The Parenting Panel with Gustav Hoyer
1. How many children do you have? And what are their ages?
I have 5 children aged 23, 22, 20, 17, 31.
2. In what ways has parenthood helped your creativity, if any?
In the early years, having small children about is exhausting and that reality makes any activity that involves long periods of focus and concentration very difficult. But with that, having fresh souls filled with the raw emotions of discovering the world challenged me to lay aside my intellectual cynicism and embrace earnest simplicity.
3. Has the pandemic taken away or added to your creative flow? Are you taking good care of yourself these days?
As a composer, my musical work is largely solitary and from that standpoint, the response to the pandemic has had relatively little impact. Oddly, it was during the early days of the stay-at-home orders that I reconnected with an important aspect of music, namely the cultivation of happy feelings. As a ‘classical’ composer, I was trained that such simplicity was not serious or important enough. I have come to deeply appreciate the simple joy of a happy tune and how that can be a much more lasting artistic experience than continuous wallowing in sorrow.
4. What’s one thing you wish someone had told you before you became a parent? Any advice for others?
That children will improve you as a human. Yes they bring joy and sweetness, but also ugliness too. They are fully human from birth and having little ones is like being at the gym 24x7 except for your soul. You are continuously and intimately confronted with the rich spectrum of human experience and that stretches and strengthens your own personhood to new levels of depth, fortitude, mercy, insight, and ultimately love.
5. Do your children inspire / inform your music?
My children definitely inspire my music but not in simply a parent-child context. As their interests and preferences have developed, I am interested in creating music that they enjoy and that may enrich their lives. Some is directly inspired by their interests or focused on my response to them as a parent; but, I have also written for their potential enjoyment as well.
6. Have you ever written a song for or about your kids? If so please share a description and a link.
I recently released a piece that was intended to be an evocative work that would take a listener on a sea-faring adventure (Adventure at Sea) . This quickly became a favorite among my children. As my children have developed their own unique personalities, I have written works that are focused on who they are becoming. For my oldest son, for whom the call of military service is joined with a love of history, I wrote a musical adaptation of the famous poem The Charge of the Light Brigade which will be released in a studio recording in 2021. I created a YouTube video with the music and art from the historical event. For my oldest daughter, who was studying musical theater, I wrote her a song for a character in an unfinished musical. For my second oldest son, who would walk around the house singing Stephen Foster’s Hard Times I wrote one of my piano rags, Hard Luck. And on a holiday note, in 2012 we produced an album of Christmas music as a sort of musical Christmas card for family and friends. I recorded 10 tracks with different combinations of them as musicians and singers. I also created one about my memories of Christmas day after all the presents had been opened called Puttin’ a Hurt on Christmas Dinner that just recently re-recorded to spread some fun this year.
7. Not every artist parent incorporates their children into their music - if you do not is this a conscious decision?
I do not overtly pick themes of them being children and me being a parent. As I noted above, their influence on my work is as fellow human beings with their own interests and passions.
Follow Gustav on socials:
https://www.facebook.com/gustavhoyer.composer.impresario/
https://www.instagram.com/gustavhoyercomposer/
https://www.youtube.com/user/ghmusic/featured?disable_polymer=1