Unconscious bursts of creativity that engender significant artistic endeavors are not necessarily inspired by passionate romantic love alone. Greek mythology believed that this kind of stimulus came from nine muses, the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. Muses were long considered the source of knowledge embodied in poetry, lyric songs and ancient myths. Throughout the history of Western art, artists, writers and musicians have prayed to the muses, or alternately, drawn inspiration from personified muses that conceptually reside beyond the borders of earthly love. True to life, however, composer inspiration has emerged from the entire spectrums of existence and being. Nature has always played a decidedly important role in the inspiration of various classical composers, as did exotic cities, landscapes or rituals. Composer inspiration is also found in poetry, the visual arts, and mythological stories and tales. Artistic, historical or cultural expressions of the past are just as inspirational as is the everyday: the third Punic War or the contrapuntal mastery of Bach is inspirationally just as relevant as are the virulent bat and camel. Composer inspiration is delightfully drawn from heroes and villains, scientific advances, a pet, or something as mundane as a hangover. Discover what fires the imagination of people who never stop asking questions.
Johannes Brahms was seemingly nonchalant when it came to critical assessments of his work or the opinions of his fellow composers. Nevertheless, he proudly and secretly kept a handwritten list of works dedicated to him by other composers. In a
Johann Strauss II’s waltz, An der schönen, blauen Danube (By the Beautiful Blue Danube or The Blue Danube), was only a mild success at its premiere at the concert of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein (Vienna Men’s Choral Association) on 15 February
Croatian composer Matej Meštrović (b.1969) brought interesting instruments to his 2018 work Danube Rhapsody, adding in the hammer-struck cimbalom and the Croatian long-necked lute, the tambura or tamburitza. Meštrović uses the folklore of the countries that border the Danube, and
Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) first encountered the Danube in March 1923. On a visit to Bratislava, Slovakia, he saw the river and decided to write a Slavic symphonic poem about it. He regarded the river as Slavic since it passed through
The scandals and doings of centuries-old family dynasties have long been a source of fascination for the general public. Royals like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle manage to stay in the headlines day after day, keeping countless people entertained without
Towering high above the sunbaked rolling plains and olive groves of central Greece, Mount Parnassus looks down sternly on its surroundings. It is a forbidding world of craggy limestone structures and steep cliffs, and on its slope, we find the
We think of Bob Dylan as a unified poet and songwriter. It’s hard to think of his poems without his melodies. American composer John Corigliano (b. 1938), however, looked more deeply into Dylan’s poetry. Having always heard about the high
In a recent recording of Béla Bartók’s third string quartet, violist Stanley Konopka created a new transcription of the work for a double-string orchestra. He was inspired by a string orchestra arrangement of Beethoven’s ultimate statement for string quartet, the
