The Creative Process in Music from Mozart to Kurtág

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Kinderman
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Piano Music ◽  
Final Outcome ◽  
Artistic Creativity ◽  
Piano Trio ◽  
Corrected Proof ◽  
Dance Suite ◽  
Creative Endeavor

This book opens the door to the composer's workshop, investigating not just the final outcome but the process of creative endeavor in music. Focusing on the stages of composition, the book maintains that the most rigorous basis for the study of artistic creativity comes not from anecdotal or autobiographical reports, but from original handwritten sketches, drafts, revised manuscripts, and corrected proof sheets. It explores works of major composers from the eighteenth century to the present, from Mozart's piano music and Beethoven's Piano Trio in F to Kurtág's Kafka Fragments and Hommage à R. Sch. Other chapters examine Robert Schumann's Fantasie in C, Mahler's Fifth Symphony, and Bartók's Dance Suite. Revealing the diversity of sources, rejected passages and movements, fragmentary unfinished works, and aborted projects that were absorbed into finished compositions, the book illustrates the wealth of insight that can be gained through studying the creative process.

Recalibrating Reform

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-222
Author(s):  
Michele Cabrini
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Opera Seria ◽  
Return Home ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Captive Condition

The opera Telemaco, with a libretto by Marco Coltellini and music by Christoph Gluck, occupies a unique position as an opera seria that negotiates both tradition and reform. Scholars have long criticized the opera because of its ill-shaped libretto and uneven musical setting. This article contributes to the ongoing debate about operatic reform by reevaluating Telemaco based on its literary sources—Homer’s Odyssey and Fénelon’s novel Télémaque (1699). The absorption of Homer and Fénelon into the fabric of Telemaco goes well beyond adaptation, touching both its general dramaturgy and the specific creation of its characters. Set on the island of Circe, Coltellini's libretto echoes the timeless, liminal status of the corresponding islands (Circe’s and Calypso’s) found in Homer and Fénelon. The characters reflect and blend features of their literary counterparts. They fall into two groups: those who fight their captive condition through impetuous behavior (Circe and Telemachus) and those who attempt to circumvent their predicament by clinging to a golden past (Asteria) or yearning for a hopeful future (Ulysses’s desire to return home). Gluck’s expression of the characters’ longing and identity, achieved through a manipulation of form and textual re-composition, thus implies multiple temporal directions, suggesting a series of synchronic, revolving points of view that challenge the diachronic unfolding of events typically associated with opera reform in the eighteenth century. This method of analysis therefore offers insight into the creative process and helps refine our understanding of reformist opera, both in Gluck’s output and broader eighteenth-century operatic practice.

The anthropology of creativity in the context of S.N. Bulgakov’s sophiology

2019 ◽  
pp. 140-153
Author(s):  
O.V. Shchekaleva
Keyword(s):  
Creative Process ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Creative Activity ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Artistic Creativity ◽  
Artistic Creation ◽  
True Meaning ◽  
The Impact

This paper deals with Bulgakov’s doctrine on the human being and creative work. The reason why it is possible to interpret and understand Bulgakov’s conception of creativity in the light of anthropology is justified in the paper. It is indicated that many researchers of Bulgakov's philosophy did not make an explicit connection between anthropology and creativity and did not raise the question why man is capable of creativity. Anthropology and the concept of creativity are reconstructed using Bulgakov's texts. The role of Sofia in the creative process and her role in human life as a whole are determined. The change of the ontological status of man as a result of the original sin is analyzed. The specificity of Bulgakov's understanding of the creative act and its influence on man is revealed. The impact of creativity on a person is analyzed in the paper. It is proposed to consider artistic creation separately from self-creation, as it is fundamentally different from artistic creativity. It is emphasized that according to Bulgakov, self-creation can lead a person to salvation and even to Holiness. It is argued that self-creation as the implementation of one's own idea-norm is the true meaning of human life. Attention is drawn to the tragedy of creativity, which every person-creator experiences. In conclusion, it is pointed out that in the future the concept of Bulgakov's creativity can be ap-plied to the evaluation of works of art. The article concludes that, according to Bulgakov's philosophy, the main characteristics of a person that make him capable of creativity are his freedom, genius and talent. This way the importance of creative activity, both for an individual and for the whole world, is proved and the eschatological role of creativity is indicated.

