ekman on Mon, 09
	Feb 1998 01:31:22 +0100)

I have two answers to this question of a Csound masterpiece -- well
perhaps three.

1) My next-but-one work is a masterpiece; I have been working on it
   for 8 years now, but when it is finished you will all be bowled
   over and all give up composition as it has all been said..... sorry
   wrong blurb... you will see the depth of my feelings on the
   underlying tradagy

2) I think the Richard Boulanger's "At Last...Free" is a candidate for
   a masterpiece.  OK so I am biased, but it is really good.

Third answer; there are a number of composers whose work I respect and
enjoy who I know use Csound.  Whether they used it on particular works
or not I do not know, nor indeed in a real sense, care.  I like the
music however it comes.

And as a final thought, who cares if it is a masterpiece?  I had been
composing too long without any work having been performed (like about
40yrs off an on) to have any illusions that I was doing this for
public acclaim.  I write what I write because it needs to be written.
Even the bad stuff (or which there is a great proportion) exists
because I need to write it.  That is close to saying I do not care
what everyone else thinks.  The first work of mine which I thought had
star quality existed in my sitting room for a long time.  I like it;
my wife likes it.  That is enough.

If I had the attitude to give up when I heard a real masterpiece I
would have given up at 10 when I heard Dowland, or 17 with Dvorak and
Tchaikovsky, or Bruckner at 18, or Wagner at 20, or Xenakis at 40....

Let's face it -- it is fun.

==John

Well teaching started yesterday, so I have no energy for real work,
just philosophising.