Min-Ad: Israel Studies in Musicology Online Yulia Kreinin – Two Facets of the Creative Process: Mark Kopytman’s Writings on Composition Two Facets of the Creative Process: Mark Kopytman’s Writings on Composition YULIA KREININ Schoenberg and Hindemith, Messiaen and Boulez, Cage and Babbitt, Stockhausen and Schnittke, Ligeti and Lutoslawski—one can add many more names to this list. Many twentieth-century composers wrote texts on composition. 1 Each had a unique personality and, accordingly, even if we set aside their specific musical messages, conveyed a unique message to readers. There is, however, a typological similarity among their writings that merits our attention. In short, their attitude to music analysis differs significantly from that of musicologists, whose aims and methods are different. In most cases, whether consciously or not, composers took account of the practical application of theoretical knowledge to music, with its potential to enrich their professional tools. Mark Kopytman’s essays on composition seem to have been written in pursuit of similar goals. Nevertheless, his interest in music analysis was not just pragmatic. From the beginning of his professional career, during his doctoral studies in Moscow in 1955–58, Kopytman wanted to be both a composer and a musicologist, composing new works and acquiring a PhD in musicology at the same time. For the next fifty years, he continued along the same main lines. Every year, he taught both composition and theoretical courses, always combining theory and practice in a natural but deliberate fashion. His research interests and endeavors did not disappear, but took on a specific and at times rather unusual direction. His scholarly writings were triggered and motivated by his need to summarize his practical experience, first for himself and then for his students and anyone else interested. Teaching was always a significant part of Kopytman’s creative activity. To define the specific genre of his writings, we should begin with “Kopytman the pedagogue,” because his personality manifested itself clearly in his classes, in a way that also provides a key to his pedagogical and artistic position in his specific field of interest. In 1999, to mark Kopytman’s seventieth birthday, some of his former composition students decided to write a collective tribute to him. They composed a number of short musical pieces, which were performed in a festive concert. Later, a collection of essays and dialogues, entitled Mark Kopytman: Voices of Memories, was published, which included a section called “Just a Few Words.” 2 These were remarks written by colleagues, 1 Each of these publications had a different aim and presented the material in a different fashion. For the present article, the textbooks for practical training, such as those by Schoenberg, The Theory of Harmony, and Hindemith, The Craft of Musical Composition, are of paramount importance. 2 Mark Kopytman, Voices of Memories. Essays and Dialogues, ed. Yulia Kreinin (Tel Aviv: Israel Music Institute, 2004).