JimmieBJr

There's Ibert's Concertino de Camera.

I don't know that's it's a particularly useful feeling, though. No one who creates anything consistently produces reliably "good" stuff. Edison certainly didn't and his inventing was every bit as creative, IMO, as composing music. I remember reading some years ago that Stephen King, who certainly produces some pretty good writing, wrote every day because he wanted to keep himself in the habit of writing instead of getting in the habit of simply waiting for inspiration that might never come. Also, he said, in a round about way, that inspiration is frequently produced by hard work. I tend to believe that is true far more often than it's not. Writing regularly disciplines your mind to get on task more quickly (which, for an ADD-addled brain like mine is a real problem). That saves some valuable time, I'd think. Fear is a big problem, but at this point in my life, I know I'm going to write some real stinkers. I also know that I'll write some good stuff, too. I take the stinkers with the good stuff, because that's just the way things are. You can't kick against the wind, right?

E.E. Cummings' work is under copyright, still. It's owned by a subsidiary of WW Norton & Company. The good news is that it's pretty easy to get permission to set his poems to music and there's no charge to do so. Here's how I did it earlier this year. I sent an e-mail to Elizabeth Clementson, the Permissions Manager (Permissions@wwnorton.com) and let her know that I wanted to set a couple of his poems to music. Once I let her know which ones, she sent out a permission letter with the poems listed on it. I signed one of the copies and sent it back to them. When you are ready to publish your piece (which I enjoyed. Isn't Cummings fun?), you'll need to have your publisher contact her again to make a publishing arrangement, which isn't free. But the publishing houses know how to handle all of that. Hope this helps some and good luck!

I'd like to toss Beethoven seriously into the mix. The transition from the third to fourth movement of his Fifth Symphony is my definition of "dawning exultation". And his Ninth always fills me up full of laughter, from the very beginning. And the exact opposite of Beethoven's happiness is Carmina Burana.