On Apr 10, 2005, at 4:00 PM, Bob Florence wrote:
Are there any books concerning composing and arranging that cover the spiritual and inspirational aspect. I am always interested in the way other writers get there music off of the "launching pad". I not concerned about what harmonies to use or what instruments to combine. I find it so fascinating to know what another goes through in the creative process.
In the jazz idiom there are three books I've found that deal with the "touchy-feely" aspect of composing in various amounts, in addition to the technical/analytical side. Russ Garcia's book, William Russo's book, and a bit in Ron Miller's recent books, particularly volume 1 of "Modal Jazz Composition and Harmony", though he maintains that jazz composition is mainly harmonic, which I disagree with. I have always maintained that composition (the kind I like and try to do, that is) is more about rhythm first, melody second, and everything else grouped far behind. Your mileage may vary, of course.
However, Gil Goldstein wrote one called "The Jazz Composer's Companion" published by Advance Music which might have exactly what you are looking for; a collection of interviews with various jazz composers on how they compose. I liked it a lot, and alternately laughed, nodded, and scratched my head in puzzlement while reading the various accounts.
On the classical side, I have seen almost nothing, aside from some notes jotted down by Brahms, which I could forward to you if you wanted them. I found them on the internet, and they are quite religious in tone for the most part, though insightful nonetheless even for a secularist like me. Aside from that, there are only a few comments elicited from composers by various interviewers and biographers, or gleaned from correspondance, and they are hard to track down. Classical composers didn't seem to like talking about their process for some reason, though they seemed to be quite willing to discuss the materials ad infinitum.
Christopher
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