The musician began to suspect that composition was a form of cowardice. To plan a piece in advance was to erect a wall. Improvisation, by contrast, required faith so he told himself. He sought the old librarian, rumoured to have played the violin well before retreating into books. \u201cI decided,\u201d the musician said, \u201cI will only improvise. To plan is to hide.\u201d The librarian closed the volume he was reading. \u201cFrom whom are you hiding?\u201d \u201cFrom the audience. If I prepare, I control the outcome. If I improvise, I surrender.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd what do you imagine they will do with your surrender?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey may reject it. They may find it dull.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The librarian nodded. \u201cYou believe the verdict is boredom?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The librarian walked toward a long corridor of shelves. \u201cThese ones over here,\u201d he said, \u201care written with immense planning. Some are unread. There are also notebooks filled with spontaneous reflections. They too are unread.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat is different, music is alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo is disappointment,\u201d replied the librarian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The musician sat down. \u201cIt’s more authentic to improvise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAuthentic to what?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut which moment,\u201d said the librarian, \u201cdistraction, vanity, hunger, fear. Which will you be authentic to?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The librarian returned to his chair. \u201cWhen you plan, you fear the audience will detect calculation. When you improvise, you fear they will detect emptiness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAdvice?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The librarian reopened his book. \u201cPlay,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd understand somewhere in the audience, someone will be bored. Another moved. A third will totally misunderstand. Their reactions are not a single thought but a maze.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The musician left, carrying with him the terrible consolation that courage and preparation were merely different corridors in the same maze. He understood, dimly, that no arrangement of notes could secure universal forgiveness. Yet he continued to search for one, and it was this search that made him worthy of pity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The musician began to suspect that composition was a form of cowardice. To plan a piece in advance was to erect a wall. Improvisation, by contrast, required faith so he […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-rockbob","post-9380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-tales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}