Chapter 4 - Daniel and Victor
Daniel met Victor twelve years before the gala.
Victor was already rich.
Daniel was twenty-nine.
A friend recommended him as an orchestrator for a Blackwood Foundation benefit.
Victor had composed a simple eight-minute piano piece called North Window.
The melody was genuinely Victor’s.
Daniel arranged it for strings and piano.
Contract:
$7,500.
Credit:
Music by Victor Blackwood.
Orchestration by Daniel Rowan.
Fair.
Victor liked him.
More work followed.
Daniel prepared scores for:
A museum installation.
Two charity films.
A private suite Victor performed at his mother’s memorial.
Daniel became, in Victor’s language:
“My musical right hand.”
In Daniel’s language:
“The richest amateur composer in America.”
He said it fondly at first.
Victor paid on time.
Listened.
Respected Daniel’s technical ability.
Then Victor’s public identity shifted.
A magazine profile described him as:
“a billionaire with the soul of a composer.”
People responded.
He enjoyed it.
Blackwood Foundation events increasingly featured:
Original music by Victor Blackwood.
Daniel still received orchestration credit.
But his creative contribution grew.
Victor would give him:
Three notes.
A mood.
A title.
Daniel would write twelve minutes.
When Daniel asked for co-composer credit on one project, Victor’s lawyer responded:
“Your agreement characterizes creative development as work made for hire.”
Daniel argued.
Then accepted a higher fee instead.
That was the first compromise.
Not theft exactly.
Contracted authorship can be complicated.
But the imbalance was growing.
Then Daniel wrote The Lantern Sea outside any commission.
Entirely his.
That was the line.
May you like
Victor crossed it later.
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