Entropy and Stability in Painting: An Information Approach to the Mechanisms of Artistic Creativity

Leonardo ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-202
Author(s):  
Vladimir M. Petrov
Keyword(s):  
Creative Process ◽  
Artistic Creativity ◽  
Information Approach ◽  
Color Structure

The author presents a method for identifying the sequence of stages of the creative process in painting, specifically an artist's decisions about such parameters as genre, composition, color structure, etc. The method is based on the calculation of the coefficients of informativity relating to the distribution (and hence, entropy) of the artist's works over the above parameters. Using this method, 240 paintings by three famous Russian artists (Pavel

scholarly journals THE ENDERBY NOVELS BY ANTHONY BURGESS: THE ARTIST’S CONCEPT

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 81-84
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Vladimirovna Smyslova ◽  
Liliya Fuatovna Khabibullina
Keyword(s):  
Creative Process ◽  
Sexual Attraction ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Main Condition ◽  
Artistic Creativity ◽  
Creative Processes ◽  
Anthony Burgess ◽  
Artistic Activity ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
Teachers And Students

Purpose of the study: Anthony Burgess (1917 – 1993) is an English writer, author of the intellectual novels and serious musical works. Being a talented and inventive person, he was very interested in art and its creative processes. Anthony Burgess’s artistic creativity concept can be traced in many of his works about fictional and non-fictional writers Methodology: The article uses the analysis of the fictional world created in the novels as a means of its consideration. The image of the artist is considered from the perspective of the writer's worldview reflected in the composition and the message of his works. Results: The conducted analysis shows that in Anthony Burgess’s opinion the artist is a craftsman whose artistic activity is closely connected with his sexual attraction. In addition, the writer is characterized by isolation as the main condition of the creative process and the total devotion to Art. Applications of this study: This research can be used for the universities, teachers, and students. Novelty/Originality of this study: Thus, the novelty of the paper consists in its first trial to present the artist’s image thoroughly studied in the mentioned above novels. It is worthwhile mentioning that the research is conducted according to Anthony Burgess’s creative concept.

scholarly journals Interrelations between Prospective Teachers’ Experiences of Artistic Creativity and Diversity and Individuality as Professional Value

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Ilze Briška
Keyword(s):  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Training Curriculum ◽  
Central Idea ◽  
Artistic Creativity ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Teachers Experiences

Abstract The aim of the study is to investigate the possibilities of artistic creativity to foster the development of prospective teachers’ professional values to enable an appreciation of the diversity and individuality. The central idea of the article is on the development of the student’s values and its relation to a person’s direct emotional experience of a particular value and reflective arrangement of its emotional trend and subjective sense. One of the modes of experience of artistic creativity - experience of the creative process - is analysed as a source for emotions, necessary for the initiation of the process of development of values. The analysis of qualitative and quantitative data reveals significant interconnections between prospective teachers’ experience of creative process in art classes and their attitudes towards diversity and individuality as personally and professionally significant values. The results of the research enable us to provide suggestions about the content of visual art studies in teacher training curriculum, recommendable for facilitating the development of prospective teachers’ professional competence.

Higher Echoes of the Past in the Finale of Schumann's 1842 Piano Quartet

2004 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Hedges Brown
Keyword(s):  
Piano Music ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Piano Sonatas ◽  
Piano Trio ◽  
The Past ◽  
Piano Quartet ◽  
Parallel Forms ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Personal Histories ◽  
Formal Strategy

Critics have long emphasized the stylistic distanced between Robert Schumann's early piano music and the more traditional works of the early 1840s. This essay clarifies-precisely by questioning-this seeming divide, showing how the finale of the 1842 Piano Quartet in Eb Major, Op. 47, interacts with Schumann's compositional and personal histories in multifarious and previously unexplored ways: (1) by reworking the effect of a lyrical arabesque within a sonata-form movement to a more "redemptive" end (thus deflecting a formal strategy for the first movement of the 1836 Fantasie, Op. 17); (2) by readopting the "parallel forms" of his earlier piano sonatas; and (3) by alluding to the fifth piece of Schumann's 1838 Novelletten, Op. 21, an idea that introduces within both works a play between private and public moments that echoes aspects of Robert and Clara's life as it evolved from their early betrothal to married life in 1842. The article also demonstrates links to the works of two significant predecessors: Schubert's F-Minor Impromptu, Op. 142, and Bb-Major Piano Trio, Op. 99, and Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata, Op. 106, works evoked by the finale in ways that gauge Schumann's affinity for, yet also distance from, his precursors.

