A Classical Fly On The Wall

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I wish I could have been their to watch the greats compose their masterpieces. Our textbook composers who wrote enchanting music that sounds so super human and flawless to my ears. I'm not attempting to demean their unique brilliance, but these men and women did bleed the same red as I do, and breath the same invisible air.

So sometimes when Ctrl+Z is my primary hot key, and I wish that Pro Tools had more than 32 levels of "undo," I imagine what frustrations Beethoven must have faced when trying to make perfect his forever famous Symphony No. 5. The part that everyone remembers is a simple four note motif. Four notes! Four notes that were composed in 1808 have survived three centuries of history. But I have to wonder what it was like composing such a piece. Did he feel "like a boss" the entire time, or did he get "stuck," and struggle stringing it all together.

  When the arrangement isn't flowing as I wish, I picture Stravinsky swearing angrily while penning The Rites of Spring. He must have encountered roadblocks, right? And, I mean, how do I have arrangement issues with a four minute song, but these guys wrote an hour long ballet with seamless flow...and did so on a regular basis. I wish more bands today would give us CDs with an hour worth of quality music. Is that too much to ask?

And when my heart is content about the track I just finished I wonder about the level of satisfaction Dvorak must have felt after completing each movement of his New World Symphony. Or did he even grasp the historical impact it would make? I wonder.

Now, I'm not attempting to distract from the geniuses I've mentioned. I'm not attempting to inflate my current abilities to a comparable level as theirs. I'm just simply stating that my experiences with music composition must have some similarity to what they experienced...I assume every composer, famous and novice, historical and modern, must face the slew of emotions that are encountered as you pull deep from within to write something personally meaningful and interpersonally relatable.

I'll also pose the age-old question of nature vs. nurture. Were they born with something "special" or is Malcolm Gladwell onto something with his "ten thousand hours" examination? I love and hate what I heard Vldamir Horowitz say in an interview. He said something to the gist of "I was born not with special abilities. Anyone can do what I do with practice." I love that statement because it obviously states that I'm capable of the great abilities that he and many others posses. But I also hate it because I don't currently posses that sort of extravagant ability on my instrument. And will I ever? I guess I need more practice and less blogging. Haha. And do yourself a favor and watch a Horowitz performance if you never have. I randomly found videos of him on You Tube, and I was completely blown away!

Thank you for enjoying my midweek musings. I have a great song that I'm wrapping up production on. I'll post it as soon as possible.

And for those wondering why I have posted a seemingly unrelated photo of Omaha, Nebraska, then pick up a book titled "Quitter" by Jon Acuff. It's a great book for anyone chasing their dream job. /p>