I’ve been reading Leonard Bernstein’s “THE JOY OF MUSIC” (C. 1959 Amadeus Press ISBN 1-57467-104-9). Very enjoyable read, because the creative process is basically the same across disciplines. There is much for painters to learn from composers of instrumental music – who are abstract artists working with sound instead of pigment.
The opening chapter discusses Beethoven and what makes him so GREAT. After analyzing his gifts for melody, harmony, rhythm, orchestration and finding each rather ordinary considered individually, Bernstein gets to the heart of the matter:
“Rightness — that’s the word! When you get the feeling that whatever note succeeds the last is the only possible note that can rightly happen at that instant, in that context, then chances are you’re listening to Beethoven… Our boy has the real goods, the stuff from Heaven, the power to make you feel at the finish: Something is right in the world. There is something that checks throughout, that follows its own law consistently…” (p. 29)
The great news in this book is the revelation that Beethoven did not arrive at this “rightness” easily. He labored over his pieces, often sketching out 20 versions or more of a given passage before finding the solution. That’s encouraging! If he can find the guts to slug it out until it’s right, then so can I.
