SATIRES :: Guenther Rabl

ADVICE FOR A YOUNG COMPOSER

You can’t want to play like Jimi Hendrix, but sit on the board of a collecting society at the same time. And you can’t live with your family in an art nouveau villa in Mödling and compose like Franz Schubert by the way. That just doesn’t work. The laws of the free market are hard. But the laws of art are even harder. In the end, life is not a lottery where everything can be won and nothing can be lost with a small wager! Imagine, you go to the kiosk, count your coins, take a lot and: ‘Hurrah, you have herewith lost a million! – Life is just that way, my son.

If you want to be a good composer, you shouldn’t be involved in intrigues. Because the intrigue is an art form of its own that needs diligence, perseverance, intuition and a feeling for forms which are then, under some circumstances, is missing from your music. For seldom is an artist equally good in two related fields.

© Günther Rabl 1989
translated by Brian Dorsey
This text is understood as a literary work of art.
Quoting in context with a reference to the source is allowed until otherwise revoked.