That Moment of Thought

A quote that lives in my phone’s screenshots: “The truest program note of all time is… ‘This is what I was thinking about and what grew out of that moment of thought.’” Sadly, I saw it presented without attribution and have struggled to find a source since, but it’s one I go back to often—especially writing this column. With dozens, if not hundreds, of new albums released every week, one of the biggest questions I have as a listener is: Why? Why this music, recorded at this time, in this order, by this particular musician? The idea of each album growing out of a moment of thought is one of the most satisfying explanations I’ve found for why many works get recorded over and over again.