On a good
day, composing can be a challenge. Whenever I start a new piece, I get awfully
fidgety – does the dishwasher need emptying? Don’t I have any business emails
to respond to? Have I SEEN the pile of laundry that needs washing? But after
some amount of coaxing, I finally get settled in front of my piano and put
pencil to paper. In the early stages of a piece, I’m in a precarious state,
where the slightest interruption can mess with my process. This leads to a fresh
round of distractions before I can settle back down at the piano.
On a bad
day, say when the Chicago Cubs are slugging it out with the Cleveland Indians in
the World Series or the U.S. holds a very tense national election with a
surprising outcome, it can be downright difficult to get into a creative
headspace at all. I find this to be particularly true if I’m in the early
stages of a new piece when turbulence strikes – I can lose hold of my tentative
grasp on the delicate tendrils of musical ideas that are just starting to form
in my mind.
So, what
does an artist do when turbulence strikes one’s creative process? First,
realize that it is better not to push your work to happen if you’re not in the
headspace for it, for there’s a good chance that you won’t be happy with the
results when your head clears (unless you’re under a tight deadline – then you
might have to power on through). Instead, try these approaches:
• Switch tracks for a while.
Work on an unrelated project, start
something new, or even do a series of short exercises. Basically, keep your
creative juices flowing. Perhaps you’ll even discover an entirely new direction
for you to artistically explore while you’re in this “altered” mind frame.
• Step out of your work zone, both
physically and mentally.
Go out for a long walk, read a book, binge-watch a TV series, seek
out a foreign film, make an afternoon of going to an art museum, meet with
friends for dinner at a new restaurant you’ve been hankering to try. Basically,
give yourself a round of fresh, new experiences. This will help you re-set both
your mind and creative process, as well as sort out what you want to say creatively
when you return to creating again.
• Consider letting the turbulent event fuel your creativity.
We are artists. We can and should interpret the world around us into
our art. Many artists have managed to find inspiration in anxious times: singer-songwriter
Bob Dylan wrote protest songs in the 1960s in response to the Vietnam War and
the Civil Rights Movement; John Corigliano wrote his Symphony No. 1: Of Rage and Remembrance (1988) in memory of friends he was losing to
the ongoing AIDS crisis; and John Adams composed On the Transmigration of Souls (2002) for orchestra and chorus in
remembrance of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. In one of the most profound
cases of translating turmoil into transcendent art, French composer Olivier Messaien wrote
his extraordinary chamber work Quartet
for the End of Time (1941) while imprisoned at a POW camp in Germany during
World War II; he and three fellow inmates premiered the piece at the camp for an
audience containing both German soldiers and prisoners. Turbulence can help us
figure out how we want to use our voices as artists, to discover what kind of
statement we wish to make; it can also provide catharsis for us as well as our
audiences.
If all
else fails, give yourself a break. Take a day or two (or more) off from being
creative. You can work on some business aspects of your career instead – catch
up on those never-ending business emails, update your website, research
possible grants and competitions you wish to enter, and so on. Sooner or later,
you’ll be ready to express yourself creatively once again.
