Meeting Vaclav Nelhybel

I started writing arrangements for various ensembles when I was a teenager, but I didn't try my hand at composition until many years later. I had musical ideas and wrote them down, but threw them away the next day. I lacked confidence.

To encourage me, my high school band director introduced me to an acquaintence of his, composer Vaclav Nelhybel, who was conducting our All State orchestra in his Music for Orchestra. This must have been 1969 or 1970, but I don't quite remember.

Composed in 1967, Music for Orchestra was still fairly new at the time. Nelhybel composed many pieces for concert band, too, including Trittico (1965), which has become one of the standard band warhorses. I had played it with a couple of student bands, and liked it a lot. I was thrilled to meet the man in person. He was a larger-than-life figure for many of us.

My band director must have told him that I was interested in composition but needed a nudge. I don't recall his exact words, but the gist of his advice was "Write down every musical idea you have. Don't worry about how good it is. Most of it will be crap, but you have to push the crap through the pipeline to make room for the good stuff to come out. That won't happen if you clog the pipeline."

Of course, he didn't express himself in just that way. I'm paraphrasing. Anyway, I might pass Nelhybel's advice along to you. Go ahead and put your music out there. You'll never be satisfied with it; we're our own worst critics. But other people will like it. Probably, others will appreciate the pieces you, yourself, think are pretty bad; and quite likely no one will care for the ones you think are best. That's how it goes.

Just keep the pipeline open.