In what follows, I describe myself as having a rare experience which led me to connect with the thinking processes of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, arguably the greatest musical composer of all time. (In a future note I will discuss the nature of modesty).
I was later able to connect what happened to with much that has been written about with the moment of self awareness, often associated with the Eureka moment in the myth of Archimedes, or the aha moment as it was described by Arthur Koestler.
Like others interested in creativity, I have written and even given lectures about it. But this is the first time it has happened to me in such a powerful way. Other related thoughts crowded into my head which I will come to later. But, first the details of my Mozart moment.
It started on a routine short drive on a quiet road.
I was mostly on autopilot, listening to the background music of Classic FM, and aware of the familiar road midday conditions. The music ended and the commentator confirmed that I had been listening to one of the most loved of Mozart’s compositions.
Suddenly, I could see vividly the infant Mozart playing the music.
And other non-verbal thoughts were on stage competing with the powerful mental image. These were the related thoughts jostling for my attention. The great chess champion Capablanca, as an infant who learned watching his father play. He went on to become one of the greatest chess players of all time!
Almost off-stage was someone who wanted to remind me of his story, which I could only faintly remember as a French mathematical genius Henri Poincaré who dreamed a solution to a big problem when getting on a bus, then forgetting it, only later rediscovering it, in full detail.
Still in the moment, I knew what the stories were telling me. I was sharing the way a bundle of sensations become arranged into a new understanding for Mozart. Also how his insights went from a rich bundle of possibilities to a great musical construction.
Also how the process was shared by the infant genius of Capablanca, and as described by Archimedes then refined by Poincaré among others ...
