Excerpt from Aaron Copland – What to Listen for in Music
Pg. 24
Chapter Title: The Creative Process in Music.
Most people want to know how things are made. They frankly admit, however, that they feel completely at sea when it comes to understanding how a piece of music made. Where a composer begins, how he manages to keep going—in fact, how and where he learns his trade—all are shrouded in impenetrable darkness. The composer, in short, is a man of mystery to most people, and the composer’s workshop and unapproachable ivory tower.
One of the first things most people want to hear discussed in relation to composing is the question of inspiration. They find it difficult to believe that composers are not as preoccupied with that question as they had supposed. They layman always finds it hard to realize how natural it is for the composer to compose. He has a tendency to put himself into the position of the composer and to visualize the problems involved, including that of inspiration, from the perspective of the layman. He forgets that composing to a composer is like fulfilling a natural function. It is like eating or sleeping. It is something that the composer happens to have been born to do; and, because of that, it loses the character of a special virtue in the composer’s eyes……
Someone once asked me, in a public forum, whether I waited for inspiration. My answer was: “Every day!” But that does not, by any means, imply a passive waiting around for the divine afflatus. That is exactly what separates the professional from the dilettante. The professional composer can site down day after day and turn out some kind of music. ON some days it will undoubtedly be better than on others; but the primary fact is the ability to compose. Inspiration is often only a by-product.