FAITH OR LUCK

Music is often said to be the language of the universe. It speaks to our inner being and touches our souls with an immutable strength that is beyond simple letters, words and sentences. Phrases of music can change the very nature of an afternoon if the setting is perfect, if the universe has set forth a beautiful moment where the air, the music and moment all conspire to make that perfect moment so memorable that to even begin to tell another person about it seems somehow sacra-saint. 



As a person who creates, musicians, artists, performers, teachers must often worry about the ability of being able to constantly being to recreate this precious moment of epiphany. What a delicate precipice we as creators live on.


One one hand - the artist is attempting to create a unique experience with the audience. Be it a listener, a student, a watcher of dance or a reader of the word, the interplay between the audience and the artist has to be uniquely special for the art and the moment to have the special stamp that makes that moment soar above that pedantic. It is necessary to the artful experience for the viewer to feel this special moment to wanting more - creating a consumers need. The student who has the epiphany will yearn for more knowledge, the listener who is moved to tears, will want that emotion again; and not some chintzy fake recreation - they, the audience, want what only the artist can create, l'expérience vécue, or THE REAL EXPERIENCE. 

On the other hand, it is quite impossible to imagine the word "unique' being applied to anything created "en masse". The very idea of being re-created, even once takes away from the unique, speciality on the l'expérience vécue. 



And so, the artiste walks the fence between knowing if tomorrow he or she will being to tomorrow, in an hour or next year provide a voracious audience that moment for which they yearn, expérience vécue, and knowing that by definition, that moment can not be recreated just whenever one desires. 


Two well known artists, Paulo Coehlo and Joyce DiDonato both speak to this moment in different manners. Ms. DiDanato speaks to the ephemeral nature of performance and the faith one must have to create, the faith in oneself, and one's education. Though she is speaking directly to a fan's question regarding her voice and talent, it is an analogy even a teacher can take to heart. Paulo Coehlo speaks to the nature of coincidence  - or the lack thereof. His book our class will soon read, and ponder these very questions. I am curious too what others think and would love your thoughts.

 

While I write on this blog,  Music Mutations, is to primarily share my little revelations on music and its connections between other art forms, I find on the Eve of Thanksgiving, I feel a need to share a video I found that describes the process of living happily while pursuing a career in a chosen art form.

I have been blessed to have a mentor living right in my very own home. My husband,  has found this remarkable manner to connect the everyday process of doing what you love, and creating something wonderful. This process morphs into a process that one can not longer call what one does "work". The very definition of work ceases to be a applicable definition, and what he does as a freelancer becomes something else, something amorphous that truly those who appreciate beauty want more.

He risks much when he ceases to work, but create. he risks others thinking he is immature or not responsible, because he creates instead or works. I find these  people to be the losers and simply jealous of the process because they too want to create, and have chosen to work instead.
He risks failure, chasing an identity, and subsequent loss of focus to find the fine line between being responsible to his art and to himself. However, creating good art is a remarkable God -thing and must not be ignored by anyone who comes to understand he or she has the ability to make beautiful connections between creating good art and NOT doing work. I believe God wants us to create, not work.
No matter which art one chooses in life to create be it a novel, a well organized event, a strong economic plan, a beautiful symphonic work, we are all here to MAKE GOOD ART. My husband has learned to make great art in the most benign situations. He can take a simple party and turn it into a photo worthy of a art gallery.He can find a way to make art in his photography, his creation of food, his creation of a new plan. He has learned to make great art.

His life mimics the the freelancer writer and comic creator Neil Gaiman's advice conveyed in his commencement speech. Mike, my husband, has been truly an inspiration. He has kept working just as Neil Gaiman describes.

So, I include the commencement speech below because so many of the truism he speaks are true - but not because he says them, but because he illuminates what I observe in my own home. Thanksgiving is then given right in front of us, and I blessed to have him right in front of me. I love you Mike.

What To Do 

If  I Am Not The Mood......... 

To Create That Is

“A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.” Tchaikovsky

What do  Tchaikovsky, Jack White and Nick Cave all have in common? Each, at some moment in their creative history has spoken or written about the process of being creative, on inspiration, or the lack thereof, and the benefits of straight up hard work. What we  law people call "work ethic"

One of the beautiful opportunities studying and researching music, composers and artists provides is that it offers insight in the artist's mind, and allows one to learn from his or her creative process. Sometimes his creative process is so beyond what one conceive of the word "artist" is brought to life through the sheer demonstration of of what can not be attained by the simple or common man.

Other times, the artist offers a crosswalk between the genius of who she or he is and the common man that allow the audience to just barely touch or grasp the process of creation and it is that process that inspires the audience, it is his or her work ethic and what it has produced that is amazing.

All of this reminded me of a letter Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote to his the woman who made it possible for him to make music. He wrote Nadezhda von Meck, dated March 17th, 1878, and found in the 1905 volume The Life & Letters of Pete Ilich Tchaikovsky (public domain):

Do not believe those who try to persuade you that composition is only a cold exercise of the intellect. The only music capable of moving and touching us is that which flows from the depths of a composer’s soul when he is stirred by inspiration. There is no doubt that even the greatest musical geniuses have sometimes worked without inspiration. This guest does not always respond to the first invitation. We must always work, and a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If we wait for the mood, without endeavouring to meet it half-way, we easily become indolent and apathetic. We must be patient, and believe that inspiration will come to those who can master their disinclination.
A few days ago I told you I was working every day without any real inspiration. Had I given way to my disinclination, undoubtedly I should have drifted into a long period of idleness. But my patience and faith did not fail me, and to-day I felt that inexplicable glow of inspiration of which I told you; thanks to which I know beforehand that whatever I write to-day will have power to make an impression, and to touch the hearts of those who hear it. I hope you will not think I am indulging in self-laudation, if I tell you that I very seldom suffer from this disinclination to work. I believe the reason for this is that I am naturally patient. I have learnt to master myself, and I am glad I have not followed in the steps of some of my Russian colleagues, who have no self-confidence and are so impatient that at the least difficulty they are ready to throw up the sponge. This is why, in spite of great gifts, they accomplish so little, and that in an amateur way.

Here is Jack White, echoing — unwittingly, no doubt — Tchaikovsky:

Inspiration and work ethic — they ride right next to each other…. Not every day you’re gonna wake up and the clouds are gonna part and rays from heaven are gonna come down and you’re gonna write a song from it. Sometimes, you just get in there and just force yourself to work, and maybe something good will come out.