How These Ten Pieces Can Help Writers Unlock Creativity

by Emily E. Hogstad

Writing is hard. It’s a lonely pursuit requiring not only focus and discipline, but inspiration, too.

While there are many tools and techniques that writers can use to boost their creativity, one often overlooked resource is classical music.

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Today we’re looking at ten famous pieces of classical music and why they might appeal to writers.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a writer or just starting out, here’s how these classical pieces can help you unlock your full potential and take your writing to the next level.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: MOONLIGHT SONATA

This melancholy piece for solo piano will encourage writerly introspection, enabling authors to explore their deepest thoughts and feelings…even when those thoughts and feelings might be dark or sad.

Its mesmerizing triplet rhythm will help writers get into a meditative creative groove, too. 

ANTONIO VIVALDI: THE FOUR SEASONS

The ever-shifting moods contained within these four timeless concertos by Vivaldi will inspire writers to weave a diverse range of emotions and experiences into their writing. 

Here’s a hint: if you want a modern take on these concertos, try listening to Max Richter’s Recomposed, a reimagining of Vivaldi’s original music. It sounds like a movie soundtrack. 

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: REQUIEM IN D MINOR

The haunting melodies and solemn nature of this masterpiece will help writers contemplate profound questions about life, death, and the human condition.

Mozart died young while writing the Requiem. Hopefully apart from the music, that story will encourage authors to seize the day and prioritize that writing project they’ve always dreamed about tackling. 

J.S. BACH: GOLDBERG VARIATIONS

This intricate piece for keyboard will inspire writers to strive for perfection in their craft and pay attention to every little detail, just like Bach did.

The thoughtful complexity of the Goldberg Variations – like so much of Bach’s music, and Baroque music in general – can help writers of all kinds to get into a particularly productive flow state. 

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: SWAN LAKE

The grandiose gestures of this iconic Romantic ballet will help writers channel their inner drama queen and imbue their writing with a sense of old-fashioned romance.

This is perfect music for when you’re writing characters experiencing fierce arguments, grand realizations, or passionate love affairs. 

CLAUDE DEBUSSY: CLAIR DE LUNE

This dreamy, atmospheric solo piano piece will transport writers into a world of inspiration, enabling them to easily visualize the beauty of a moonlit night.

This piece would be perfect to listen to while writing quiet scenes between two characters, or the inner monologue of a character who is alone and lost in thought. 

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL: MESSIAH

The soaring melodies and powerful choral outbursts of Handel’s masterpiece will inspire writers to explore themes of faith, hope, and redemption, and infuse their writing with a sense of transcendence and wonder.

And again, like so much Baroque music, its propulsive rhythms will help writers get into that sought-after creative groove.

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN: NOCTURNES

The moody, atmospheric nature of these piano pieces evokes a sense of longing and introspection in any writer and will inspire them to delve into their characters’ inner worlds.

The nocturnes would be especially perfect for anyone writing historical fiction or Gothic drama. Nothing conjures up a Victorian parlor or doomed period romance like Chopin’s piano music! 

Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1

The majesty of Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 will inspire writers to think big and aim for greatness, while the soaring melodies and powerful crescendos might give them ideas about how to build suspense and excitement in their own work.

This piece should also inspire every writer to keep at their craft and never give up, because this symphony took Brahms over twenty years to compose! The next time you have a bad writing day, think of Brahms and his persistence. 

GUSTAV HOLST: THE PLANETS

Each movement of The Planets represents a different planet in the solar system, so you can imagine how dramatic this music gets!

It’s no coincidence that The Planets often sounds like movie music. Composer John Williams was deeply inspired by Holst’s portrait of the cosmos when composing his classic soundtracks. 

These ten pieces of classical music are only the beginning. By taking the time to explore different genres, composers, and pieces, writers can tap into a rich source of inspiration – and in the process, unlock their full creative potential.

Happy writing!

Albert Schweitzer – Bach, Peace and Cats

by Georg Predota , Interlude

“There are only two means of refuge from the miseries of life:
Music and Cats!”

Albert Schweitzer

For many of us mere mortals, it seems utterly unfair that some fortuitous individuals should inherit multiple talents and abilities. Take for example the polymath genius Albert Schweitzer, who made major scholarly contributions to theology and music in the early years of the twentieth century. Not satisfied, he abandoned his academic career and established a medical mission in Africa, a legacy of humanitarian service that is still active today.

