Jennifer Higdon has composer anxiety, but she stuck with it and now she has a Pulitzer Prize for music for her Violin Concerto. Check out this recent article in the New York Times. Here is a short excerpt of what she had to say:
Ms. Higdon said she doesn’t experience writer’s block and composes fast: “I think it’s a little like working out. You get that muscle going, where you’re just using it all the time. So I tend to move on to the next project pretty quickly.”
Despite some days of writing anxiety and dark moods, she rarely puts down her pen. Composing “is a very serious need,” Ms. Higdon said. “I have to express things.”
Ms. Higdon has had her share of detractors, who told her she couldn’t compose because she had started so late; that a flute performance major couldn’t be a composer; that she would never make a living; and that she would never get into graduate school. Some male composers grumbled to her face that her she’s only been successful because she’s a woman.
“Everyone runs into naysayers,” Ms. Higdon said, “but if you love something enough and feel passionately enough, you just go on ahead, walk right round the person saying it, proceed down the road and don’t look back.”
We all have naysayers. Even Jennifer Higdon. They may be outer critics or inner critics. But it’s important to not let them stop us. We must all proceed down the road of our dreams and DON’T LOOK BACK!
P.S. I am an ex-shrink who writes novels. Check out my books here.
Comment from email subscriber:
“As usual, your inspiration continues!
Thanks Susan!”
Glad to be of help!
How true. Especially where she says, Composing “is a very serious need,†Ms. Higdon said. “I have to express things.â€
When I have an insight in something I’m writing, I feel like buttonholing strangers and telling them, “Did you know yada yada?!” It’s so important; at that moment, nothing in the world is more important.
Beethoven wrote even after he lost his hearing and was losing organ function as well (probably a combination of cirrhosis of the liver and lead poisoning, as lead was in everything in those days and they didn’t realize how bad it was). In one of his most monumental works, the string quartet Op. 132, he wrote a slow movement of “Thanksgiving” (
Check it out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_Quartet_No._15_%28Beethoven%29
and
https://mc01.equinox.net/users/j/jimbob/classical/lvb_quartets.html#late
and this is fascinating–just found it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c-R544gF8s
Whoop, didn’t finish my last post! Meant to add the famous German name of the movement, Heiliger Dankgesang. You can do it if you want.
Fascinating stuff!
Those puddies in that picture are so darned cute. I just want to hug them every time I see it.