The Premiere, in Life and in Music

The Premiere, in Life and in Music
A 1933 publicity photo of Russian-American musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky, who wrote the 1953 book “Lexicon of Musical Invective.” Public Domain
Michael Kurek
Updated:

How will 2021 fare in its early days? Will the early reviews be kind, or savage? And will they prove to be true?

The poet Alexander Pope’s line, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast” may have no better illustration in recent memory than the much anticipated dawn of the year 2021, and good riddance to 2020, as many people say. A clean slate and a fresh chance to get things right—in a word, hope—is an important feeling in the well-being of the human psyche, even if the simple change of a digit in the name of the year seems an arbitrary way to achieve it. Music may offer a more concrete metaphor for having a fresh start and another chance at improvement in life.

Michael Kurek
Michael Kurek
Author
American composer Michael Kurek is the composer and producer of the Billboard No. 1 classical album, “The Sea Knows,” and a member of the Grammy Producers and Engineers Wing of the Recording Academy. He is Professor Emeritus of Composition at Vanderbilt University. The most recent of his many awards for composition was being named in March 2022 “Composer Laureate of the State of Tennessee” by the Tennessee State Legislature and governor. For more information and music, visit MichaelKurek.com
Related Topics