The nature of musical inspiration

[Sid]

I just found some old scores from the 1920's in a second hand bookshop (reference below) and they also have some interesting articles by leading musicians of the day. Since I don't read music, the articles are the only reason I decided to pick them up.

In one of the volumes, the songwriter Noel Coward had an article titled "How I Write My Songs," and I thought I'd put his opinions on musical inspiration out there for all here to discuss. I have decided not to reproduce the full article (which is quite interesting) due to possible copyright issues, but I'll take my alloted 20 per cent.

Coward starts:

"Musical inspiration is a peculiar sort of thing. It just comes. One cannot sit down and think and think until melodies come to the mind. I am much too busy for that, and, besides, that method would never bring success - at least, not in my case.

"I just go on with the business of living, like other people do, until something occurs to me. It may be while I am at dinner, or on a 'bus, or even while I am having a bath. If I am anywhere near a piano I fly to it and play the tune with one hand. That "fixes" it, as a photographer would say, and I can proceed with the rest in a more leisurely way.

"The next step is to get the harmony exactly as I want it, playing it over and over again if necessary. After that my task is practically ended. I play it to a trained musician, who writes the notes down and then repeats the piece to me so that I can make quite sure that he has reproduced it correctly."

Coward then discusses how he doesn't know how to play piano (this is like Irving Berlin, another great songwriter of the C20th). He says that he has always had "an absolutely correct musical ear," being able to pick up tunes that he hears quite easily, and this is good enough for composing "light songs of the musical revue and comedy type." He goes on:

"When I think of what seems to me to be a good tune, the most suitable harmony suggests itself at the same time - in a rough form, at any rate. I don't know whether I am breaking conventional rules of theory, and care less. The sound's the thing."

He then goes on to discuss in more depth how specific songs or even whole shows of his were composed in a matter of weeks or just a month. He concludes the article by returning to the topic of musical inspiration:

"But I was talking about musical inspiration. One of my greatest successes was "Parisienne Pierrot," sung in "London Calling." The idea of that came to me during a visit to a cabaret in Berlin. I noticed a doll hanging on a curtain, and it seemed to impress itself on my mind. Soon afterwards, a melody which appeared to associate itself with the dol incident occured to me, and - well, I just played it...There is no scientific explanation at all. Some of us have these strange peculiarities, and some have not. I don't even know how I got my musical talent, unless it has been handed down from a grandfather who was organist for many years at the Crystal Palace. But I wonder if it is fair to his memory to say so?"

I think that this article brings up some interesting ideas of how musical inspiration comes about. I am interested in discussing this, not only if you are a musician or composer, or about maybe know about how inspiration came to other composers throughout history (& I'm not necessarily talking classical only here), but also about just what listeners here think or know about this topic.

Reference:

Coward, N. (1922). 'How I Write My Songs,' in Music Masterpieces - Gems from the World's Famous Operas & Musical Plays (ed. Pitt, P.). Amalgamated Press Ltd., The Fleetway House, London.