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.
By the early 1940’s, the pianist Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz — and his conducting father-in law Arturo Toscanini — had reached the pinnacle of fame in the United States. Described as a “tornado unleashed from the steppes,” Horowitz mesmerized audiences with
During his apprenticeship with Frank Bridge, Benjamin Britten began work on a set of variations on a theme by his teacher. It took Britten 5 years and a specific request from the conductor Boyd Neel and the Salzburg Festival in
Edith Rhoda Britten, née Hockley was an ambitious woman. When she discovered that her son Benjamin had outstanding musical talents, she not only provided him with his first piano lessons and instructions in rudimentary musicianship, she also was convinced that
In February 1852, Giuseppe Verdi and his companion Giuseppina Strepponi attended a performance of Alexander Dumas fils’ play La Dame aux camellias (The Lady of the Camellias) in Paris. Verdi had probably read the novel, originally published in 1849, at
When Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) died at the incredibly young age of thirty-eight, he simply had not yet made arrangements for literally hundreds of unpublished musical manuscripts and artworks, alongside thousands of personal letters to and from the composer. During his
During a 1928 lecture for choral conductors in Berlin, Paul Hindemith addressed the widening gap between contemporary composers — and here he particularly emphasized Arnold Schoenberg — and the general musical public. “The tenuous connection in music today between producers
On 29 May 1913, the city of Paris witnessed the premiere performance of a musical work that exerted a tremendously powerful influence on the music of the 20th century. The Rite of Spring catapulted Stravinsky to international stardom and defined
In his Suite 1922, Paul Hindemith had not only referenced in popular music genres; he also paid homage to the gestures and aesthetic of the high Baroque. Like many composers of the time, Hindemith was looking for greater objectivity and
