Paul Schwartz | Essays

December 29, 2004 :: creativity questionaire

Twyla Tharp has written a book about creativity that I find very interesting. In it are some questionaires for artists, and here are my responses to one of them:

1) What is the first creative moment you remember?

I suppose it would be the little Christmas Carol I wrote when I was about four. Very simple, in F major. My dad had his collaborator Howard Dietz write lyrics to it.

ìchristmas is coming, merry and brightî. Thatís all I remember.

2) Was there anyone there to witness or appreciate it?

Yes: my parents were very supportive of me musically. My writing a song was a big deal in my house.

3) What is the best idea youíve ever had?

I donít know that Iíve had a ìbestî idea. It depends on what you mean by idea. On one level: doing classical pieces in a contemporary format is one of my most succesful ideas, but it is hardly original. Doing the State of Grace series: taking ancient texts and bringing them into current musical soundworlds is another.

Maybe the reason I am so fond of Earthbound is that I like the idea behind it: a series of songs about night: dreams, romance, darkness etcÖ. But throughout it is suffused the melody of the plainchant AVE MARIS STELLA (Hail star of the sea), a medieval hymn to the Virgin Mary. It merges my pop sensibilities with a rootedness in spirituality. Then, with the song DARK OF THE NIGHT, I re-interpret St. John of the Crossí deeply weird commingling of eros and god, into a new text.

Does that qualify as an idea? Or are we looking for something more basic?

Perhaps itís the idea of basing composition upon opposing harmonies, that can be reconfigured based on their roots. (very technical now) Listen to MAGNIFICAT, and STABAT MATER from SOG 2. The chords are the same, but the roots are different. It changes the meaning. Thatís an interesting idea, that can keep one going for a while.

4) What made it great in your mind?

WellÖ. If weíre going with the last ìideaî, it's that you can create different or even opposing emotional states, that are fundamentally linked to each other musically. Unifying forces in art create structure, recognition, and pleasure. Pleasure: not in the purely sybaritic meaning of the word, but rather in the sense that when we appreciate unity, something goes into the brain that would not have otherwise.

5) What is the dumbest idea?

OhÖthere are so many. Letís choose one. How about doing REVOLUTION: a series of classical versions of Beatlesí songs.

6) What made it stupid?

Well, itís just not something that has any chance of completely escaping from the charge of kitch. I tried really hard. There are 3 or 4 things on that record that I really like a lot. But in the end, it was a fruitless exercise.

7) Can you connect the dots that led you to this idea?

Yah: the record label wanted me to do it, and despite my resistance, I eventually said yes because I wanted to stay in their good books.

In the end: I did it out of cowardice.

8) What is your creative ambition?

Wow, thatís a biggie.

I guess it would be to do something that is both meaningful to me, and meaningful to the audience. And to do it over and over again.

9) What are the obstacles to this ambition?

Procrastination, laziness, lack of ideas, idiotic record company executives, critics, and the continuing sense of malaise that accompanies someone like me that feels he doesnít belong.

10) What are the vital steps to achieving this ambition?

Perseverance, ritual/habit, faith, work.

11) How do you begin your day?

Hot tea, New York Times online. Get the kids ready for school

12) What are your habits? What patterns do you repeat?

I try to write all morning. From when the kids leave until lunchtime. I work out for at least an hour in the middle of the day, have lunch, and then pick the kids up from school.

The BAD habits I repeat are all based around allowing the turmoil of the family distracting me from what I need to do.

13) Describe your first succesful creative act.

I am going to answer this in the plural.

When I was 13, I was trying to get into Westminster School in London. As part of my submission, I wrote 3 little piano pieces: kind of simultaneously sub-Bartok and sub-Debussy. I had a look at them the other day, and theyíre not bad.

When I was at music school, and wanted to grow up to be either Stockhausen or Boulez, I wrote a bunch of pieces that held together artistically within the very strict confines of the avant-garde super-intellectualized music world that I aspired to. One of them: a 30 minute piano piece, was actually well thought of by my contemporaries and even some of the older composers around. Peter Maxwell Davies for instance.

When I moved back to the USA in 1981, I wrote a setting of Sappho poems, organized to tell the story of her life. Never perfomed. But I still think it was kind of good.

14) Describe your second succesful creative act.

Again: acts, not act. 1984, I wrote a piano trio for the Arden Trio. My best purely concert piece.

1985: a violin sonata for the violinist in the Arden.

