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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2008
The really important question is: ‘What does the composer start with; where does he begin?’ The answer to that is, Every composer begins with a musical idea – a musical idea, you understand, not a mental, literary, or extramusical idea. Suddenly a theme comes to him. (Theme is used as synonymous with musical idea.) The composer starts with this theme; and the theme is a gift from Heaven. Aaron Copland, What to Listen for in Music (1939)