Inspiration

“Every great inspiration is but an experiment.”

Charles Ives

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.

872 Posts
  • A New Idea at the Piano A New Idea at the Piano
    Chopin took up the medieval idea of the ballad, combined it with the idea of the Italian dance called the ballata, and mixed in a bit of standard sonata form and created the Ballade. These one-movement pieces call for an
  • Aaron Copland’s Most Famous Pieces and His American Sound Aaron Copland’s Most Famous Pieces and His American Sound
    Aaron Copland’s Most Famous Pieces Appalachian Spring Aaron Copland gained worldwide recognition for his ballet score Appalachian Spring. The work was the result of a commission by the modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham and her contemporary dance company. Copland
  • Where Did the Name Come From? Musical Names and Nicknames I Where Did the Name Come From? Musical Names and Nicknames I
    Moonlight, Eroica, Jupiter, Unfinished, Clock, Four Seasons, New World— have you wondered how certain pieces of music got their names so ubiquitous you can probably guess the works and identify the composers? Classical music can be divided into those that
  • Oscar Wilde in Music: The Ballad of Reading Gaol Oscar Wilde in Music: The Ballad of Reading Gaol
    Oscar Wilde, master of the killing bon mot and martyr of Victorian sexuality, isn’t often thought of in terms of music. His stories and plays have a constant following; The Importance of Being Ernest is once again on the London
  • Music for Children: US Music for Children: US
    Another piece for children that, like Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, served as an introduction to the instruments of the orchestra was George Kleinsinger’s memorable Tubby the Tuba. Tubby gets tired of always only being the support for
  • Brahms versus Pop Brahms versus Pop
    A number of music critics have called Frank Sinatra the “greatest singer of the 20th century.” The only child of an Italian immigrant couple, Sinatra entered show business at a very early age. And by the time he reached his
  • Sounds of Sorrow: Elegies and Laments III Sounds of Sorrow: Elegies and Laments III
    As the 19th century idea of death as a close and regular companion faded away, the elegy in the 20th century began to change character. If we look at a work by the Hungarian composer Eugene Zádor (1894–1977), we can