I just came across a passage in Brewster Ghiselin’s The Creative Process, where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart discusses his creative process. (The passage is actually a selection from Life Of Mozart (audiobook), by Edward Holmes.)
Mozart writes:
“When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer — say, travelling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not; nor can I force them. Those ideas that please me I retain in memory, and am accustomed, as I have been told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon occurs to me how I may turn this or that morsel to account, so as to make a good dish of it, that is to say, agreeably to the rules of counterpoint, to the peculiarities of the various instruments, etc.
All this fires my soul, and, provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, becomes methodised and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it, like a fine picture or a beautiful statue, at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once (gleich alles zusammen). What a delight this is I cannot tell! All this inventing, this producing, takes place in a pleasing lively dream. Still the actual hearing of the tout ensemble is after all the best. What has been thus produced I do not easily forget, and this is perhaps the best gift I have my Divine Maker to thank for.
When I proceed to write down my ideas, I take out of the bag of my memory, if I may use that phrase, what has been previously collected into it in the way I have mentioned. For this reason the committing to paper is done quickly enough, for everything is, as I said before, already finished; and it rarely differs on paper from what is was in my imagination. At this occupation I can therefore suffer myself to be disturbed; for whatever may be going on around me, I write, and even talk, but only of fowls and geese, or of Gretel or Barbel, or some such matters. But why my productions take from my hand that particular form and style that makes them Mozartish, and different from the works of other composers, is probably owing to the same cause which renders my nose so large or so aquiline, or, in short, makes it Mozart’s, and different from those of other people. For I really do not study or aim at any originality.”
In essence, his initial ideas flowed best when he was comfortable, undisturbed, and in good spirits. It sounds like they’d just come to him during this state — and if he came across something he liked, he’d store it in his memory, and then begin to “work with it” by humming to himself. If his interest continued, he’d start synthesizing his thoughts and forming it into something that’s whole — as if he’d begin hearing the symphony playing it in unison. And if it gets to this point, it’s almost complete in his head.
And once he has this in his head, he isn’t able to forget it. It’s seems to be such a deep experience that it takes precedence over all else.
He’d then begin to put this thing in his head on paper. He notes: “…committing to paper is done quickly enough, for everything is, as I said before, already finished; and it rarely differs on paper from what it was in my imagination.”
I was surprised by his last sentence: “For I really do not study or aim at any originality.” While he may not consciously attempt to add anything that gives it a “Mozartish” feel, his work is undoubtedly original. It seems to me that his mind just naturally makes these new connections, which produces original work.
What’s interesting to me is his process of synthesization. How, after initial “prototyping” by humming, he refines it, and then finds it — a true moment of clarity. At which point he just sits back and listens.
It’s interesting to me because I’ve had a similar experience in regards to his creative process, which I plan on writing about soon.