The Best Revisited

OK, I know that nobody reads this blog. With something like 100,000 blogs being started up each day by people with a lot more to dish than I do, it's understandable. And I also know that Project 300 has been dead and buried for over two months now. But yesterday, I went through my best pieces (posted here), thinking that enough time has passed to make me more of a neutral observer. I have to say that I'm pretty surprised that most of the tunes really are kind of awesome. Gone are the minute-by-minute memories of how I built certain pieces and what I was trying to do at any certain juncture (as opposed to how things really turned out). I was more like a new listener to some of this stuff. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm very proud of a lot of these efforts. Sure, there are some spots that beg for revision, but considering how much time I had for each of them, it's pretty amazing that I ever wrote anything good.

Conversely, though, I listened to the worst selections (found here, if you dare) and they're still pretty bad. With that said, I'd like to add another tune to the Hall of Shame - #217. Out of everything I wrote, this is the only one that's completely impossible for humans to play. It sounds horrid and ridiculous, but it was beyond my meager powers to make it sound any better. Hang your head, #217!

I know that I'm dredging up history, but I'm listening to these pieces with new ears and I like what I hear - except for all of those bad selections. Like with Mackris v. O'Reilly, I'm not quite sure how it all got written. I guess maybe I retreated into my head far enough so that I could figure out a workable plan to get everything on paper. That might account for why I was so antisocial while I was in the thick of writing these pieces.

So to sum up: good pieces still good; bad pieces still bad; I don't know how I write music. Thank you and good night.