Kettleridge

Authors

Bailey Warren, Belmont UniversityFollow

Publication Date

4-20-2020

Abstract

“Dimitri Mitropoulos was asked if he could explain the extraordinary effect his conducting had on orchestra and audience alike, and he answered that he wouldn’t even try to explain it, for fear that he might become like the centipede who was asked by a humble little bug which of his hundred legs moved first when he walked. The centipede, responding to the admiration with immense pride, began to analyze the question, and has not walked since.”

This excerpt is from Madeleine L’Engle’s book A Circle of Quiet. In the same chapter as this quote, she explains how when Beethoven performed his sonatas and was immediately asked what his sonatas meant , he simply sat down and played them once more. What L’Engle is trying to get at is if one could truly explain their art, there would have been no reason to create the art in the first place. In response to Mitropoulos’ quote she says, “we’re apt to get tangled up in legs when we begin to analyze the creative process.”

Throughout the process of creating this album I have embedded a lot of myself into the project. So much of it has become inherently who I am that I feel as if I have become too close to it. This is the first creative project that I have ever completed to this caliber, and the first collection of musical works that is thoroughly mine. Putting it into words doesn’t seem to do it justice. Analysis can only do so much in describing the nuances of art. In the following paper I will do my best to not get “tangled up in legs,” but to convey the foundational work that I find important to know about “Kettleridge.”

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Recommended Citation

Warren, Bailey, "Kettleridge" (2020). Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects. 24.
https://repository.belmont.edu/honors_theses/24