Composing Again
Previous: Starting and Stopping Composing Next: Record Collecting During junior high school I learned a few of the easier Mozart and Haydn sonatas and some introductory pieces of Bach, Beethoven and Schumann. In among all these Germanic masterpieces, Dr. Kooiker interspersed “contemporary” pieces by Bartok, Tcherepnin, Sowerby and others, published by Frances Clarke. The graded anthology books are still available in updated editions. I found the pieces were odd but kind of interesting and I grew to like them. On a couple of occasions I showed them to friends as curiosities. I didn’t do that with Mozart and Haydn. I’m sure that this music was partly basis for a renewed interest in writing. Kooiker had me attend a recital of a graduating piano major at Hope College (Dec '70) that included a piano sonata that he had written. I don't know who this person was nor do I remember anything about the piece, but it was enough to get me started on writing m...