Alea iacta est

The Die has been Cast

In my multitudinous conversations with Anselm of Canterbury, countless Scholastics greater and lesser, notably Radulfus Ardens, Berthold of Moosburg and of course Hugh of Newcastle whose fair skin and blue eyes prevent him from taking the sun, I have suffered ongoing bun fights, in which, to his disgrace if I’m honest, my erstwhile colleague René Descartes has chosen to participate. I am often chastised for the perceived fault of indecision that I, a mere composer, find to be virtuous in its application to solving problems. We may all well disagree but at my behest we continue to debate the matter. I often hesitate before writing, not knowing where to start, so I start at the beginning yet some would have it that even this defies logical precision and dialectical reasoning. Happily my friend and fellow composer Giancarlo Toniutti and I have corresponded by email for over a decade. We have also met in person and indeed worked together on musical projects small and large, great and good. But the bulk of our engagement has been by letter, he in Italy, me in Scotland. The outcome? Love them as I do, I have less need of medieval thinkers.