What is the driving force behind one's creative impulse whether it be in art, music or writing? What is the innate characteristic of all humans who endeavor to do the impossible? How do innovative, often volatile artists come together to build a new edifice, shape a sculpture, choreograph a dance or compose a new work of music? Why would a person follow his dream and undertake the arduous, risky life as a 21st century composer?
These and other issues will be discussed by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec and music historian and author Vivian Perlis at the Westport Public Library on Thursday, January 11, at 7:30 p.m. Mr. Moravec, the recipient of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for his composition, Tempest Fantasy, is the chairman of the music department at Adelphi University. Ms. Perlis, winner of the esteemed Kinkeldey Prize of the American Musicological Society for her book Charles Ives Remembered: An Oral History, established the renowned Oral History, American Music archive of American composers and personalities at the Yale School of Music.
Books that describe the creative process include Howard Gardner's Art, Mind & Brain, Jonathan Harvey's Music and Inspiration and Ann McCutchan's The Muse That Sings: Composers Speak About the Creative Process.
The French composer, Erik Satie (1866 - 1925), summed it up in the December 1913 Bulletin des Editions Musicales, with this relevant quotation:
"Before I compose a piece, I walk around it several times, accompanied by myself."