MUSIC AND THE ANXIETY OF INFLUENCE

December 10, 2025, 10:53 PM · On Saturday, December 20 at 6 pm, I will participate in a student/teacher recital at the Manalapan Music and Arts Center, 100 Route 9, Manalapan, NJ.

On Saturday, January 31, at 5 pm,I will do the same at the Edison Music and Arts Center, 1908 Lincoln Highway, Edison NJ.

Both centers have ample parking lots.

I am calling my contribution to the program “music and the anxiety of influence”. In any creative field people want to be original while they can’t help being influenced by those who came before them. How to maintain a balance can sometimes be tricky.

I plan to illustrate this by first performing Bach’s famous Prelude in E followed by the first movement of Ysaye’s second sonata, which Ysaye called “Obsession”. Possibly the only written-out example of an ‘ear worm’, the piece begins with quotes from the Bach Prelude, quickly followed by attempts to blot it out. Somehow, a very different obsession of Ysaye finds its way into the mix - the haunting medieval “Dias Ire” theme. Yet Ysaye’s creativity makes it all his own!

Hope some of you can come! Free admission to both events.

Raphae