Artistic Creativity and Aging in India

1974 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 303-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renaldo Maduro
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Western India ◽  
Theoretical Interest ◽  
Creative Potential ◽  
Artistic Creativity ◽  
Low Degree ◽  
Boundary Maintenance

This paper is a focused consideration of artistic creativity in relation to different phases of the Hindu life cycle. Life history and psychological test data collected from 110 male Brahmin folk painters at an orthodox sacred pilgrimage center in western India are presented. Folk theories of creative process and the psychogenesis of creative energy for symbolic expressive behavior throughout the life cycle are related to recent theoretical interest in ego boundary maintenance, to Jungian psychoanalytic theory, and to Hindu notions of achieving psychological wholeness, balance, and augmented creative potential in later life. It is argued that artistic creativity does not necessarily decline with chronological age. Male painters asked to rank each other along a creativity continuum into three groups according to high or low degree of perceived creativity are discussed: mean ages for each of these painter-defined groups are presented. Scores on the Barron-Welsh Revised Art Scale from painters of all three groups are related to preferences for perceptual complexity, ambiguity, and asymmetry.

scholarly journals DEMYSTIFYING CREATIVITY: AN ASSEMBLAGE PERSPECTIVE TOWARDS ARTISTIC CREATIVITY

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-101
Author(s):  
Adina MANTA
Keyword(s):  
Creative Process ◽  
Personal Characteristic ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Art World ◽  
Artistic Creativity ◽  
Social Encounters ◽  
Social Uses

Common understandings of creativity reduce it to a flash of insight or to a personal characteristic of a highly-gifted person. This paper develops an alternative way of understanding creativity departing from a series of interviews with local painters by conceptualizing creativity as a process of articulating and getting caught up in a “meshwork” of materials, places, spaces and social encounters. Using assemblage theoretical framework, my perspective examines how different elements (both human and non-human) are brought together in flows of connections. Looking at the art world this paper takes into account also the materiality of the creative process and inquiry into how the materiality of working materials (paint, coal, brushes etc.) and the materiality of the space affect and are affected in the creativity assemblage. As such, departing from an anthropocentric perspective on artistic creativity, that takes only in consideration the meanings attributed by people (especially the artist) to forms, social uses and trajectories of artistic objects.

scholarly journals 7. Training of Artistic Skills of the Music Teacher

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 304-308
Author(s):  
Margarita Tetelea
Keyword(s):  
Creative Process ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Artistic Creativity ◽  
Creative Abilities

AbstractIn this article, concepts such as “creativity” and “artistic creativity”, based on the ideas of a number of famous scholars, are dealt with. The concept of “creativity” is defined according to the aspiration of an artistic person to self-expression. Speaking about the structure and the components of the creative process, we have identified the factors that enhance the development of the creative abilities of the students from the pedagogic-artistic specialties in the process of designing the didactic-artistic approach. It is also reflected in the diversity of these factors: psychological, pedagogical, didactic, artistic. In conclusion, the emphasis is on the fact that self-expression in artistic creativity is the individual’s need, and need is classified as aesthetic.

Syntax and Process in the First Movement of Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio, Op. 66

2020 ◽  
pp. 236-262
Author(s):  
Julian Horton
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Piano Trio ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter develops the claim that Felix Mendelssohn’s pivotal innovation in the realm of instrumental form lies in his strikingly post-classical response to the relationship between form and syntax. The C minor Piano Trio, Op. 66, reveals a rich array of syntactic habits that depart fundamentally from high-classical precedent. Expositional main-theme groups betray ‘loosening’ techniques, which greatly enlarge their dimensions; conversely, main-theme recapitulations are subjected to rigorous truncation. In between, functional elisions and cadential deferrals, achieved by the maintenance of active bass progressions across formal divisions, promote a degree of continuity that problematizes late-eighteenth-century notions of formal demarcation. These techniques unseat Mendelssohn’s classicist image. In Op. 66, the music’s Mozartian facility masks a technical radicalism, which is one of the defining contributions to the development of Romantic form.

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