Alex Shapiro, composer: Essays Menu

A Collection of Reasonably Entertaining
Short Essays and Articles

Knowing a bit about a composer as a person often adds to the perception of her music. Click on some of Alex Shapiro's essays, excerpted below, and enjoy reading about everything from inspiring maestros to bighorn sheep.

Words on Music
and Passion

Amusing Musings

Life Amidst Nature,
Human and Otherwise

Plus: Published articles and radio broadcasts

Alex Shapiro has been given many opportunities to discuss issues relevant to today's composers. In a growing number of publications, Alex's global perspective and her humor are in full force as she directly addresses what it is to be both a musician and an active particpant in the world.

To read and listen to a variety of articles,
interviews and broadcasts with Alex, click here

And if all this isn't quite enough....

Alex began 2006 with a personal, pixelsonic blog called Notes from the Kelp. She pairs snapshots from her daily walks by the sea with audio clips of fitting pieces of her music, and welcomes comments. Alex's contribution to virtual tourism! Visit for a breath of ocean air.

Words on Music and Passion

To the Dustbuster and Beyond excerpt:		"If you want to see a look of horrified alarm on someone's face, just ask a struggling artist whether...

Thinking Inside the Media Box excerpt:		"...the more artists refuse to consider differences in target audiences, the more successful we'll be! Hey, that sounds pretty radical, huh? It completely flies in the face of the way things are currently set up, whereby radio stations [read: advertisers] strap themselves into a demographic straight-jacket..."

Paws and Effect excerpt:		"...For a long time I found his random notes, some fortissimo, others softer, to be little more than distracting noise, annoying in the way they pulled my attention from the notes I was sauntering across. But one day..."

Theft Begins at Home excerpt:		"...After a reasonable amount of pencil chewing, cat petting, email checking, almond munching, drawer reorganizing and writing and erasing, I was about ready to give up for the night. It’s easy enough to write down a note. Nearly any note will do. But often, the hardest thing about composing is just coming up with the all-important and necessary second note..."

All The Things You Are: Five Suggestions for Composing Your Happiness excerpt:		"Artists are communicators, and the world of communication has changed immensely in the past decade. Yet the way artists perceive themselves in the world has been slow to adapt to the freedom and power we now possess. We're most likely to have a viable career with our art if we ignore some of the paralyzing rules, paradigms, and myths from the past that are no longer relevant."

Speaking to my Condition excerpt:		"...what's primary here and really at the crux of why we all do what we do, is that even if those of us listening don't "get it," the person who created these sounds does, and passionately..."

Titling Titles excerpt:		"...In this age of marketing, the titles composers choose serve to draw listeners to a piece, even more than to describe it. In a way, the title is the only advertisement our pieces have..."

Four Letter Words from a Maestro excerpt:		"...Although I must admit that nearly twenty five years later, I don't recall the pith of Mr. Leinsdorf's analysis that day, what I distinctly remember is even more valuable..."

Composition 101 excerpt:		"...Music is sex. Passion! Love. Joy. Pain. Tears. Agony! More joy. Communication. Y'know, making music is a helluva lot like making love..."

The Joys of Musical Schizophrenia excerpt:		"...By presenting an integrated array of music within a concert, composers might reach a broader base of potential fans..."

Musicians & Audiences, Present and Future excerpt:		"...If composers want to attract audiences for our music, indeed, if we wish to remain relevant to the public, then it is my opinion that we must earn the interest of our listeners..."

Neo Romanticism? excerpt:		"...I don't think tonality and overt melody ever left the building, but in some circles they were like a couple of illicit lovers locked in a small broom closet for quite a while..."
A

Amusing Musical Musings

In the Dentist Chair excerpt:		"...My dentist is a pleasant man who tries his best to make the experience of having one's head violently drilled as enjoyable as possible..."

You've Got Mail excerpt:		"...A neighbor whom I'd never met called to tell me that a package meant for me had been left mistakenly with him. "Thanks," I replied, matter-of-fact. "I'm working right now, so I'm not dressed..."

Drinking Again excerpt:		"...Standing by the picture window above the sink, clad in the silly looking flannel pajamas I find so comfortable to compose in, I proceeded to pour what little remained in a bottle of Chardonnay..."

The Gestation Period excerpt:		"...Sometimes I catch him glancing at me as I stare at my computer, mindlessly surfing the internet in my pathetic need to distract myself from the work at hand. Where another less enlightened being might assume I was just slacking off and procrastinating..."

Working on a Deadline excerpt:		"...A colleague called me recently and told me about his dead lion. I sympathized; as a fellow freelancer I know how difficult that can be..."

Just Slightly Confused excerpt:		"...A number of years ago, when my emerging career had yet to emerge enough to..."
A

Life Amidst Nature, Human and Otherwise

The Gust of Honor excerpt:		"...As the clamoring grew even louder we peered outside, only to see sheets of corrugated metal roofing, 3' by 8' long, flying through the air, buffeted ever so aerodynamically 100 feet or so above our little heads, and landing, one by one, perilously close to our little heads..."

What Key Do You Play God In? excerpt:		"...I was probably crying about all sorts of things that had nothing to do with the spider, but I couldn't think of what else they were..."

Flow and Feel excerpt:		"...You can't see, you can't think, you can't really tell which way is up or down as some level of vertigo settles in, you can't see the ground under your skis, you can't control the horrid conditions, but YOU'RE THERE so YOU DEAL WITH IT and godammit, this is, after all, supposed to be fun...

Life Revelations in Death Valley excerpt:		"...And so a few years ago, in the middle of the hottest July in many decades and in the midst of a very unhappy time for me, I set out to face my sadness surrounded by the soothing beauty waiting a few hundred miles from my home. The desert, particularly in the intense heat of summer, is a marvelous place to think..."

Writing Companion excerpt:		"... I was barely able to discern her compact body, almost unrecognizable out of context. I looked forward to her descent once dusk arrived. She was my studio companion, since we both worked such late hours..."

Here are Alex's current writing companions, Moses (left), and Smudge (right), sleeping in one of their cat beds and doing their best impression of the Chinese Yin/Yang symbol.