Schweitzer was born 14 January 1875 in Kayserberg in Upper Alsace, the son of a Lutheran pastor. He took organ lessons at an early age, and started private lessons with the famed Parisian organist Charles-Marie Widor in 1893. His passion for organ music was paralleled by a fascination with theology and he concordantly entered Strasbourg University to study theology and philosophy. He submitted a dissertation on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant to earn the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in July 1899, followed by a Doctorate in Theology with a dissertation on the “Last Supper” in 1900. A second work, “A Sketch of the life of Jesus” was published in 1901 and challenged the secular view of Jesus. His multiple writings reviewed, summarized and critiqued a vast corpus of research into the Life of Jesus that stressed the distance between the historical Jesus and contemporary views that saw Jesus detached from the cultural context of Judaism. For many thinkers, his greatest contribution to humanity was his quest for a universal ethical philosophy. Following the military use of nuclear weapons on Japan’s civilian population, Schweitzer felt that Western civilization was inexorably decaying because it had abandoned affirmation of life as its ethical foundation. His most influential discourse, “Reverence for Life” not only laid the theoretical foundation for his personal missionary works in Africa, it also gained him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.

Schweitzer’s theological acumen also uniquely paved the way for his scholarly and practical interpretation of J.S. Bach’s music. He began to explore the use of pictorial and symbolical representations in Bach’s Chorale Preludes, in which harmonic language, musical motifs and rhythmic figures illustrate the actual words of the hymns on which they were based. At the instigation of Widor, Jean-Sebastian Bach: Le Musicien-Poète was published in 1905 and presented a critical study of Bach’s music based on devotional contemplation in which the musical design corresponded to literary ideas and was visually represented in the score. Originally published in French, great demand in Germany prompted Schweitzer to rewrite his study and he eventually published two greatly expanded German volumes in 1908.

Albert Schweitzer’s published writings on J.S. Bach

As a performer, Schweitzer was constantly in search of “clarity of expression.” Growing up in Alsace, he had experienced the sleek, colorful and highly characteristic sounds of the organs produced by Gottfried and Andreas Silbermann, the most famous and influential instrument builders active during J.S. Bach’s lifetime. For performances of Bach’s music therefore, Schweitzer advocated a move away from the large Romantic instruments of the 19th Century and called for more refined instruments suited to Baroque music. The Art of German and French Organ Building and Organ Playing was published in 1906, and not only laid the foundation for the modern-day instruments, but also aided in his personal restoration of the Organ at St. Aurelie in Strasbourg, which produced his famous 1936 recording of Bach’s “Chorale Preludes.” Prior to his departure for Africa in 1912, Schweitzer founded the Paris Bach Society, and published a new edition of Bach’s organ works with detailed analysis of each work in three languages. After eight grueling years of study, Schweitzer also qualified as a medical doctor with a specialization in tropical medicine and surgery, and he began to raise private funds for the establishment of a hospital based at Lambaréné in the French Congo. Schweitzer was a harsh critic of colonialism, and his medical mission was his response to the “injustices and cruelties people have suffered at the hands of Europeans.” Until his death in 1965, Schweitzer continued to publish, lecture, perform and care for the sick. He apparently did so in the company of his two cats, “Sizi” and “Piccolo.” According to legend, his cats liked to sleep in the middle of his desk and if someone needed some papers, “they were required to wait until the cats woke up.” However you’d like to describe Albert Schweitzer — intelligent, articulate, compassionate, musical, spiritual or ethical — we could certainly do worse then to aspire to his level of humanity.

Music for reading / Musik zum Lesen: Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Debussy, Liszt, Sch...

Music for reading.Musik zum Lesen.
Enjoy. Viel Spass.

Max Reger - His Music and His Life

The German Max Reger was born in Brand, Fichtelgebirge on March 19, 1873.

Reger experienced an incredible career up to becoming Court Conducter in Meiningen/Germany. The daily contact with a proficient orchestra trained Reger's sense, mind and meaning for colorful instrumentation.

As piano virtuoso, Reger sent his listeners into raptures because of a wonderful fine and delicate finger touch. 

In my opinion Reger is the most unterrated piano composer ever. "Varations and Fugue on a theme by Bach" is probably his most famous piano work. "Thinking in fugues" - that's why his organ compositions belong to German music treasures. But also his chamber music repertory remained as unsurpassable rich. Even being a devote Catholic, Reger enriched also other creeds with varied church and organ music works.

Max Reger's lifestyle has been described as "full of deeply moral earnestness". He passed away in Leipzig on May 11, 1916.