Question: How do you overcome composer's block?
John Harbison: Often … this sounds more composed than it is, but often by waiting it out. That’s never a decision. It’s only a submission to realizing something can’t be there when you want it to be there I have to catechize myself. I have to talk myself into it. I think we’re all instilled with various levels of confidence. I’ve always been interested in reading Benjamin Britten’s statements. Almost his whole career is described in terms of level of confidence. I wrote that piece I was on a high level of confidence. Some people have that in great abundance, but others have to cultivate it like a garden. I guess what I would consider to be an ideal universe would be a universe in which everyone has spent part of the day reading a poem or, you know, building something on their house they think is beautiful; a society in which everyone’s contribution to it was to make their corner more of an aesthetic experience. And I think the only society that’s actually achieved that informally, partly because it’s kind of an innate hedonism, and partly because of talent, is probably the many, many, centuries from … , Italy where every house seems to be … in a little town, seems to have been made part of a composite work.
Recorded On: 6/12/07
Discuss
Rich Young on January 19, 2008, 10:51 PM
I use GOMP (GuruOne Midi Processor)
It's free for students too….. Nice
Cheers
Rich Young on January 20, 2008, 3:51 AM
I use GOMP (GuruOne Midi Processor)
It’s free for students too….. Nice
Cheers
Brittany D on April 18, 2008, 10:53 AM
go on a walk.
Brittany D on April 18, 2008, 2:53 PM
go on a walk.
Carolyn Allen on May 29, 2008, 10:45 AM
I love your quote:
"I%u2019ve always been interested in reading Benjamin Britten%u2019s statements. Almost his whole career is described in terms of level of confidence. I wrote that piece I was on a high level of confidence. Some people have that in great abundance, but others have to cultivate it like a garden."
We overlook the role of confidence … real confidence based on experience, skills, knowledge, and caring. I agree that confidence is a powerful creative treasure!
Carolyn Allen on May 29, 2008, 2:45 PM
I love your quote:
“I%u2019ve always been interested in reading Benjamin Britten%u2019s statements. Almost his whole career is described in terms of level of confidence. I wrote that piece I was on a high level of confidence. Some people have that in great abundance, but others have to cultivate it like a garden.”
We overlook the role of confidence … real confidence based on experience, skills, knowledge, and caring. I agree that confidence is a powerful creative treasure!
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