Closely related to boredom is simplicity. Beginning a work whose beginning is utter simplicity strikes me as extremely difficult; I have in the past refused to perform works whose openings are so exposed that I cannot bear to play them.

I can count the number of such works on one hand.

Such simplicity is associated with late works as tolerance for simplicity in a performer is a sign of maturity.

Simplicity implies questions "Why?" "Where does this come from?" "Why does this frighten me so deeply?"

I used to dislike playing one note unaccompanied by a chord. If you ask me now I would declare it to be the height of musical expression--even on the piano.

I think often of Henry Purcell's setting of "Music for a while shall all our cares beguile" in which the word "music" is sung on a single tone: G.