Being as Such
Thomas Kinkade’s mass-produced paintings of glowing cottages, luminous windows, and impossibly serene landscapes have become emblematic of a certain kind of kitsch. Reproduced endlessly on calendars and collectibles, they depict an idealized world scrubbed of violence, contradiction, and uncertainty. Milan Kundera famously described kitsch as a “categorical agreement with being as such,” an aesthetic worldview that denies the very existence of “shit.” Complexity dissolves into a haze of comforting certitude in Kinkade’s aggressively agreeable shopping-mall art.
As a composer, I’m drawn to musical materials often dismissed as kitsch: consonant harmonies, singable melodies, and clear, recognizable forms. But I also have a natural aversion to reassuring predictability and musical clichés. My instinct is to complicate even the simplest ideas and explore the ambiguity of familiar musical materials.
Being as Such explores this tension directly. The piece centers on a sentimental, jazz-inflected melody that weaves through the quartet and invites a sense of familiarity. This line wanders through shifting rhythmic and harmonic terrain that continually destabilizes its apparent simplicity. The piece lingers in the tension between comfort and uncertainty, exploring how simplicity can invite deeper complexity without becoming a “categorical agreement with being as such.”