one thing I've learned is that we all seem to hear music differently somehow.
That's so, and to tell you the truth I'm a bit worried about my apparent inability to hear the subtleties of expression that other people seem to be able to put their finger on in musical performances. I generally can't tell one guitarist from another, for example.
Probably for a similar reason I've never rated vocalists very highly. As far as I'm concerned, most of them just sing other people's work competently, and it's the composer, not the singer, that should get most of the credit. I know I'm in a minority of one here!
As I say, this is a musical failing in myself, and one that as a composer myself I find somewhat concerning. But I have a similar "blindness" to things like fashion, style, coolness, things that I've never been able to understand let alone emulate.
On a related topic, I've recently discovered I'm fairly badly face-blind. I can't easily recognise people unless I know them well, and if I see an acquaintance in an unexpected environment I'm quite likely to ignore them -- people tend to find this offensive! To me, faces aren't anything special, just a collection of eyes, nose, mouth etc, but other people seem to see something beyond that -- "A Face" -- that's unique and individual and can't be confused with anyone else's. This is a mystery to me. Like other face-blind people, I rely on clues like hairstyle, glasses, voice to tell people apart; faces tend to be a bit of a blur. (I can't even close my eyes and imagine my close relatives' faces, though of course I recognise them when I see them.)
On the other side of the coin, I find it easy to read people's expressions and emotions, and see through people when they're lying. (Female politicians do this a lot. Harriet Harman is one of the worst culprits.) For this reason I find dramas and soaps on TV impossible to watch, as the players are always overacting and hamming it up. Same thing with music, most of it is derivative, imitative rubbish (including my own output) but there are occasional pearls, which often go unrecognised.
So perhaps my brain is wired up in a funny way. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! I can't help it, I was born that way!
Dave
). So I like your way of looking at things as a composer, where I guess you are more concerned with the big picture of the whole music, and yes, we all should have high regard for the composer of the music. I listen to a lot of classical music, and in that world I think composers are very much respected - the performers are important in bringing a good performance of course, but still, it's the composer that is key.
