In this chapter Peter Wiegold gives an account of how, uncomfortable with the conventional classical world, he felt the need to explore many different kinds of musical practice, looking for ways of working that led to more ‘connectivity’ with musicians and audience – and he also discusses how this search impacted on his own artistic voice.

Introduction

On a recent visit to Toronto University, I was invited to give a seminar to twenty composers. I asked my host what to talk about and he said, ‘Why don’t you tell us your journey?’ Happy to be asked this, I thought I would begin by saying to the students that, well, you may expect the road to be straight, but be prepared for change – you might find yourself at significant crossroads.

In this chapter I would like to tell something of my own journey, thinking that many of the themes at the heart of the book have been at the heart of my own experience. When I was twenty-two I had a recurring half-thought: ‘I want to be part of a musical tradition but not the one we’ve got.’ The doubts and questions that came up in the following years were especially rooted in wanting to change how I related that to those around me, in the community, fellow musicians, and I spent some time looking for different kinds of practice.

This chapter will be in three parts. The first focusses on my early life, my first musical home, the second on the travels and explorations away from it, and the third on how the work consolidated, finding a new kind of home. Following this story will enable me to articulate different kinds of values and a different kind of music.

I often remember Alexander Goehr saying at a SPNM weekend that, the role of the artist is to ‘creatively misunderstand’, and there will probably be some creative misunderstandings to be found here. I have chosen what to see and hear, and, as for many in this book, this is an account of an artist as much as a theorist or educationalist – so I hope the reader will see the memories and stories as internal, and spiritual and poetic, as well as real.