Songwriting collaboration is a volatile business at best. I have worked with composers who refused to rewrite melodies which did not fit the characters they were meant for, and for a time I suspected the refusal was based on arrogance. But I was wrong. Composers who stubbornly stick to what they have written are afraid they have no other notes in reserve. Their refusal to rewrite is just a ploy to cover their imagined infertility.Saturday, February 5, 2011
Arrogance?
Songwriting collaboration is a volatile business at best. I have worked with composers who refused to rewrite melodies which did not fit the characters they were meant for, and for a time I suspected the refusal was based on arrogance. But I was wrong. Composers who stubbornly stick to what they have written are afraid they have no other notes in reserve. Their refusal to rewrite is just a ploy to cover their imagined infertility.
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Composers are fallen in love with melody and harmony, not in characters.
ReplyDeleteYes, they are in love with a melody and harmony, and not with the character, I agree. It es very kind that you consider also their fears, but artists are jelously possessive of their creatures. In addition Einsein's attitude ("My pencil is more intelligent than me") nowadays is not common. Especially composers and poets nowadays refuse to do remittance work (dear MK, it can be a great thing to stick to attitudes which today may be considered medieval, and you are one of the few who show their timelessness). Haydn may have accepted suggestions and patiently tried to modify. Mozart wrote the Janitscharenchor at the last moment calling the actors "Kommts, i muss eu gschwind no a wos reinschmiern!"
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