• Music and the mind

  Music by Chapter

  Posted by Anneloes Wolters on December 26, 2023 at 11:15 pm

  After composing music working from ‘the coincidence of opposites’, I found my music much more interesting, contrasting and diverse. To understand better what it means to work from Iains suggested philosophy, I decided for the coming year to read the books chapter by chapter (again for most chapters) and comment on them from the perspective of a composer. I will use this platform to contemplate on the subject, besides my personal blog on http://www.anneloeswolters.com

  In short, I asked Iain these two questions and the answers motivated to do this project:

  1. How does the coincidence of opposites help create music?

  2. Where does the music come from? (transcription will follow)

  ——————————————————-

  Transciption of the answer to question 1:

  Iain McGilchrist 09-12-2023

  How does the coincidence of opposites
  help create music?

  It’s a terribly good question. I put it in partly
  because I thought this is a really testing question. And I think
  partly, I don’t think I have said that the coincidence of opposites
  helps create music.

  I’ve talked about music and I’ve talked
  about the coincidence of opposties and most probably the coincidence
  of opposites applies in the case of music. And I think it does. When
  I come to think more about it, first of all, music is all about
  relations.And that’s not the same as opposites, of course.

  But in those relationships and
  relations you can have things that do oppose one another and produce
  something very beautiful. So for example, there can be lines of music
  that in some sense both blend and contravene one another. So you get
  interesting discords that then resolve into something else.

  And the resolustion is more beautiful
  then could have been, if there had not been the passing discord,
  which is an image for those of you who know my work.

  Well, that will bring back the idea of
  Kintsugi, the idea of the caballistic myth of creation and the
  repairing of the vessels and so on. So, and I use an example in the
  book, from, one of Bach’s keyboard suites, where there is a chord,
  which is actually A,B,C,D, played simultaneously. If you’ve got an
  piano nearby, play them and think, how can that possibly be part of a
  beautiful piece of music?

  But it is, and when you hear it, you
  are not at all, disturbed by it. In fact, there’s a sort of beauty in
  the fact that is does resolve. And a lot of renaissance music has
  these, so-called false relations, in other words, where you are led
  to feel and suspect something and they’re at odds with one another
  and then they come together and create something more beautiful.

  I think there’s also a coincidence of
  opposites in rhythm, because rhythm seems to be and is a matter of
  punctuation, if you like, in, what is in essence, as I’m constantly
  saying, a flow.

  So a melody, a piece of music is a
  seamless flow, but rhythm is a punctuating force. And it’s no
  surprise therefore that broadly speaking, at least in a non highly
  educated musical mind, that the left hemisphere deals with fairly
  simple rhythms. The left hemishpere deals with fairly simple rhythms,
  the right hemishpere with harmony and melody and with complex
  rhythms.

  And I think what’s going on there is,
  that the harmonies and melodies and even complex rhythms like
  syncopations actually activate the flow so that in a syncopation you
  feel the flow even more because of the rhythm. So instead of being a
  punctiating element, the rhythm becomes an extending and unifying
  element.

  And this way in which an element of
  differentiation ultimately ends up as a force for union is essential
  to the nature of creation. I say, this is part of the creation of the
  cosmos, of what exists. And I think, in the book, I quote Jury(?) is
  saying that individuality is a decisive phase on a process towards
  continuity. So, in the building of continuity and flow, there needs
  also to be elements that punctuate and articulate. And they may seem
  to be going in opposite directions, they’re not.

  So those would be a couple of things
  that occur to me, off the top of my head, as ways in which the
  coincidence of opposites works for us. And we’re often sensing the
  possibility of that unspoken opposite. And then when it actually is
  revealed in the music, it’s particularly beautiful. We may not notice
  it, but we may notice that something beautiful happened.

  anneloeswolters.com

  Anneloes Wolters Composer - Anneloes Wolters | composer

  Anneloes Wolters is a composer based in the Netherlands, Delft. Anneloes writes 'stories in music' for (wind)orchestra, ensembles and vocals.

  Anneloes Wolters replied 11 months, 2 weeks ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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