When composing, I wish to be transparent and allow the truth, beauty and goodness of the Creator show through in the music, whether it is sacred or secular (except when I compose in the style of Mozart). Then I am nothing but opaque. It all begins and ends with the notes on the page, the gymnastic feats that the performer can impress, and when the performance stops, so does any lasting effect that it will have on the soul.

ADDED:

I have only composed one piece in the Mozartian style in my entire life, and that was yesterday. It will also be my last. It was fresh on my mind since you brought up composing, so I apologize if my comments offend you. My other forumites will be happy that I added this part so as not to drive you away.

ybello

After rereading your post, it seems that what you are saying is that God speaks to you through music that you are listening to. Is that correct? And then are you asking if a composer would write something and sing it back to God? I think the title threw me more in the direction as what a composer experiences when writing music and didn't really speak to your question.

did bingen compose the pentecost chant?

did bingen compose the pentecost chant?

The sequence? Not that I'm aware of... I was delighted to find out Benny XVI named her a Doctor of the Church in 2012.

The original poster (I'm pretty sure) was talking about receiving musical content as direct and specific inspiration from God, in the context of prayer and meditation.

This is a fairly well-attested phenomenon across all religious and spiritual traditions, though not at all universal to all individuals.

Hildegard, if I remember correctly, described her compositions this way.
(I could be wrong about that, but I think it's right. Also, she painted her visions.)

The Shakers, who generated a huge corpus of music over their two centuries of activity, described musical composition entirely in these terms. They didn't even say that someone had written or composed a piece of music, but rather that he or she had "received" it, or that it had been "given."

Indeed, the canticles in the early chapters of Luke, and the story of the "composition" of the Te Deum by Ambrose and Augustine can be understood in these terms. And even if one considers these accounts to be more "tales" than "history," even their existence in religious tradition confirms that people have always and everywhere accepted the reception of a fully-composed song as inspiration from the Holy Spirit to be within the realm of divine possibility.

In my meager compositional output, I have written very little in the way of purely instrumental music (a few organ fugues - and a terrible Mozartian Sonatina as part of a school project); I have mainly written vocal music: Masses, Hymns, Anthems, Motets, Part-songs. Very rarely have I said "I want to write a piece settings XYZ text". I might be reading a piece of poetry, or a piece of verse, sacred or secular, comes to my mind, and the theme(s) gradually show up while thinking about it, and the piece gradually builds.

That's sort-of the easy part of composing, it's the editing/revising that I can't stand. (Blast it, another parallel fifth with the tenor, we'll change that to a...nope direct octaves with the treble...Oh, heck...) That's the nice thing about Shape-note style, parallel fifths and octaves are good!

Thank you for your comments. I would like to reiterate the comment: When in prayer, and we, as composers, are in conversation with God and God speaks in musical terms, have you had such experiences. It is clear that some music that we hear is so inspired that affects the listener because of how beautiful it is. I'm inclined to think that such inspirations, that affect the listener, are from God Himself. I was hoping to hear from composers that have had that experience. So, during prayer, does music come to mind.

how many here pray before composing OR while praying composing something comes to mind?

That's awesome!! do you consider that to be in a conversation with God? I mean, do you feel it's one way, He to you, or you use that grace to communicate back?

They were contemporaries and sometimes competitors, but also friends: Mozart took Salieri and his wife to see "The Magic Flute" and wrote of how Salieri gave bravos to every number.

The story of the 'stolen' Requiem is described here:
http://inmozartsfootsteps.com/380/the-real-story-of-mozart-salieri-and-amadeus-2/

More and more, my belief is: inspiration is relying on Holy Spirit (or something beyond us, for lack of a better name) for approximately 1-3% of our music; improvising is relying on past habits and 1-3% inspiration; and writing music professionally is relying on very very very much hard work, study, and continual re-examination, plus a little inspiration and a little improvisation. cf. Beethoven sketchbooks.