On day two of our journey into the world of Allegro we arrive at another jazz tune. But this time it’s an intimate ballad with ripe harmonies and melodies that stretch to the point of breaking. “Have I Gone Too Far” was written while I was in grad school, compelled by my composition professors to “find my voice,” which was code for “write unnecessarily complex music that would be completely inaccessible to anyone outside our little club.”
I received my compositional indoctrination during the day, and played my guitar around town at night. In fact, this was when I first began writing music for guitar and string quartet, trying to find ways of composing music that were artful but also accessible. During these years of musical tension, I often wrote songs that explored the questions that kept turning in my mind. And the question in this case was, “Have I Gone Too Far?“
