INSPIRATION

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 141, 18 December 1928, Page 6

INSPIRATION

VIEWS OP COMPOSERS

Several composers,replied to an invitation by the "Chestcrian" for their views on "Inspiration." Arnold Bax says: "I should say that a genius may ; bo des-cribed-as a.man possessed of unusually vigorous physical and nervous vitality and awareness of the actualities of the external world, plus,an infinite receptivity and sensitivity to those super personal—and other—world ideas capable of being moulded in the cruieiblc of art. Every human being must have occasionally known these moments of fiery enlightenment, . but' perhaps the only difference between the normal man and the genius (or even the highly talented) is .that the latter experience them iv greater numbers and with more intensity. I believe, too, that these visitations are dependent upon nothing but chance.. . Every,, artist must remember, mornings when all the conditions seemed favourable—a mood unharassed by any particular worry, and lit by afire and excituieent that promised to bo pregnant with creative force. And yet nothing, has come, perhaps because the flame was merely cerebral, or because the ; man's being was preoccupied with some transitory enthusiasm underived from basic emotional life. On .-mother occasion,- when the psychic environment would seem to bo more thaii usually unpromising—it may bo in an hour of disenchantment or vexation—the vision may suddenly become blessedly clear, possibly through the lack of,"self-consciousness, or because the various conflicting emotional agents cancclone another .put, and leave room for tho entering of the radiant guest. All that can be-said' with certainty is that the truly, inspired artist does not possess a'gift, but is possessed by it as by a demon.",; ■Frank .Bridge" says: "If. Icould discover,., the '"actual, source of a musical idea—not the emotional idea but the resultant formation of tones—and the j reasons for accepting or discarding its varying aspects; if-I could cope with the utter elusivenegs of a mood, which, even during; the creation of a work may disappear for an indefinite period before being recaptured; if I could explain why. a series of either conspnI ant or dissonant sounds can give equally satisfying expression; if I knew why a few. bars more or a few bars [less complete^ or destroy a phrase; then I. might bd able to defi.ne musical genius. The: consciousness /of a presence and the power i;o retain.it'in my mental grasp is all my care.; -I, do not know how this spirit-is awakened at will." Cyril Scott's-idea is quite different. "I am not 1 conscious of■•-inspiration in any grandiloquent sense of the word. My method of compbsiug is simply to Improvise in, my head or at the piano 'until something turns .up-which I like sufficiently to write down. "-■" The fact that I compose at all is due to an urge more' or less as insistent as the desire for food when one;,feels moderately hungry. Moreover, creative work is to my mind tho only form of pleasure which ultimately- does, not -. engender boredom, and it is both harmless, inexpensive, and interesting. Concisely stated, I might, in relation to composing, give the s^me answer, as the man who was asked why he was always in love —viz., because otherwise life would be so dull." Another composer, Louis Duray, says: "I do not believe in inspiration or the spontaneous expression of creative thought. I for one have never written down a melodic line just, as it came to nic and without having reshaped it, in my head or on paper, a good many times in order to perfect it. Besides, more often than not it is with regret that I fix its form.definitely, since I am practically certain th&tjit would be possible to-giye.it .a still better finish. Melody thus worked out is at yet nothing in itself. Everything depends on the harmonic and polyphonic elaborations wo apply to it or weave around it, and on the developments to which wo subject it. Thus,we may see J. S. Bach begin witbAa theme that is trite in the extreme '(Kur|st\der; ITugc) and use,it to build up a colossal structure."