Would you call yourself a maverick? Daniel Lentz

Daniel Lentz Photo courtesy Medeighnia Lentz

I suppose that I have always been a bit of a maverick; if one takes the original meaning as something “unbranded.” As a student in college I broke away from the 12-tone/serial methodologies of my teachers and began doing “live-electronic” music. Then in the late 60’s and early 70’s I decided that I wanted to make pretty tonal music, but a music that was still of its time. I used a variety of “processes” (such as cascading echo/delay systems) in which to “clothe” this music (e.g., SONGS OF THE SIRENS, YOU CAN’T SEE THE FOREST… MUSIC, MISSA UMBRARUM)

These days my goal is to still make pretty music with unusual forms/structures, but I also want it to be beautiful. Beauty is really the only thing that interests me anymore. Perhaps, in striving for something as difficult to attain as beauty, I am more a maverick than ever.