Sunday, May 7, 2017

Inspiration, Comprovisation and Creativity

What I do/why I do it:

I create music in three genres: classical music, jazz, free improvisation
-none of these genres has much/any mass/commercial appeal
-why do I do it?
3 reasons:
-calling
-when it’s good, it’s incredibly enjoyable
-microcosm of spirituality

Inspiration and Comprovisation:

-inspiration sometimes gives everything, sometimes very little—very often in unpredictable/new formats
-sometimes hard to tell where inspiration starts and ends (good to be ok with this)
-sometimes hard to distinguish fake from real inspiration
-easy to use skill/experience to fake inspiration, sometimes easier than seeking/following inspiration
-have to nurture the gift
-forget how hard it is and where it came from, or to believe in it (when beginning new project)
-each new composition is a new problem
-never know when, what, with whom the magic is going to come
-be willing to create a plan
-be willing to significantly revise or scrap that plan
-be willing to accept tasks that are hard
-be willing to accept tasks that are easy
-be willing to throw things out
-sometimes use up all your licks – can be good or bad
-scary, taxing, existential
-never know what pieces are going to move people and when
These are attributes of spirituality
There’s a reason for this: music is divine
-creativity is divine
-all human activity is/can be creative

What is creativity?

-principal attribute of God
-collaboration with God
-raison d’etre
-key to joy and success in any endeavor
-wholeness, organicism: organization of intelligences
-preparation for godhood
-creativity synonymous with courage – not knowing the outcome
-opposite: compulsivity: doing something ineffective just because you know the outcome
-understandable: we’re strangers here
-we all have trauma – the unknown/unexpected

Creativity is also vulnerability (wind bloweth where it listeth)
-Jesus made himself vulnerable – other holy men also
-recognition that we are dependent
-response to dependence can either be trying to control as much as possible or accepting providential unpredictability

Scriptures:
Moroni 7:16-19
D&C 93:2, 29-30, 33-34, 36-39

D&C 88:6-13