Article April 26, 1999 Issue

From A Musician

Kenneth Girard

As a composer and pianist, I am continually involved in what most people would describe as creative and recreative activities. For the past century or so, it has been fashionable to attribute the source or inspiration of those activities to the human mind or subconscious. From my own experience as a composer and as a Christian, I believe that all great composers and the truly profound compositions of those composers—compositions that move and uplift human thought to higher realms of consciousness and behavior—were inspired, and that the source of that inspiration is God.

When I am composing, the act of creating is one akin to taking dictation—of listening intently to what is being imparted and notating it accordingly. I have learned over the years to remove a personal sense of me—that is, I don't think of myself as some insightful mortal independent from God, but instead as His image and likeness, reflecting divine intelligence and inspiration. The more open to inspiration I am, the more readily flows the music. Indeed, for me, the mental state involved in composing is very similar, if not identical, to that of prayer. It is one of receptivity and consecration.

Not only do new works come forth regularly by understanding that it is God who is the sole creative Principle of the universe, and that the act of creation does not rest in me: but works that have been put aside for years (because of other projects or activities) have been finished with a complete sense of continuity.

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