“The idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Night time is for sleeping” - Britten
An unusual approach to the creative process, Benjamin Britten had a rigid routine of a 9 to 5 working day, much like an office job. Some suggest that this is reflected in his music, and that there are moments which demonstrate a lack of inspiration. As discussed previously I write creatively, and like many I find it difficult to understand Britten’s view on how this process works. Inspirations comes to people in a number of ways, but it is not something than can be “turned off” – awake or asleep.
Puccini appears to share this opinion:
“Inspiration is an awakening, a quickening of all man’s faculties” - Puccini
Describing inspiration in this way suggests it can appear out of nowhere and take hold of you; a perspective much more widely held than Britten’s approach. History would suggest many composers have found this to be the case. A famous example is Elgar, who is said to have written the main theme for his cello concerto on a napkin after waking up from dental surgery. However, what if inspiration didn’t just appear in an awakening? Can you force creativity? Or even take it from existing works? Stravinsky suggests that:
“Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal” - Stravinsky
While most composers would no doubt argue that you should never directly copy another’s work, the concept of taking ideas from one another is one that has, whether you agree with it or not, been present throughout musical history, whether it’s the classical music world discussing Handel and other Baroque composers stealing from each other or rock fans accusing Noel Gallagher of copying The Beatles. Andrew Lloyd Webber is a current composer who has been widely accused of this in many of his best-known works.
Whether a piece is original or inspired by another, it will only become its own piece of art with determination from the composer. Looking across writings from various composers, this determination can come from a number of places. Whether it’s an artist wanting to reach their full potential:
“A creative artist works on his next composition because he was not satisfied with his previous one” - Shostakovich
A sense of urgency:
“Nothing primes inspiration more than necessity” - Rossini
Or an artist who understands that you have to keep working on your craft beyond mere repetition:
“Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets" - Beethoven
Beethoven’s words don’t come as a surprise; he is famous for his meticulous personality when it came to both music and his day-to-day activities. He is said to have counted out precisely 60 coffee beans every time he had a cup of coffee. While others probably wouldn’t have let their approach to musicianship affect their drinking habits, many agreed that inspiration can only flourish when it is combined with hard work, with Brahms commenting that:
“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind” - Brahms
Indeed, Tchaikovsky notes that:
“Inspiration is a guest that does not willingly visit the lazy” - Tchaikovsky
Is it fair to say that Britten was lazy when he suggested that he would only compose during the daytime, in what are essentially office hours? In some people’s opinions perhaps, however the method whereby one finds inspiration is entirely personal. I should probably stop shaking my head whenever I see that quotation; creativity is something individual and it matters less how a composer finds it, but how they utilise it. After all:
"Imagination creates reality" - Wagner
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