Composed at sixteen. To think about how many forty-year-old musicians today are sitting there thinking "what will I do when I grow up?"

Another historical period, another context, another training, another family, other influences, another character, and the list would be long; perhaps if everyone who writes could come to conceive long-term works with awareness and creativity.

For me, points 2_3_4_5 matter immensely; there was someone I discussed this with who certainly would not include points 4_5_6, because they evidently had optimal conditions both for these and for the first 3 points, but it is like the phenomenon of hazing in barracks "how much I've been through, now that I've been promoted I'll show them", short memory.

I don't know Piccinesco, there are also musicians today like Lorenzini who were "Enfant Prodige"; having entered the conservatory at a very young age, his works were already being performed in theaters all over the world.

The problem, you know what it is, is that perhaps today people do not tend to follow their own nature but instead move on two different fronts: the money factor (see composers like Allevi) and the desire to show that one must necessarily be cultured and the discoverer of who-knows-what. Then you reach 40 years old and you are neither here nor there. In effect, Lorenzini for example is known by everyone, while others teach left and right... ? ...

I fear that in the end we will find ourselves like in the USA in the "Indian reservations," if you know what I mean... try to look at the works that are often peddled as who-knows-what... where they are performed and how many people go to listen to them.

Practically, they are conservatory dissertations.... one reads more and more often, department X, department Y, etc. (let's say 15 listeners?)

The difference between us (Italians) and them is that they are invested in music... though it's fine if much is wasted/invested in research.

Music, fortunately, however, is also made of other things; is Disney present?

Well, Bizet composed his Symphony at seventeen years old... a bit of an old man, compared to Glazunov

Open content (youtube)

There is someone who wrote something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj-5PoJBj6o

in the middle of Glazunov's years

Open content (youtube)

WAM wrote:

There is someone who wrote something like this:

just some random person!!!!

What is one's own nature at this point?

In many cases it is not shared, but I understand what you mean.

A few years ago, I remember a friend of mine who was called to be part of the juries in some composition competitions; in the end, she gave up because she saw too many "inconsistencies," and here I am talking about juries always composed of the same people (Azio Corghi, she told me), and mannerisms. In one competition, a composer presented a score depicting a tree, but then listening to it, one felt a sense of discomfort that was, to say the least, embarrassing; this was due to the disproportionate use of quarter tones for the solo voice, and also regarding the instrumental part, which was pushed to the extreme just to make an impression, but leaving an absurd void. Therefore, unfortunately, it is known that some want to prove they can do who knows what, but if in the end even a thought of a certain creative vitality is summarized and channeled into a breathless search for effect, for technicality at all costs, something of one's own personality is certainly lost.

I happen to listen to (though not very often) contemporary pieces by young composers, not even 30 years old, but I wonder: these people have taken a certain path, okay, but where did they come from? Is there someone who started writing, I don't know, in a Mozartian style and then found their own way of composing, with a style similar to Sciarrino's (just as an example)?

Because it would be interesting to hear the difference; instead, many are simply "born" with Sciarrino in their ears, and have written from the very beginning emulating this style (which is not a fault), but I don't know if (and here there might be a paradox) they are capable of writing in an antithetical style, and it is not guaranteed that they are automatically capable of it, despite writing very complex pieces from every point of view.