Life and work

The relationship between life and what art is generated is in many ways peculiar. Kafka is a famous example for an outward incongruity between life and art, but the need for some degree of congruence does not just exist for the proverbial tenor with his white scarf and his "I cannot work like this".

Where exactly a life and the works of art that are generates in its course come together is in itself an exciting question. An answer would have to trace the many layers of the life, and carefully examine the quality of their contact with the production of art. If this is to reach beyond the commonplace, it is complex.

What is for sure, is that putting biographies at centre stage rather than works will lead in the wrong direction. Although it is normal, at least where biographies are also seen as part of labelling. Then, composers X and Y matter as representatives of style Z, and their music is heard as exactly that representation.