Tchaikovsky

“Those first 5 or 6 songs I wrote, I was just taking notes at a fantastic rock concert that was going on inside my head.” Jim Morrison, The Doors

Sometimes writing music can be like that, but sometimes it’s not. I greatly enjoyed the letters by Tchaikovsky on his creative process. I am completely fascinated by music. I love it in every shape and form. It probably helps that I have been singing my whole life and I have played the cello for the past 10 years.

In these letters I particularly like Tchaikovsky’s line “Music possesses far richer means of expression, and it is a more subtle medium in which to translate the thousand shifting moments in the mood of a soul.” I think that is breathtaking and the perfect way to describe it. I think some of the beauty and mystery of music comes from the fact that it is often very difficult to describe in words the music itself or the feelings and thoughts behind the music. I also really relate to his simile of the plant that when the seed is dropped and it has soil it, immediately begins to shoot up and grow blossom. I think that applies to any creative act. As soon as you have the thought it all just keeps coming and coming until it is fully developed. Well that’s the way it is sometimes at least.

I thought it interesting when he said even the greatest musicians have sometimes worked without inspiration. I think it is a common misconception that people who write music just have great ideas all the time. It does take a great amount of technique and patience and having to just sit down and write until something comes out.

Another line I enjoyed was when he was talking about a particular spot in one of his pieces: “It is inconceivable except as pizzicato. Were it played with the bow, it would lose all its charm and be a mere body without a soul…” I think that small details like this make all the difference to a piece. He heard it pizz and that’s the way it is, end of story.