Variations

“My originality (if that is the right word) is, I believe, an originality that belongs to the soil, not the seed. (Perhaps I have no seed of my own.) Sow a seed in my soil and it will grow differently than it would in any other soil.” Wittgenstein, L., 1998. Culture and Value. G. H. von Wright, ed., P. Winch, transl., Oxford: Blackwell, 42e.

I always find myself most fluid in thought—both discursively and musically—when I have a book in hand, a composer’s score in front of me, or a tune in my mind. My creativity is inherently intertextual; it is, in a sense, variational. While originality can take many forms, mine is undoubtedly rooted in another person’s “seed.” I begin to think “originally” only after reading a few lines from a book or recalling ideas I’ve encountered elsewhere. Similarly, my improvisation becomes “original” when I engage with pre-existing materials. In this way, I’ve come to see myself as an intertextual creator. On this page, I aim to celebrate that intertextual or variational creativity, quoting themes or seeds from others and writing (or maybe even performing) variations inspired by them.