Towards a taxonomy of musical inspiration

This article summarises the rather sparse literature on inspiration as an part of the composition process and suggests that part of the problem is that there is a lack of a specific vocabulary and a suitable taxonomy for exploring aspects of the nature and working of inspiration in music. In order to help develop a means of achieving a meaningful discourse in this somewhat neglected area of the musical creative process the article proposes a taxonomy and vocabulary building upon the three stages of musical composition found in the work of Theodor Adorno: Einfall,; Die Arbeit ; Werden. Einfall is expanded into a classification Einfall – ‘Validation’, and through examination of the opening motif of Rihm’s 4th string quartet in various sketch forms a network of sub-categories is established – Validation through Content, through Context, and through Detail. Similarly Die Arbeit is expanded into Die Arbeit – ‘Conceptualisation’ with sub categories of ‘Essence’ and ‘Purposefulness’. Finally Werden is expanded into Werden - ‘Mindfulness’ and the article closes by exploring the idea that these three elements appear to be cyclic through the composition process.