Art! The Perspective in the Creative Process: Part II

With this presentation I would like to offer from the genre of music composition, one of the many examples of the mind-set upon one, when in the midst of composing a work. No matter what the medium; it’s the pulse, the pace, the very atmosphere of the moment. One allows the depth of things to surface, and in utilizing the tools of ones use, proceeds.

While aiming for perfection and the best in the desired outcome of a completed piece, the ‘slings & arrows’ are often brought in to enlist aid for the psychological and emotional tidbits that go along with many artists during the creative process.

One of the artists I interviewed was a musician & recording engineer, who made their living predominantly by writing scores for movies, television and radio, for the past twenty odd years. This, along with running their own music studio and doing various types of commission work for live music performance in dance and theater as well. As we talked about their approach in the composing stage of things for the different subjects in these fields of music, I was struck with how personally intimate some of the standard applications are, and yet how complex the procedure can be. I was not totally surprised to hear and yet realize how similar the ‘affects’ (if you will), were to my own involvement in the thought process as a visual artist.

As they explained their procedure in composing a piece for film, they spoke of the analytical and emotional side of the person that goes into the process, something that does not always come to the surface in the completed work: that ‘human’ side of things in the composer that the listener (in the case with music), doesn’t have a chance to see, or get to know. Those things that make the artist ‘tick’ in the creative process. Of course there are a myriad of procedures used, as all individuals do not work in the same way, but many can speak of the similarities in the emotional influence of what can go on in the composing of a piece. Whether the work is a personal project for ones repertoire, a performance, or a commissioned piece for another party, also can make a difference to the approach for some. With the main criteria in common, however, being the completed work, often one strives to make the ‘sound’ of the composition for whatever the medium may be. Other times it can be the ‘sound’ of the composer. And that is where those listening can sometimes hear the results, or get a glimpse so to speak, of what’s ticking inside the composer’s brain.

With varying results in sound, form, direction, themes, categories, et cetera, there can be so many things that go into the creative process of an artist’s approach to composition, and so much of that process goes unobserved except to those involved in the process itself. Suffice to say this was just one person’s take on that procedure, and that, like all the different types of music in the world, is in itself unique. And of course, for many listeners, one of the pleasures of hearing a completed piece of music is the joy in the different feelings one gets when listening to different composers’ work.