I was asked recently, “What is your favorite?” I had been playing some of my latest compositions for a group of people when the question arose. My response was, “That is a question you should never ask a composer.” I then had to explain.
To a composer, the music he writes are his children. He brings them into existence, nurtures them until they are mature, then sends them out into the world to stand on their own. To ask which one is his favorite is asking a parent to pick his favorite child. He may have a favorite, but it is not fair to declare which child he prefers. “All of them” is the only good answer. Each is unique. One offspring has particular attributes that represent its character. Each piece evokes the state of mind of the composer when he wrote it. There is no “favorite” in that sense.
Judging the quality of the music will vary with each listener, and possibly with subsequent hearing. When the music is performed for other people, they will often like the pieces that I think are weak, or not as good as I think they could have been. It seems others don’t share the same aesthetic criteria with me. What I might think is “clever” they might not even notice. That’s good, and for me to identify my favorite might alter their experience.
We all change over time and the music we are attracted to will likely change over time as well. You have probably had the experience of hearing music from an earlier period in your life and then having a memory of associated things. “I remember when I first heard that,” you may say. Your opinion of that music may have changed as well.
It’s the same for a composer. Writing music is a way of expressing myself. If I can capture a sense of myself at a particular point in life, I have succeeded. Hearing the music years later will bring back memories of where I was and what I was thinking and experiencing at that time. Often, I will think that I could have written a passage differently and the music would be “better” in some way. But that is a mistake. I’m not the same person I was when I wrote that music and it would be impossible to recover the motivation I was tuned into at that time. It’s better to leave it at is, a snapshot of where I was, and start a new piece that expresses what I am now.
The best answer I have been able to come up with is this: my favorite composition is the one I’m going to write next.
BasicSynth 