The Creative Process

When starting to compose anything [...], I need two things:
— A set of what I call "key ideas" or "concepts," and
— An idea of the work as a whole.

What are key ideas and concepts?

It would be easy to define them in relation to 19th-century music, for example. This is because they were simply melodic themes. In a very short space, they concentrate a large amount of energy. This is very characteristic of themes, which draw our attention in a traditional piece. A "key idea" today is a set of sounds that are more closely related to each other than to any context in which they appear. It must be able to attract the attention of the composer, be particularly attractive to him. If such an ensemble of sounds appears in his imagination, it must have one very important feature: it must possess an attractive force completely independent of the context in which it occurs. By itself, and not because it happens before or after "something." If such a thing comes to mind, it is worth noting. It can become an essential element for the creation of a new work. Of course, a single key idea is not enough. One should have more of them. If one is too economical, one "spreads" a single idea across many pages. Each key idea must represent something on its own, regardless of the setting in which it appears.Then, blended into a whole, a context, or a musical action, it contains the power of influence inherent in a musical work. Provided, of course, that it becomes obedient to certain musical laws imposed by the work as a whole.

Before writing a composition, it is also necessary to have some vision of the entire work, however vague it may be. Very often, I imagine a piece not yet written, like a city seen from a high altitude, from an airplane. Only later, as I descend, can I concretize the details of such a vision. If one has such a vision and key ideas, which can then be examined up close, one can proceed to write the piece. Whether the initial stage involves composing key ideas or composing music in general is a variable matter; it depends on which “parameter” (as it is sometimes called) is more important at a given moment. If it is harmony, it governs what will be blended into it; if it is rhythm, it is the rhythm that takes precedence, and only the organization of pitch will be drawn from a repertoire of procedures one has, or something new will emerge that hasn’t been explored before. If it is an instrumental idea, that becomes the initial stage. I could use many examples to show where and in which places creation began first. I would simply like to point out that in order to compose music, one needs to have a set of methods developed over a long period of time.

Witold Lutosławski, statement from a discussion of the Third Symphony, in Witold Lutosławski. Presentations - Interpretations - Confrontations. Materials of the symposium devoted to the composer's work, ed. by Krystyna Tarnawska-Kaczorowska, Warsaw 1985

As is well known, Lutosławski worked intensively on his compositional technique. [...] Parallel to the creation of individual works, he was constantly absorbed in the development of his own language. Unfortunately, very little was known about these “parallel studies” or the “parallel path” that allowed the composer to follow the “main path.” The details of this “parallel road” were unknown, as was the way he continuously studied it [...]. Lutosławski's “parallel road” was by no means a side road. It was in this area [...] that Lutosławski [...] developed mechanisms to construct future structures and make them possible. These fundamental sketches from the “parallel road,” regarding material and technique, did not end up in the archives of the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel, along with the scores of individual works and their sketches. The composer never parted with them, and only after his death were they deposited in the aforementioned archive. This was because he wished to keep them with him, as they were never “complete” or “finished” like sketches for a particular score [...].What do these sketches look like? Their appearance resembles that of all other pre-compositional sketches at a certain stage of concretization, i.e., those immediately preceding the final manuscript. They are notated on music paper (usually half A3 size) and consist of small, carefully written notes accompanied by brief comments. Lutosławski wrote his comments, as well as rhythmic sketches or “key ideas,” on checkered notebook paper. With a few exceptions, the sketches are neither dated nor numbered.

Martina Homma, Lutosławski's Studies in Twelve-Tone Series, translated by Zbigniew Skowron, in Aesthetics and Style in the Works of Witold Lutoslawski. Studies edited by Zbigniew Skowron, Cracow 2000

Since his youth, Lutosławski sketched his works on halves of “vertical” format music paper, thus achieving a smaller, “horizontal” format. Almost all of his sketches are notated on paper prepared in this way, which conclusively proves that the composer considered this format more convenient and easier to organize into files. He once told me that the idea of cutting the paper in half was suggested to him by Panufnik (either in his student days or during their wartime collaboration), who supposedly also prepared the paper for sketches in the same way.

Charles Bodman Rae, Music of Lutoslawski, transl. St. Krupowicz, Warsaw 1996

After the composer's death, in addition to letters [...], many calendars, address books, score corrections, texts, a catalog of works, and comments about them, the Paul Sacher Foundation received several thousand pages of manuscripts and composer's sketches that require identification and organization. [...] This collection includes more or less advanced sketches for fragments of many completed scores, as well as hundreds of pages not related to any specific composition, documenting Lutosławski's "parallel path."
These sketches were grouped according to compositional problems, such as: reflection — mostly verbal — on the "organization of time" (which Lutosławski understood to include both formal issues and the rhythmic aspects of "aleatoric counterpoint") or the "organization of pitch." The composer's reflections on this topic constitute the largest part of the sketches, amounting to about 350 pages, mostly with musical notation on score paper and — occasionally — with verbal notes. In this section, the central focus is on the reflection dedicated to twelve-tone chords and twelve-tone series, with about 200 pages concerning (at least partially) twelve-tone series. Lutosławski tried to notate even the most fleeting ideas. He described his artistic work as "‘managing’ the gifts entrusted to him" and he strived to do it as best as possible, constantly working on his sketches, especially those belonging to the "parallel path." I remember that the sketches for the Third Symphony, which I studied at the composer's home in the late 1980s, reappeared in various folders containing sketches for later works. Also, the set of fragments in one of the folders marked "24p" appeared in different contexts of many works. Lutosławski often attached earlier sketches to later ideas.

Martina Homma, Lutosławski's Studies on Twelve-Tone Series, translated by Zbigniew Skowron, in: Aesthetics and Style in the Works of Witold Lutosławski. Studies edited by Zbigniew Skowron, Cracow 2000

The article "Próba rekonstrukcji procesu twórczego w Koncercie fortepianowym Witolda Lutosławskiego" by Aleksandra Bartos-Chmielewska, published in Forum Muzykologiczne in 2005, examines the creative process behind Lutosławski's Piano Concerto. The article aims to reconstruct how the composer developed his ideas for this piece, exploring his working methods and the evolution of the composition. Through analysis of Lutosławski's notes and drafts, the article sheds light on the intricacies of his compositional technique.

For more details, you can access the full text : here

From Witold Lutosławski's notes on uncomposed works in the collections of the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel, there are drafts related to electronic composition from the late 1950s and early 1960s. These notes provide insight into his exploration of electronic music, which was a significant but less known aspect of his compositional development during this period.

[Electronic composition, late 1950s and early 1960s]

[The combination of music and dance, 1960s]

[Concerto grosso, 1960s]

[Second String Quartet, late 1980s and early 1990s]