When finishing up the previous post (which had sat around unfinished for weeks, poor thing) I got to the bit about where artists’ ideas come from and remembered an anecdote I think I heard on the radio about 20 years ago, but have never encountered since.
Igor Stravinsky, when asked what he was thinking of while composing The Rite of Spring, once replied* “Fresh air and cheese, plus a lot of electricity.”
Incidentally, googling stravinsky +air +cheese +electricity will take you to a bunch of Frank Zappa sites.
* Allegedly! i.e. according to me.
TimT, 31 March 2007:
Hadn't heard that one, all I'd heard was the primitivistic death fantasy about the vestal virgin being sacrificed to the God of Spring, or something. Cheese and electricity, eh?
Ben.H, 1 April 2007:
Ah yeah, all that pagan sacrifice stuff was just a clever Russian ruse to distract you from the secret electric cheese.