The Rite again, and what it did to me

The beginning of the still-unfinished First Symphony was 35 years ago, when I first heard The Rite of Spring on vinyl in my bedroom. It was part of a compilation (one of those boxed "best-of" classical compilations); I don't remember what orchestra recorded it, or what year.

I consider that event when and where I, the composer, was born. I had heard Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, the rest, but it was Stravinsky that made me decide I wanted to be like them all, and innovate in my own way. The first ideas of the First Symphony came to me around that time. The ideas came to me in little pieces, from movies, television, video games, everything I was exposed to.

I didn't start writing and recording any of it until about ten years ago. I wasn't ready until then. I would have rather been a bassist for a metal band somewhere. This was even long after I went to college to study musical composition and theory, but dropped out my freshman year due to illness. (I'm entirely self-taught after that.)