songwriters: are songs creations or discoveries?

both you discover the creations of earth and you get inspired

Creations.

I think they are both:

The ones you work hard on, pour your soul into, even go as far as to leave a part of you with that song are your creations.

When a tune pops in your head and just flows naturally out its a discovery.

I think it is a very good question....... I think some people are able to get stuff down by themselves, just the same as a prism refracts light and their prisms are solely their own....... but I do know that it is also possible for people to pick up music .... there is a piece written by a modern British composer whose name ~ gracefully enough ~ slips my mind at the moment ..... right in the middle of the piece is a good deal of thematic material identical to that belonging to an anthem I have sung in church, composed before he composed his piece .... I just know he picked it up, through no fault of his own........obviously ideas float around in the atmosphere.....when I was in college my Asian History professor pointed out that in various parts of the world in ancient history people made red and black pottery but in places far apart on the earth ...I myself have made little drawings, thinking they were mine, only to find that they were already out in public!!!

It is an puzzlement! I often wonder about people like Mozart, who wrote so much material so fast .....or Bach who once when asked how he managed to compose so much music replied, "Why it is quite simple. When I awake in the morning the music is all there lying around on the floor!" Perhaps they have the music of others, or perhaps on some level they themselves have figured it our ahead of time......or maybe there is a music fountain somewhere!!

I know this question arises in the minds of many creative people ...... a couple of modern dancers who were classmates in college talked about just this thing, and they were both looking confused and worried at the same time....

someone told me recently that the opening line of Leonard Bernstein's "Somewhere" from West Side Story occurs in Bruckner's Second Symphony....I wager that Bernstein had heard it before, and maybe misfiled it somewhere ..

hope this helps somehow in your quest!

I know when i write I dont think about the notes, I kinda discover them on the keyboard of my piano. Great question!

They are both

You create a song using notes, then you've made a discovery.

But I suppose it could be looked at etheir way

They are creations.

You take existing notes, and words, and create a musical story.

both....

it is a creation and discovery of something new. u can discover ur feeling or u can create a new one.

i never think abt that when i write song,just express my feelings

ryan s, Please lets not forget, gifts from heaven !