Inspiration from Music was one of the most popular topics on our list of members’ requests. Well, I’m a singer (of sorts) so this one was down me.
I decided to start by getting people to throw out ideas, which I’d jot on the board. ‘What does music do for you?’ I asked. Back came the replies, quick as a rainstorm: music is exciting; it lifts the spirits; soothes me; makes me dream; takes me back and back.
Next: time to listen to some music, starting with a Joni Mitchell number. People’s Parties has fab observations of how people at a party present themselves, perfect for the group to note down gems of appearance, mannerism and dialogue. After that: Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Did this conjure up any particular settings? Sweeping landscapes, on the whole.
Then, ‘How do you feel,’ I asked, ‘when you listen to this?’ It was the finale of Stravinsky's The Firebird. ‘A sense of triumph,’ said one member, raising both hands as if Liverpool had just scored. Ah, an opportunity to introduce my research into how music links with the body’s feel-good chemicals of pleasure and reward. According to McGill University in Canada, music has the power to push our emotions to a high, not at the climax of the piece but just before it. Remind you of anything? Well, never mind that, suffice to say the process is like a hunt by early humans who came across a sabre-toothed tiger. Would the hunt succeed? They must have tensed and held their breath until all turned out well. And they exhaled.
One member raised an interesting point about non-western cultures where music has different traditions from Stravinsky and co.. Exactly: the tapping rhythms of, say, native Australians, mimic our heart-beats and help the unconscious side of our minds to work. Great for writers facing any little bloc!
Lastly, we listened to that star of a piece, The Little Train by Villa-Lobos. I asked the group to plot the journey with a line, after which one member volunteered to draw his version on the board. It began with a gradual ascent that escalated into a rapid and steep climb to a plateau, finally to another little rise and a fall at the end. A bit like a story!
By now, if you’re thinking 3 of the 4 pieces were classical, you’re right. But I sing classical stuff, you see, so that’s what came to mind. Another time, I could choose more popular music.
To follow up, I invited members to write something inspired by one of the pieces or more. Or indeed anything else if they chose. What came back included a poem inspired by Joni Mitchell called Gran who sported one purple sock and one green and wore a lampshade on her head. She winked at how the nurses thought her demented. Hilarious. Another piece connected the Joni Mitchell song with the Vaughan Williams excerpt to produce a powerful description of a sacrifice. Someone else departed from the music we’d heard and recounted memories of an old manor house inspired by one of Mozart’s piano concertos. Anything goes, just as long as we write.