Spontaneity and art

Alexander Gow, musician in the band Oh Mercy on spontaneity of artistic creation:

[Spontaneity is] when art is expression, and that’s what I’m interested in. If, like you said, there’s a spontaneity to it and it’s an extension of a certain kind of moment or feeling, and if you’re clever enough to express that through your medium, that’s the heart of art. The expression of feeling is special, and losing that capability to be spontaneous is also losing some of the magic that people really want to hear.

Cited in: Max Quinn, “Keeping them guessing”, Reverb, #072, August 2012, p. 24.

Posted

in

by

Greg

Tags:

, ,

Featured Content

Liszt on Beethoven
Liszt on Beethoven’s music, in a letter to Wilhelm von Lenz in 1852: To us musicians the work of Beethoven parallels the pillars of smoke and fire which led the Israelites through the desert, a pillar of smoke to lead us by day, and a pillar of fire to light the night, so that we […]
Nick Cave on the creative process
Worry less about what you make — that will mostly look after itself, and is to some extent beyond your control, and perhaps even none of your business — and devote yourself to nourishing this animating spirit. Bring all your enthusiasm to bear on the development of that good and essential force. This is done […]
The best of every man
“I have believed the best of every man. And find that to believe is enough to make a bad man show him at his best, or even a good man swings his lantern higher.” – William Yeats, Deirdre
A little poem by Mozart
Dearest Stroll! good old troll! you sit in your hole drunk as a Mole! – But you’re touched in your soul by music’s sweet flow. – Mozart, in a letter to Anton Stoll Cited in: Spaethling, Robert (2000) Mozart’s Letters; Mozart’s Life.  London: Faber and Faber, p.438.
Old into new
An old thing becomes new if you detach it from what usually surrounds it. — Robert Bresson, French filmmaker J. Butler, Star Texts: Image and Performance in Film and Television, Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1991, p. 170.
A Swan (Ein Schwan) (Grieg)
Title: A Swan (Ein Schwan), op. 25, no.2 Composer: Edvard Grieg Arranger: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Cello and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
We arrived here safely yesterday morning at 9 o’clock. – We spent the first night at Vögelbruck; – on the following morning we reached Lambbach – just in time for me to accompany the Agnus Dei on the organ during the mass. – The prelate was most delighted to see me again … We stayed […]
Abstraction IX
Title: Abstraction IX Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: Brass quintet (2 trumpets in B-flat, Horn in F, trombone, bass trombone) Product medium: PDF score and parts SAMPLE:
How we decorate space and time
“Art is how we decorate space; music is how we decorate time.” Jean-Michel Basquiat,  street artist
Music is for me to play
“You claim that I write monstrosities which only the composer can play. What if they were meant only for the composer?” Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji to his friend Peter Warlock. Cited at: Wikipedia