salsa and mustard

I just finished making some tomatillo salsa and while I was making it I realized a great deal about my approach to music composition (or sonic organization as it should be called). This entire summer when I was in Chicago, I would spend the day working and then in the evening I would cook, experimenting with what I found locally and what was unique. Eventually it occurred to me that this experimentation was an extension in a way the trial ground for my musical ideas, the difference being that I layered flavors and smells, not sounds and physical gestures.

As I made salsa tonight, I once again found myself exploring and thinking about how this was so similar to the piece that I am working on. I then got out some pretzels and tried out my new salsa. At this point my brain thought about eating Weber's horseradish mustard with pretzels and that I should be eating salsa with chips. But the reason that I was able to use pretzels in place of chips is that they are both salty grain products, essentially. Then the idea of hot peppers in the west and horseradish in the east arose in my mind and I realized that these were acting in similar ways in both salsa and mustard. The exposure that let me experience both makes me realize that they are similar and that makes me think about the difference between musics from different places; employing unique indigenous flavors but essentially functioning similarly.