Out of the ordinary
Where have composers throughout history found their inspiration? With big figures like JS Bach, Beethoven or Messiaen, you can often locate it in the loftiest realms of personal belief and experience: the revelations offered by religion, say, and the magnitude of the natural environment, or freedom’s cause in a fettered world. But inspiration can take many other and humbler forms. Since composers may want to earn a living, one inspiration could simply be economics and the rules of their employment. The commercial commission that must be fulfilled, the restrictive duties of the court composer – both require notes to be pumped out regardless of whether the muse strikes or not. A complete genius like Bach may even tick both boxes and still write great music.
Most composers, though, takeFalla’s , Bax’s , Liszt’s , Debussy’s . But there are also numerous instances where inspiration has been drawn from what you might call the ordinary things of life, and being a mundane kind of chap, that’s what I’d like to explore here: music inspired by drinking coffee, chattering on the London Underground, a ticking clock, a barking dog, the business of cooking, most of the things that great art ignores. Such activities might not top a list of life’s great experiences, but you should never discount an artist’s alchemical powers.
