inspiration Archive

An original musical, "To A Muse," with book and lyrics by Emily Clare Thompson premieres on February 16, 2012.0February 26, 2012

“To A Muse” premieres

An orig­i­nal musi­cal, “To A Muse,” with book and lyrics by Emily Clare Thomp­son pre­mieres on Feb­ru­ary 16, 2012.

I love this arti­cle writ­ten by Carl­ton Cuse, one of the show run­ners of my favorite tele­vi­sion show of the last decade, “Lost.” In this arti­cle he faces a cri­sis […]0January 29, 2011

Once “Lost”, How to be Found?

I love this arti­cle writ­ten by Carl­ton Cuse, one of the show run­ners of my favorite tele­vi­sion show of the last decade, “Lost.” In this arti­cle he faces a crisis […]

Sometimes, when I start a new piece, within the first few measures or so, I'll stop and ask myself, "What do I want out of this piece?"0December 31, 2010

First Question

Some­times, when I start a new piece, within the first few mea­sures or so, I’ll stop and ask myself, “What do I want out of this piece?”

Richard Russell presents a lecture and demonstration on how the literary tradition of the heroic quest can be found in the music of Beethoven.NJ | Oct. 29, 2010" />0December 27, 2010

Lecture at Central School in NJ | Oct. 29, 2010

Richard Rus­sell presents a lec­ture and demon­stra­tion on how the lit­er­ary tra­di­tion of the heroic quest can be found in the music of Beethoven.

Within iTunes or any audio file, it’s pos­si­ble to tweak the equal­iza­tion of the play­back. This means boost­ing the bass or rais­ing the tre­ble. Every piece will be a lit­tle […]0May 6, 2010

A Quick and Easy Way to Vary your Music

Within iTunes or any audio file, it’s pos­si­ble to tweak the equal­iza­tion of the play­back. This means boost­ing the bass or rais­ing the tre­ble. Every piece will be a little […]

Have you spent time brows­ing around ASCAP’s web­site? Some inter­est­ing things buried there. For instance, here’s Murphy’s Laws of Song­writ­ing, includ­ing this bit about aim­ing your songs espe­cially to an […]0March 8, 2010

The song as a (gendered) script

Have you spent time brows­ing around ASCAP’s web­site? Some inter­est­ing things buried there. For instance, here’s Murphy’s Laws of Song­writ­ing, includ­ing this bit about aim­ing your songs espe­cially to an […]

You’ve got to make your cre­ativ­ity a habit, and stick with it! The impor­tance of this lit­tle tid­bit of wis­dom is very evi­dent to me all of a sudden. Last […]1February 8, 2010

The Importance of Habit

You’ve got to make your cre­ativ­ity a habit, and stick with it! The impor­tance of this lit­tle tid­bit of wis­dom is very evi­dent to me all of a sud­den. Last […]

My friend Haim Avit­sur par­tic­i­pated in a per­for­mance of “Orbits” for 80 trom­bones, soprano, and organ. (Haim was not the soprano, and he doesn’t play the organ!) The piece is […]3June 23, 2009

Another element of music?

My friend Haim Avit­sur par­tic­i­pated in a per­for­mance of “Orbits” for 80 trom­bones, soprano, and organ. (Haim was not the soprano, and he doesn’t play the organ!) The piece is […]

Lately I’ve been think­ing a lot about com­pos­ing for the voice.¬† I typ­i­cally look for a text and rec­og­nize quickly if I think it will work for me as a […]0April 28, 2009

What the voice can do

Lately I’ve been think­ing a lot about com­pos­ing for the voice.¬† I typ­i­cally look for a text and rec­og­nize quickly if I think it will work for me as a […]

I write music, and I also write about music. So this quote from singer-songwriter Andrew Bird has some res­o­nance for me: Ulti­mately, I think that writ­ing about music is a delib­er­ate […]0April 22, 2009

Creating music | Writing about music

I write music, and I also write about music. So this quote from singer-songwriter Andrew Bird has some res­o­nance for me: Ulti­mately, I think that writ­ing about music is a deliberate […]

I had a chance to meet Raoul Pleskow today and hear a fas­ci­nat­ing lec­ture by him. He said some­thing very inter­est­ing that reflected a use­ful change of per­spec­tive. When writ­ing […]0April 19, 2009

An interesting change of perspective

I had a chance to meet Raoul Pleskow today and hear a fas­ci­nat­ing lec­ture by him. He said some­thing very inter­est­ing that reflected a use­ful change of per­spec­tive. When writing […]

Dan­ger music? What’s that? Elas­tic scor­ing? Hmm! I found these and many other inter­est­ing sub­jects in Wikipedia today. I thought I would share them! See these pages about: Cat­e­gory: Musi­cal notation0April 15, 2009

Danger music? Elastic scoring?

Dan­ger music? What’s that? Elas­tic scor­ing? Hmm! I found these and many other inter­est­ing sub­jects in Wikipedia today. I thought I would share them! See these pages about: Cat­e­gory: Musi­cal notation

Stu­dents of the great Ger­man philoso­pher Hegel are famil­iar with his notion of the dialec­ti­cal process. It is com­monly summed up as the way a pre­vail­ing the­sis is con­fronted by […]0April 9, 2009

What’s the opposite of creativity?

Stu­dents of the great Ger­man philoso­pher Hegel are famil­iar with his notion of the dialec­ti­cal process. It is com­monly summed up as the way a pre­vail­ing the­sis is con­fronted by […]

There seems no end to sci­en­tists try­ing to tie all the abstract loose ends of music into a neat lit­tle bow. The lat­est efforts explore the ways music can take […]0March 29, 2009

Music is medicine

There seems no end to sci­en­tists try­ing to tie all the abstract loose ends of music into a neat lit­tle bow. The lat­est efforts explore the ways music can take […]

Recently I posted about court­ing the per­form­ers who can help you have a suc­cess­ful career. This prompted one of my staunchest sup­ports — a muse, you might even say — […]1March 24, 2009

Thank your muse!

Recently I posted about court­ing the per­form­ers who can help you have a suc­cess­ful career. This prompted one of my staunchest sup­ports — a muse, you might even say — […]

The critic Vivien Schweitzer writes, “The Amer­i­can com­poser Arlene Sierra has been inspired by an unusu­ally wide range of sources, includ­ing bees, poetry and Chi­nese and Roman mil­i­tary tac­tics.” What […]0March 17, 2009

Inspiration from everywhere

The critic Vivien Schweitzer writes, “The Amer­i­can com­poser Arlene Sierra has been inspired by an unusu­ally wide range of sources, includ­ing bees, poetry and Chi­nese and Roman mil­i­tary tac­tics.” What […]

Have a look at this baby girl, col­or­ing in a col­or­ing book. She is enjoy­ing the sen­sory expe­ri­ence of it, the tac­tile sen­sa­tion of hav­ing crayons in her hand and […]0March 16, 2009

Coloring inside the lines

Have a look at this baby girl, col­or­ing in a col­or­ing book. She is enjoy­ing the sen­sory expe­ri­ence of it, the tac­tile sen­sa­tion of hav­ing crayons in her hand and […]

Alex Ross’s superb book The Rest is Noise has a great web­site adden­dum, full of lis­ten­ing exam­ples. Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est, see this page which fea­tures numer­ous sound exam­ples from music since 1980. […]0March 2, 2009

Listening to Music Since 1980

Alex Ross’s superb book The Rest is Noise has a great web­site adden­dum, full of lis­ten­ing exam­ples. Of par­tic­u­lar inter­est, see this page which fea­tures numer­ous sound exam­ples from music since 1980. […]

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