Einojuhani Rautavaara

I'd always imagined that composers, like good writers, know exactly how a piece will end as they work on it. 

Unlike me, they don't just ramble along in the hope of saying something profound (or vaguely interesting) (ok, not overly boring) before, by sheer luck, finding a neat line to exit on.

Surely the best composers have the thing fully formed in their head before they put pen to paper. Gershwin claimed to have achieved that with the astonishing Rhapsody in Blue during a train journey between New York and Boston. The tune was right there in the clickety-clack and rattle-ty bang of the engine and track, he claimed. All he had to do was jot it down. But I think he was fibbing.

One of my favourite composers is Rautavaara who was born in Finland and lives there still. He told me (via the medium of BBC Radio 3) that he has no idea how a piece will end when he begins it. He also has no idea how it will middle. Worse, he has no idea how it will start. 

He just starts writing and hopes for inspiration. And because he's a genius the inspiration always arrives like the proverbial feather on the breath of God. And the music is beautiful and fully formed. 

He talked about having trouble finding an ending to one piece in particular. At the time he had a close friend, a painter, who was dying. When Rautavaara looked at the painting his friend was working on - his final piece - he was overcome by how bright and colourful the paintings' perspective was. His friend wanted a happy ending. Inspired by this he ended his own piece in a similarly uplifting way.

I just visited a friend and he told me he was dying. He said he wanted to make his last days on earth as joyful was possible. He's 57 next week and he wants a happy ending as well.