Everything is one version of itself.

I’ve had so many ideas for music over the years, occasionally recording a few seconds to remember for later but rarely working them into finished pieces. Recently I found that, all that time, I was closer than I realized to “finished” music. Almost as if the ideas themselves were the finished works.

Of course it’s not usually the case that an idea is the finished work. We can't just skip “the process.” But an idea can be much closer than we think to some intermediary version of a finished work. This relates to the age-old concept that a work of art is never finished: if it could always be expanded, reworked, reproduced, etc., in theory all versions could be thought of as “intermediary”. Embracing this point helped me see that we’re much closer to any initial “version” of a work than we are to an “absolutely final, perfect version” (which might not even exist).

It’s like how a business project will always involve intermediate stages of delivery. The project manager needs feedback or occasional points of completing something. Without these, the full weight of the project will be on their shoulders throughout its entire duration.

My initial aim with Notes Unfolding was to achieve that “intermediary something,” to bring a piece of music to a certain state of “done-ness,” to a point where it feels somewhat cohesive, where it feels like it achieves the “purpose” of the initial idea, at least to some extent. And then share it, often including some context on the idea, process, or product.

As of February, 2025 I’m shifting my focus and will only post when I’ve got something I’d like to say about the creative process. I will likely accompany those posts with original music, but the music production and sharing here will no longer be my primary goal.

Your subscription motivates me to create and gives me the enjoyment of being a small part of a big musical conversation!