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Creating any work of art, regardless fo the actual "quality" is a great personal accomplishment. I have no illusions that my music will outlast my lifetime, but I do feel it's an important part of who I am and am honored that others who have listened to some of it have derived enjoyment from it which is a greatest compliment of all. Most satisfying to me is that my two-year old daughter just adores a little piece I wrote for her (some simple variations on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star) and insists on falling asleep to it every night.

The fact that there is more old good music than I can possibly learn and perform out there already doesn't mean I don't want to hear your new music. Learning and performing music is partly about the joy of discovering something new. You are new. And your music is a reaction, conscious or unconscious, to everything that has come before it. That is interesting. Your place in the long march of history is the same as mine, so what you have to say is interesting to me. Personally, I like composing for the same reason I like performing music. It's a way to be personally involved with an act of creation. Everybody likes that, whether it's baking a cake or writing a sonnet. I'm not likely to ever get paid, but that's okay with me. I can write some music, or I can watch TV. I've got the time. I might as well use it to do something interesting. Death before TV. What a boring life. As for self-promotion, go hang out on the conductors forums. Music directors are always looking for recommendations to fill specific slots on their concert programs. (I need a piece about 5 minutes long for string quartet plus a trumpet to fit into program of modern work…) If you offer them your piece, which happens to fit their need, you're self-promoting, but you're also solving a problem they have. Which feels pretty nice, actually. (:

It's dead in the sense that it's pretty much played out, and today, it would be difficult to exceed the works of webern, dallapiccola, boulez, etc. etc. since they did it so well. Also, there are some weaknesses to the technique (including a kind of homogeneity of sound) that need to be worked around. It's as dead as, say, romanticism, or renaissance counterpoint, or classical form, and for the same reasons.