You know, that was my first response when the member recounted the incident but on reflection I prefer the response the member actually gave. Or said he had given. I wasn't there.

My first impulse to the question as asked was to treat it flippantly, and make with the laugh-laugh. But I realised that other members of this board could be relied upon to do so with far greater acuity than I, so I set myself the task of treating the question seriously.

And I've come to the conclusion that 'yes', going with your gut is the only way to write great music. That said, however, the notion of 'going with your gut' requires a great deal of further scrutiny. It seems the most natural thing in the world to me (and my gut) to write a music whose surface behaviours arise from the complex interaction of numerous asynchronous parameters.

Mr. White's assertion that one shouldn't 'try' to be intelligent also seems 'on the money'. Surely one either is or is not intelligent. The conscious adoption of a particular intellectual or aesthetic stance is surely not a good way to write music. Unless the conscious adoption of said intellectual/aesthetic stance is the point of the music (in which case such a stance is presumably in line with what the composer 'feels', cf: some Finnissy).

Perhaps this isn't the manner in which Mr. White intended his words to be understood.

Oh alright then. It's a fair cop.