Don Satz replies to Jon Gallant:

>>I wonder if we set too much store by originality.
>
>Actually, I feel that folks don't give sufficient emphasis to originality,
>preferring the familar and traditional patterns of music.  Another big
>priority for humans is keeping up with trends.
>
>It is also important whether the motivation is originality for its own
>sake or driven by a deeper urge.  This aspect is very obvious concerning
>performers as well as composers.

Believe me, I don't discount originality, but, as Don hints, it's certainly
not everything.  One can be original without being very good, driven by
a deeper urge or not.

Vaughan Williams, a composer certainly with an individual musical language,
once wrote something along the lines of: "It's not the job of the composer
to say the thing which has never been said, but to say the right thing
at the right time."

Steve Schwartz