Where Do Melodies Come From?

Beginning of article

abstract

This is the first of two articles studying unconscious creativity. In creativity, conscious and unconscious capacities are mostly intermingled, because in addition to creative inspiration the artist requires a wide range of specific talents, long hours of learning, training and other conscious elements. In order to avoid discussing the question, in each instance of artistic talent, "to what extent is there an unconscious component here?" I have chosen to focus on the one component upon which there is full agreement that the artist has no conscious control over - the composition of an original melody. The article presents the words of several famous composers, each of whom …