Quote:
Originally posted by Keith Waye
Beethoven was stone deaf when he wrote the 9th Symphony and the Missa Solemnis and we all appreciate what works of genius they are.
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True that. However, as we all know, he could see. And having a lifetime of musical experience, if he could write the note on a page, and he could hear everything in his head, why is this seen as such an amazing feat? I've never understood it. One would think, even being deaf, that one could place a score from something written say, by John Williams or Philip Glass or any other living composer, and he could read it in his head and know how it was supposed to sound.
So even though he was deaf, I don't know that we can suppose he was depressed when he wrote "Ode to Joy." As an opposite example, Igor Stravinsky was not deaf when he wrote the unnerving "The Rite of Spring."
Quote:
Originally posted by Keith Waye
So in answer to your question I'd have to say Yes and No. You need inspiration to create but that doesn't always have to be negative inspiration. It can be very positive too.
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What is it they say in England? Right-O, chap! An artist needs inspiration, but it can be positive, negative, or anything else. John Lennon was an artists. "The Ballad of John and Yoko," "Revolution," and "Julia" all came out of negative feelings. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," "Two of Us," and "All You Need Is Love" all came out of positive feelings.
To give an opposite example to the James Joyce (and to prove I too can quote poetry from memory
), here's a poem written from a negative feeling, in this case, melancholy. The famous Robert Frost poem, "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening."
"Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here
to watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
to stop without a farmhouse near,
between the woods and frozen lake,
the darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
to ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
of misty frost and downy flake.
These woods are lovely, dark and deep,
but I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before I sleep."
As I was writing that, I was thinking about the "art vs. craft" thing. No one will deny the art in that poem, but the amazing thing to me, having written a few things in my time, is the craft.
Four stanzas, PERFECT iambic pentameter, AABA BBCB CCDC DDDD rhyme scheme. The fourth stanza uses a "no-no" in poetry, repitition, to perfect effect. It destroys the rhyme pattern, but more importantly, it is that last line that makes the whole poem work.
Now, I love this poem. I think it's the most perfect poem in the English language. I don't get free verse. In fact, I laugh at free verse (not trying to start a debate on the validity of free verse - still talking about music). IMO, it's basically prose with versification and a tighter use of imagery, but I can't think of that as poetry. Poems need some sort of structure, no matter how loose (even a list poem has structure).
In other words, this poem is studied still to this day because it is an example of great art AND great craft. While I agree with some of the sentiments in this thread that you don't need to know jack about music to like it and love it and appreciate it, I believe, to the core, that a knowledge of craft makes you enjoy music more than you would without knowledge of craft. I liked that Frost poem before I understood how it worked. But I like it even more when I was taught how poetry worked. Same with music.
That's why they teach Music Appreciation at every university.