1987: a cello sonata for the cellist.

1988: Virgin Forest: a ballet based around the paintings of Le Douanier Rousseau, in collaboration with Margo Sappington.

15) Compare them.

With maturity, more of a sense of communication rather that subjucation to the critical gaze of my colleagues.

16) What are your attitudes towards: money, power, praise, rivals, work, play?

Money: I have a lot of fear based around money. It makes me nervous.

Power: I am scared of people in power above me, but use the power that I have to help my cause, and to help others. I am generous in the promotion of the talents of other people.

Praise: I mistrust it.

Rivals: Hateíem. But try to learn.

Work: Hate it/Love it. Find it hard to get into, but ultimately it is the only thing that makes me feel alive. Better than sex.

Play: Very important. Clear the head. Play both musically and non-musically. As with everything else, I tend to play obsessively. Hence the Ironman Triathlons.

17) Which artists do you admire most?

In no particular order (and if you ask me tomorrow night you might get a totally different list):

Balanchine, de Kooning, Vermeer, de Hooch, Stravinsky, Chopin, Mahler, Thomas Mann, Schiele, Klee, Debussy, David Lean, Kubrick, Chaplin, Bach, Marcel Marceau, Anthony Hopkins (when he was still doing theatre), Olivier, Ethel Merman, The Beatles (the entire group, not the individuals), Pink Floyd, Bowie, Bartok, Jackson Pollock, Cartier-Bresson, Tolstoy, Sondheim (he is one of the really big ones), Rodgers and Hammerstein AND Rodgers and Hart, Elton John (great songwriter), Kurosawa, Yasunari Kawabata, Patrick White, (Iíve got a Nobel prize thing going here), Carla Fracci ( I saw her dance when I was 14, and I have never forgetten it), Peter Brook, Schubert (as close to a god as a composer has ever been), and to round out the list in a strange way: Richard Pryor.

18) Why are they your role models?

Hang on, you asked me who I admired, not who were my role models. Richard Pryor is definitely not my role model.

Of these I would put Klee, Schiele, Mann, Mahler, the Beatles, Pollock, and Schubert together, and say that what I most admire about them is how they just continued to churn it out.

Itís very brave to create at the fever pitch they did.

19) What do you and your role models have in common?

Itís more that I wish I could create at that fever pitch, than anything we have in common.

However, when you look at de Hooch, Vermeer, Cartier-Bresson, Schubert, Chaplin, Tolstoy, Sondheim etcÖ.. itís their humanity that I relate to.

20) Does anyone in your life regularly inspire you?

Lisbeth does. We work well together.

21) Who is your muse?

N/A.

22) Define muse?

Wish I knew.

23) When confronted with superior intelligence or talent, how do you respond?

Depends. If itís a competitive situation I tend to withdraw. If itís not, I tend to inquire, to delve. I guess I want to learn something.

24) When faced with stupidity, hostility, intransigence, laziness, or indiferrence in others, how do you respond?

Usually with anger. I am a very impatient person. Thatís why I donít teach. In my case, hostility from others usually comes from people who have a closed mind about the boundaries between classical and pop. I have zero patience for that.

25) When faced with impending success or the threat of failure, how do you respond?

With fear and trepidation. I never believe the good reviews, and always believe the bad ones.

26) When you work, do you love the process or the resulf?

Both, in equal measure. The process is much longer. Eventually I love the result, until all I can hear are the flaws, and then I donít love it so much any more.

27) At what moments do you feel your reach exceeds your grasp?

At the start of things. By the time I get into something, I feel that I have a handle on it. And I am sufficiently conceited that I believe that nothing is beyond my reach in the end.

28) What is your ideal creative activity?

Sitting at the piano, coming up with new and interesting harmonic ideas.

29) What is your greatest fear?

That itís all just dross. That it will all end up in the landfill. That I am wasting my time.

30) What is the likelihood of either of the answers to the previous two questions happening?

This is an odd question. I ìdoî the answer to #28 all the time. My answer to #29, well time will tell.

31) Which of your answers would you most like to change?

I wish I had a muse. But I donít think anyone does.

32) What is your idea of mastery?

I donít know, but maybe I will when I get there.

33) What is your greatest dream?

Honestly? To have a hit show on Broadway.

But thatís just me being a son. Cause I grew up with a father for whom that was the be-all and end-all of everything.

In truth, it would be to write something of true value. Something that changes things.