3 great insights from Harold Shapero

30 June 2015 Unknown 0 Comments

image by latimes.com

Harold Shapero was an American composer born in the 1920s and whose hero was Beethoven. I read some of his writing in this book that I'm reading and it just blew me away.

Here's some of the most important things I got out of the 3 pages I read of his writing (just 3 pages and yes all this).

Practice the building blocks

He talks about breaking a musical piece down into its phrases and practicing creating and rearranging phrases over and over to learn the techniques and improve your craft. More importantly, he talked about daily practice.

"The importance of daily practice also cannot be overemphasized, for without it, the bridge established between the conscious and the creative unconscious by technical exercise is soon blocked by non-musical associations. Just as the function of daily ritual and prayer, as related to the intuitive realization of deity, is that of preserving the thread of connected thoughts which lead to the intuition itself, so the function of daily technical practice as related to musical composition, is that of maintaining free the inroad to that corner of the mind from which the music comes."

Copy the masters

He goes on to say that breaking music down into phrases and practicing those, and imitating the phrases that masters have used and trying to come up with similar ones yourself, will lead to your own flavor of the art. He says this will lead to the "personal materials of your own art" and that you will find where your passions differ from the ideas of the masters and where you can bring yourself into the art.

Law of Association of Ideas

He includes a story in Beethoven's own writing about how he dreamed a song while on a carriage ride, but that afterward he could not remember the tune. Later, when he was on a carriage ride to the same place he had a "waking dream" and suddenly remembered the tune he had dreamed or invented. He said that this is because of the "laws of association of ideas." Harold Shapero's comment to that was "the use of this phrase is indeed striking.

I don't know what those laws are, but I've heard a lot about creativity being the ability to associate two ideas that have no business being together to come up with a brand new idea. This sounds like it is the same thing but almost in reverse. In order to remember the brand new idea, put yourself back in the situation where you associated the ideas in the first place. Maybe?

Bonus: Inspiration in art

Here's a little bonus for you. Shapero finished with some great ideas about inspiration in art—all forms of art, but he specifically talked about musical art.

"It is evident that inspiration is a most vital component of art. … it is possible to consider inspiration the creative absolute. … The composer can be certain that something has gone wrong with his musical thinking when he loses his inspiration. The composer to whom inspiration is granted can be assured that he is drawing on the most significant creative forces which are available to him."

And there you have it. Drink deep the words of the masters. As always, go to the source because their words are more powerful than my summary of them.

Harold Shapero died in 2013, but I want to thank him for his inspiration and his words. They have touched me deeply, all in just 3 pages.