Page 142 - Composing Processes and Artistic Agency

Musicological perspectives on composing 131

4.2.2 Ideas, strategies for exploration, playful proving grounds,
trials, and decisions

Ideas
The conception and elaboration of artworks incorporate individuals’ ideas.
Nowadays, however, few people would claim that these ideas stem exclusively
from a self-contained subject. Even the theory and history of art, both rather
slow in this regard, can no longer ignore the philosophical critique and
transformation of the concept of the subject, which have been mainly driven
by French post-structuralists. Since this philosophical topic has already been
referenced at the start of the chapter and elsewhere in this book, let me
merely, and representatively, foreground Pierre Bourdieu’s (1967/2005: 225)
influential concept of habitus, “through which the creator partakes of his
community and time, and that guides and directs, unbeknownst to him, his
apparently most unique creative acts”. I will also forego detailing the ways in
which having ideas depends on the parameters and specific context of the
work’s genesis, topics which have already been covered elsewhere.
Whenever artists are consulted about the genesis of their works, a question
is put to them that had already been raised in Hausegger’s (1903) precocious
study: “How do you get the ideas for your artworks?” The answers usually
refer to two aspects: in what life situations do ideas primarily emerge, and
from what sources. On the first point, we may be informed that, for instance,
one artist likes to go to a coffeehouse for inspiration while another prefers the
calm of a private ambience; that one has her best ideas while doing sport
while another swears by her sofa. Sources and situations of inspiration are
manifold and can be intrinsic or extrinsic: imagined sounds, literature, visuals, etc.
There could be further differentiation: some proceed strategically, others prefer to
drift; a few perceive the exploratory approach as pleasurable, others as torture.
Finally, through their choice of words some present themselves as discoverers,
others more as receivers of ideas. (Whether there really is a tendency for
female artists to place themselves in the latter group while male artists tend to
present themselves as the former – which is what the sum total of our interviews
seems to suggest – is a question that I will have to put aside here.)
All kinds of answers can be of biographical interest, and there can be no doubt
that they are meaningful for analysing actual works as well. It is noteworthy in
this regard that when composers have to write introductions for concert pro-
grammes, as they often do, they very frequently refer to the initial idea for their
piece. Much more rarely do they go into the technical details of composing. But –
leaving aside the fact that the particulars of the answers are unpredictable – is it
ever possible to find out anything fundamentally new in this way, anything that
would not already be present in the imagination even without any enquiry?
Information on different personal circumstances and on the most varied
resources for ideas does not in itself disclose anything about the why of selection
or the how of ideas within the specific unfolding of the creative process.