Composing Creativity

" The creative process starts with the sense that there is a problem to be solved or a need to be satisfied; the hard part is to find your own problem" says Csikszentmihály in his book, but Jung debates explaining that creativity goes beyond that solving problems dilemma and that it is more an "unconscious process to create new symbols, new meanings", while Rollo May comments that it is the opposite: " the encounter of an intensively conscious human being with his or her world". There are many many theories and views on what is creativity, where does it have it´s origin in the mind (and even soul) and on how it is expressed. I can say that all the different perspectives regarding creativity that I got acquainted with, are fascinating and have of course something valuable to say in favor of us artists. In a way they all have some sort of common ground and the differences are there because it is like if their authors were looking very personally, with their own creativity, to the problem. This common ground is their observation that creativity, a creative process, starts from some kind of need, a restlessness, a will to create; that can be as different as there are individuals. But also (although with some slight differences in the division of the components or in the therms employed for referring to them) most of the literature consulted agree to divide the creative process into five parts and underline the importance of thinking about it as free, open, recurrent, and overlapping, with all it´s parts interwoven and influencing each other. All the authors acknowledge also the fact that, depending on the field of the creative work or even the output that is aimed and the characteristics of each person, the parts might require more or less assertion.

The creative process starts with finding a problem, or as an unconscious inspiration to build a new symbol, this curiosity, this need I was talking about. After that, the creator has to prepare himself, find the right materials and the tools for what he plans to build; then, he will need to incubate his idea, reflect on it and wait until he gets inspiration, an insight: his mind gives him the picture of the best way to put everything together to start constructing, elaborating. Here I take the model employed by most of the books consulted in a synthesized way.

I. Preparation.

My biggest mistake (and one that I observe in some of my colleagues too) is to endeavor the composition of a piece with no pre-conceived idea of what the final outcome should be, it could be that nor even with a few guidelines or features that are wanted to be included in the composition. Sometimes because of aesthetic issues (in my case wanting to make "pure music", music that had no external associations) or even plain lack of discourse or artistic intention, the creative process was mutilated and started at the very time that the finger touched the key or the pen started rolling over the paper. Throughout this research I had come to understand that the preparation of a new project is enormously important and not only for the success of the piece, but also for getting deeply involved with it and in consequence for the enjoyment of the whole journey. As Carl Jung said: "The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play of instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves". And how can you get to really and deeply love some scratches of notes over the paper or an interesting motive played on the piano? In a humble attempt to make a metaphor I would say that it sounds to me now as absurd as falling in love with the first beautiful girl I see on the street and before even sharing a few words, of having a common history; falling in love before that person becomes meaningful besides her beauty (although it could happen...) So, its crucial to give that germs of music a meaning, a sense, an intention. Relate them to oneself in a way that they are not anymore notes over the paper but a representation of our highest aspirations, the symbols that are willing to express our most inner self or our interpretation of the world. Otherwise we are not making music but crossword puzzles; and, yes, "crosswords" can sound good too; but, who can devote his whole life to making puzzles?

And the importance of preparing oneself before starting a new project does n´t stop there. As I said, this stage is crucial as it is the part of the process where the artist gets involved with what is to become the new work of art, where he or she gets to love the unborn child and in that sense gets highly motivated to conceive it; but, as I believe every artist knows, the moment before the creation of something new, something valuable, something meaningful, is in a way frightening and can become overwhelming; if the creator is not well prepared it might fail in more or less degree. Is in the preparation where the artist has to get protected and gain confidence to overcome that feeling to fail (see psychological conditions for creativity) and gain instead trust in his capabilities. To do that he or she must gather the tools, the resources, the advice, the network, the techniques, the abilities and the inspiration that are going to be needed throughout the whole process. Before, I would start a piece with a lot of excitement and determination just to crash against unexpected difficulties that could make the confidence disappear leaving behind only doubts and a feeling of regret for not being prepared for that moment; Now, I understand it is determinant to know: what am I going to need, in a practical sense? What do i need to learn for doing it? What do i need to practice? Which people could help me? Which books could I consult ? Which scores would be useful to study?Which are the most difficult things I am going to face? Which are the easy ones? and a very long etc.

The stage of preparation of a new work is perhaps the one that shows more differences between every artist and work of art: a composer that relies on free improvisation will not need the scratch work or analysis of sounds that a spectralist will need, or the historical research necessary for writing the plot of an opera would be almost useless for the creation of dodecaphonic piano miniature, f.e. In that sense the preparation must be understood as the most flexible stage, where the cold mind of the creator anticipates every aspect of the work about to be created while his spirit gets every time more deeply involved with it and, also, as an endless gathering of resources for letting the artist react to the circumstances of the posterior stages of the creative process.

