“It takes two to tango.” – Pearl Bailey.
Sometimes we creative folk know we have something to offer, and we may even have modest success. But often times it takes someone else that can add quality and a special uniqueness, to make something extraordinary.
Such was the case with the famous team of librettist (lyricist) W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan, known for their comic operas such as The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, and H.M. S. Pinafore.
But before they met, they each experienced initial success, Gilbert as a playwright, and Sullivan as a promising young British composer. But together, they made masterpieces that still stand and are performed today.
Now there have been many great librettist/composer tandems through time from Bellini and Romani from the early 19th century, to Rodgers and Hammerstein of the 20th century. But Gilbert and Sullivan so perfectly and successfully paired to create hit after hit for the Savoy Theatre.
Not that the team was without conflict. Sullivan tired of the same “topsy turvy” comic operas that Gilbert wrote, longing to write more serious opera. They even quit speaking a few times before being talked into working together again.
But each had a crucial element that made the other better, and neither had as much success with any other partner or by themselves.
WHY THIS MATTERS:
If you are not having the success you are looking for, perhaps what you need is a partner? Someone to be the yin to your yang. Someone to fill in the spots where you are weak. And it can be as easy as asking someone, or Googling the kind of person you need (it’s worth a Google!).
You probably know someone who you would work well with, or would be a perfect partner. Get in touch!
“Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.” – Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
Music History Matters 
I would agree that I always write better when I have a partner. It's a checks and balance. But even more so, it is the power of two minds coming together to make something more beautiful and powerful than they could have made on their own. It shows strength and oneness because you have to sacrifice your will and letting go. It reinforces the truth that God made us for relationship. That alone, in itself, is beautiful.