How Has Your Perception Of Your Compositions Changed Over Time?

Do you see/hear a piece you composed a year ago the same way as you did then, or has your perception of it changed with time? If so, in what way?

When I look back on things I've composed in the past I'm usually embarrassed to have written them. I take this to be a good sign because it means I have since made progress as a composer because I now hold myself to higher standards than I did back then.

When I look back on things I've composed in the past I'm usually embarrassed to have written them. I take this to be a good sign because it means I have since made progress as a composer because I now hold myself to higher standards than I did back then.

Likewise, for the most part - although if I feel too embarrassed, I tend to revise it at once :) . And in a few cases, I stumble into a rather good work I'm actually surprised to have written.

I usually don't change anything after first performance which doesn't mean I am always happy with the outcome. For example: while I was perfectly happy with Cello Concerto which I wrote in 2002 and had it's premiere in June 2005 I have later developed severly critical assessment towards the form which today I find it too much "waving" instead of developing. I would also probably write my First Symphony in better form today. But I keep works untouched - being the documents of that time.

That differs.

I am still very fond of some of my work from 2002/3. Some of the set of preludes and fugues, for example, are still just very good (imho ;) ). Not only as time-document, sort of speaking paternalisticly to myself: "you did pretty good for that time". No, I am still proud of some of them. Granted, others are quite bland, on the verge of being boring, while I thought it was quite good, now I think differently. Anyway, that makes it interesting.

There is work which I grow tired of, some of the things I would have done differently, mostly with form (like in my set of 3 Elegy's for orchestra, 2008/9), like Sojar said.

So it differs.

i like every piece for the first two weeks of writing it and then deeply dislike it after that point. that hasn't changed particularly.

I usually don't change anything after first performance...

Well, I'm so seldomly performed that, even if I restricted myself to this standard, I could legitimately revise all but three of my works :unsure: ...