Living the Infinite Cadenza
Historically, the brilliant, virtuoso flourishes of a musical cadenza were rarely dictated by the composer. Instead, the performer was expected to bring his own musical skills, insights, and creativity to the piece’s cadenza. Sometimes, a performer would work out the cadenza on paper — in fact, you can find Beethoven cadenzas for Mozart concerti and Brahms cadenzas for Beethoven concerti — but just as often, the performer would improvise the cadenza, drawing some material from the written piece, but adding his own personality and flair (or pain and fear) to create something unique, personal, and impermanent.
The Infinite Cadenza, then, seems like the perfect musical metaphor for life. The concerto is not ours, but while we’re here, it’s up to us to take what we’ve been given and use our skills, insights, and creativity to mold something unique, personal, and yes, impermanent. Like a musical cadenza, life isn’t always predictable; it can go off into new and unexpected areas of exploration, it can change speed and tone at a moment’s notice, and in the end, it’s quality is completely governed by the performer’s choices.There will be some bad notes. And although you can’t “unplay” them, you also can’t judge the entire piece on them.
This site, then, is dedicated to creativity and uniqueness. It’s populated with the little things I’ve created to mold my little cadenza for nature’s concerto. I hope you find some of them interesting and useful.
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