The notion that melancholia spurs creativity is widespread, but in science it has been controversial, and research has not really demonstrated a direct link between sadness and many of the most lasting achievements in art history.
Now, a new study from an economist at the University of Southern Denmark appears to show that link. The researcher, Karol Jan Borowiecki, examined the emotional state of three influential composers through the full course of their lives. Using linguistic analysis software that scanned the text for positive and negative emotions, such as joy, love, grief and hurt, he analyzed 1,400 letters written by Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Liszt to their friends, colleagues and loved ones. All three had turbulent lives, sometimes tragic, sometimes jubilant. He compared the data with the compositions they produced, looking in particular at their most influential and transformative works.
What he found was a link between periods of negative emotions, especially sadness, and artistic brilliance.
For all their extraordinary achievements, Borowiecki’s analysis suggests that the causes of these composers’ happiness and sadness were the same as any ordinary individual. When they had stable and engaging employment, good health and personal relationships they were happy, and when they fell on hard times financially, their health became poor or when a close relative died, they were predictably sad.
Borowiecki’s analysis suggests that negative emotions are not just correlated with creativity but that they actually have a causal effect on it. Using econometrics, he calculates that a 9.3 percent increase in negative emotions leads to a 6.3 percent increase in works created in the following year. To generate an entire important composition in the next year, the composer would need to see his negative emotions increase by about 37 percent.
“Creativity, measured by the number of important compositions, is causally attributable to negative moods, particularly sadness”.(adapted from an article on Inc.com)
Apparently, composers wrote more letters when they were angry or depressed,and fewer when they were happy. Moreover, their production of first class pieces went down if they were married, in a relationship, or felt contented.
Maybe the moral is: if you associate with someone who has an artistic temperament make him or her utterly miserable and the world will be blessed with a masterpiece! Seriously, though, I think the answer lies in the fact that, when stressed or miserable, artists find refuge in the one thing that gives them pleasure, that they know how to do well, and which will allow them, if temporarily, to forget their troubles. Music composition is, in particular, utterly absorbing – balm for the soul
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Please Note: I have found a way of posting these last two days, but will probably not be able to do so on Monday or Tuesday.
Mozart was lauded as a child prodigy but was driven to depression when he was prevented from marrying a girl he loved and when his mother suddenly died. After the death of his father, Liszt became his family’s sole breadwinner at a young age; he was never able to marry the woman he loved, and he saw his children pass away before him. After a period of poverty, Beethoven discovered at 30 that he was going deaf, and he was emotionally stricken when at the end of his life a nephew under his care tried to commit suicide. The translator of Beethoven’s letters said he fluctuated emotionally between “explosions of harshness and almost weak yieldingness, while striving to master base thoughts”.
Fascinating post! I definitely noticed that the more creative people at school seemed far more likely to suffer from depression and very low self-confidence. Negative emotions may fuel creativity because the individuals in question use their creative talents to escape their misery. Also, I’m generally a very happy person with no real personal problems, and I’m about as uncreative as you get.