Another mistake I have experienced in my own flesh and observed in other composers is to have an stubborn idealization derived from a very stark conception of a piece that instead of fostering creativity and supporting the generation of new ideas and views of it, restrains their creative powers acting as a straitjacket, with the frustration and all the other negative aspects derived consequently and that we can easily imagine if we were wearing one. In her book The Creative Habit the choreographer Twyla Tharp addresses this issue and gives a very clever descri ption of how an appropriate balance between flexibility and rigidity should be obtained during the preparation, comparing the pre-conceived idea of a piece to a mould or to the scaffolds of a building, where the limits are clearly defined -although the results are not able to be seen- and therefore aright balance is achieved between the limitations in the "space" of action and the given freedom of content and "movement" in between that frame.

As a young composer, recently introduced to some of these ideas, I can only guess when affirming that only experience in an artistic career and development in self insight will help to develop the intuition to know if there is not enough preparation, or if the over preparation is having as consequences a hindering of the creative skills and a close minded view of the own work of art, blinding us from the infinite possibilities inherent to it. In the history of western classical music there are examples of composers that are closer to one or the other extreme, confirming that it is only the creator as an individual the only one capable of defining his own strategies and the methodologies that are more efficient for his artistic view: while Stravinsky claimed that without limitations he would feel in an "abyss of freedom" or in a "upsetting and dizzy infinitude" and developed very specific limits about what was and what was not permitted inside his new composition, he said that his creativity was an instinct to order, to narrow the infinite possibilities (is that why he experimented with more styles than any other composer in history?); others, like Debussy, claimed that they only trusted their taste, their ear and relied more on extra musical features, as poetical and symbolical associations as guidelines to delimitate their works. What is clear is that both approaches can deliver some of the best music ever written; and one must have in mind that even between the closed borders of Stravinsky there was a powerful imagination at work and that even in the open/poetic approach of Debussy there were some formal and discursive guidelines that are clearly audible during his whole oeuvre: They were well prepared in any possible sense.

So far, I spoke only about preparation as if it was merely the stage before starting to write a new piece but, of course, it goes way back beyond. Every graduate composer is trained and exercised in most of the compositional techniques: from 16th century counterpoint to 20th century pitch class based composition; but what if he was suddenly asked to compose a sonata employing late romantic harmony? I guess he would have to go back to his harmony book and take a look at some pieces of the period: he is not prepared for that. The aforementioned is an arbitrary example but I want to stress the importance of having all the skills available for when necessary and the fact that they must be exercised and actualized constantly. Perhaps while developing professionally there is no time for studying late romantic harmonic regions and it might even result pointless, but it is important to think that as a creative artist every skill, every technique and every knowledge, could become primordial in certain creative situations and that it is worthy to have them readily available (for that I am for some months now making a compendia of the compositional techniques and gadgets that I revised during composition and analysis lessons in Mexico and Rotterdam), constantly being exercised and developed, giving emphasis to the aspects that our artistic personality lacks, or to the ones that need to be fostered. This will not only help to be prepared, but will provide also the feelings of novelty, challenge and development -movement!- that are necessary for creativity (see psychological conditions for creativity).

When I mentioned Stravinsky and Debussy I described superficially their way of working to exemplify some aspects of how a piece would be prepared; but it is obvious that their way to prepare a work was grounded on a deeper level and obeyed ideas that were the spine of their aesthetic view of the world and the way they experienced it, ideas that were permeated with their powerful personality. Both composers left behind writings, quotes and -mostly- a vast body of work that made clear which were their views about art and several other subjects and that they were profoundly conscious about their role as artists in their historical and social context. It is really very hard -and perhaps it does not even existed- to think of a composer or any other artist in which there was not an ideological or spiritual background that inspired and influenced his art: Bach, Messiaen, Gubaidulina, the religious, Beethoven the idealist, Wagner the philosopher and the dramaturge, the futurists, the exotist, the experimentalists, the minimalists, the symbolist...sometimes we tend to take for granted all this therms, use them to classify styles and epochs and forget to think of all the things that they imply; in that enormous diversity of ideologies and aesthetic views there is also a very individual and self defined way of approaching the creation, of having a life devoted to art and creativity. So perhaps thats the primordial step, the preparation for the preparation: to take a step back from the music paper and think about our role as an artist, our view of life and how we can impregnate our work with that. (Rollo May: the courage to create). For me it was very helpful when I was asked to write a manifest for the art and philosophy lectures I attended last year; although my view might be not very clear and perhaps it is still very general, building it and therefore relating my conception of the world to my creative work gave to it a deeper importance and in consequence commitment, will and, in general, more motivation, enjoyment and understanding.

My solutions for the preparation...