At my first lesson with Roger Sessions in 1972, I was 17 years old and desperate to impress the famous composer with my precocity. We discussed twentieth century music a bit and I felt that I was “holding up” my end of the conversation pretty well. The conversation then came around to Anton von Webern. By then I was rather “full of myself” and my verbiage was really “flying”. I was sure that I was impressing him with my precocious insights into the venerated 12 tone master. There was somebody else in the small room- a graduate composition student named Kathleen St. John. She was standing in the corner waiting. She looked like she wished to ask Sessions about something. Sessions stopped, leaned over, cupped my right ear with his hand and said the word “F - CK!” very emphatically -sounding for all the world like a low staccato note on a contrabassoon. Kathleen St. John, who had been listening to the whole conversation, suddenly broke out into wild laughter! (What happened after that I don’t recall but if I were a dog I would have left that room with my tail squarely set between my legs!) Anyway, after a pause, Sessions said to me very decisively “YOUNG MAN….ALL THAT I CAN SAY ABOUT THAT IS..”
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