How Do You Know When a Song is Finished? (Part II)

Maria Schneider‘s process is complicated. She relies on her musicians to improvise around musical ideas and help her come up with the musical solutions that become part of the final piece.

For her latest album, “The Thompson Fields,”Schneider took the entire ensemble, more than a dozen musicians, to her tiny hometown of Windham, Minnesota, so they could soak in the landscape. After having visited hera year earlier while she was in the throes of composition, Kurt Andersen talks to Schneider about how she finished.

Kurt Andersen: How does it feel to be done? This is a long process.

Maria Schneider: I feel like I am literally crawling on my hands and knees to the finish line. It’s a huge project. It’s a lot of music and a lot of details. You put years into writing it. I want to represent each soloist in a really good way. I put my heart and soul into these records.

This one more than others, or do they all take this much out of you?

They’re all painful. But each subsequent one feels like, Oh, it was never this painful before. Then other people remind me that yes, you cried before.

(Originally aired June 4, 2015)