steve wrote:Those people all had some kind of patronage market to work. If such a market didn't exist, then no, those particular people wouldn't have done it that way. They could still have done it.
I use the non-patronized geniuses like Conlon Nancarrow, Harry Partch and the underground rock scenes to point out that one doesn't need a pre-existing external support network in order to eventually make a lasting body of work.
By patronage market, do you mean grants or does that include selling records via a major? It looks like Partch received some grants and Nancarrow the MacArthur late in his life...not like it matters. Even if all of these people mentioned were handed a million dollars a year (or nothing) from wherever, judging by their personalities they still would have been doing music 24/7. So, yes, I agree.
I guess I just take issue with the words 'dabbler' or 'amateur'. It seems like your typical pop star for whom the actual music takes a backseat to almost everything else dabbles in music. Someone who pulls their mind out over a score or plays 30 towns in a month is more than a dabbler. They're possessed; grant money/profit or not.