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Composers Forum |
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Question #12 - Do you consider your process as a composer to be primarily intellectual? Emotional? Spiritual? MSB - M. Susan Brown; SH - Steve Hahn; TK - Tim Krueger; TS - Terry Schlenker |
| MSB - The process is very much spiritual, dragging the intellectual and emotional along with it. I think all three are present, but in varying amounts. SH - It’s a combination of all three, with intellectual and emotional more to the fore. When I’m composing I’m thinking (intellectual), and that often spurs emotion. When I’m developing a motif, that’s primarily intellectual. What is especially spiritual for me is when I perform my music for an audience. The interaction between the composer/performer and the audience is where the magic takes place. A humorous anecdote that exemplifies that interaction occurred once when I was playing my compositions at an outdoor fair. A tiny girl came up and was mesmerized by the music. Her parents eventually wanted to move on, and they tempted her with ice cream. Her response: “I’m not leaving. This [the music] is better than ice cream!” Now, that’s spiritual! TK - For me composing is about 90 percent intellectual and about 10 percent emotional. TS - Emotional, spiritual, and definitely not intellectual. For me, the emotions are the language of the soul; therefore, the emotions and the spirit are strongly connected. I never embark on a piece and think, “I am going to use such and such a technique.” I simply put on paper what comes through me. People occasionally analyze my music intellectually, and I am usually surprised at what they find! |