“Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy.”1
– Tchaikovsky
Thinking about this chapter’s opening quote, there is a striking similarity between this and “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” This second quote, attributed to Roman philosopher Seneca, reminds us that for the most part, we make our own luck. Similarly, the more one spends time composing, the more likely it is that interesting compositional discoveries will be made.
Inspiration and creativity are necessary, but sometimes elusive, first steps for composers. In an ideal world, inspiration would strike, and ideas would begin flowing like a river. Unfortunately, it’s usually not nearly that simple. Inspiration is normally something that needs to be actively sought out. A new environment or experience, improvisation, or exploring existing music can all be sources of inspiration and creativity. Often a driving force may be a commission or assignment, and much of the parameters are predetermined. Nonetheless, it’s important to have techniques for using creativity to escape compositional ruts. New ideas can be infinite, and sometimes it just takes some digging to uncover them.
Sometimes composition students rely too heavily on inspiration, waiting for it to happen, when in reality it often comes from a required assignment, a commission, or simply finding friends who are willing to perform new music. In fact, it is often easier to get ideas when some of the parameters are predetermined, like length, time/key signatures, or instruments, rather than starting with a completely blank slate. However, it is worthwhile to seek out and explore the places from which inspiration can derive. Composition class could start with each student calling out a potential source of inspiration, to get this discussion started. These often include nature, love, particular performers, instrumental timbre and combinations, existing music, etc.
The following is a chart from the first session of an actual composition class, in which students were asked to name some possible sources of inspiration. In the blank spaces, fill in some more.
TABLE 1.1 | emotions | commission | love | nature | performer | dance | theatre | film |
| lyrics | instruments | art | rejection | gratitude | diversity | materials | singing |
| photos | architecture | books | religion | Sports | angels | the devil | jewels |
| people | technology | stories | folksong | food | flowers | music | work |
| drinking | protests | parade | selling | homework | marching | animals | hate |
| war | | | | | | | |
From Human Motivation, 3rd ed., by Robert E. Franken2:
- Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.
David Sands, a plant pathologist at Montana State University, has taught and written about a course based on Linus Pauling’s premise that in order to generate good ideas, one has to generate a lot of ideas and throw the bad ones away. One major assignment in his class is to generate seventeen original ideas, with no limits on topic. They must be self-generated and each explained in one page or less, including the problem each one is intended to solve.3
Architecture professor David Fortin said, “I don’t think in a creative endeavor you can push anyone anywhere . . . for me, the key is if you can find out what that student wants to do, what makes them tick, and what makes them passionate, they fill their palette.”4
Composer, conductor, and jazz pianist Eric Funk feels that when ideas start coming, a composition sometimes starts to flow and takes on a life of its own. He realized at one point with respect to his cello concerto: “I just hadn’t heard the one I wanted yet – I thought . . . nobody is writing it.” And he began to write what he wanted to hear. Many composition students find that their best work takes less time than their worst work, that is, when a composition begins to flow, it is usually worth writing down. Professor Funk also stated in an interview: “There are no guidelines for people’s creativity.”5
Leonard Bernstein found that his most creative times were just as he was waking up, in that period between sleeping and being fully awake. He also found conducting easy and composing extremely difficult but felt it was more important for him to compose.6
Jeremy Manier – University of Chicago professors in discussion about creativity:
- “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I will hear the whole structure of a piece,” Marta Ptaszynska says. “And then I have to notate it quickly. These are moments that pass quickly by, like the wind.”
- “I never start a piece if I don’t know how the piece will end,” she says. “It’s like buying a train ticket without knowing where you’re going.”
- “I’ll write down a phrase that represents my idea, like ‘A brilliant stroke of glass,’ ” says Ptaszynska, a 2010 Guggenheim fellow. “It doesn’t mean anything to anyone else, but when I see those words later I hear the sound.”
- “I would say the first thing has to be a kind of energy to be creative. Y ou have to have passion in your stomach to create things.” – Augusta Read Thomas
- “I hoped the audience would hear it as a highly nuanced essay,” Thomas says.
- “I usually draw maps – a timeline of the piece, the shapes it’s going to take, its harmonic fields,” Thomas says. “If you’re going to build a huge building or cathedral, you can’t just go to the hardware store and start hammering nails. I actually draft the beginning, middle, and end of absolutely every sound. I want to know, what’s the inner life? Where is it going, why is it going there? How does it relate to what comes next, and why? Gestalt is everything to me.”7
Often discussed in conversations like these is t...
