Category Archives: The Arts

Music and awe – food for integration.

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I have been reading Iain McGilchrist’s book “The Master and his Emissary” and thought I might share some personal reflections. There is a segment in the book about the right hemisphere, emotion and music, which drew my interest due to its relevance to my own life. This post is also inspired by the recent posts by Norma and Barry, on art and poetry.

For as long as I can remember I have been strongly affected by music, especially the music made by human voices. Hearing certain people sing touches my soul like almost nothing else can do. I am moved, often to tears, sometimes to the point of sobbing – which can be, socially, quite uncomfortable. I have puzzled over this strong response at times, somewhat conscious of being seen by others as an “over-emotional” or “suggestible” person. With time however I have (nearly) stopped being embarrassed by it, and instead I’ve come to appreciate how now and then I get to have these microscopic emotional journeys, right were I sit. And now I have learned something of why, and how, this happens.

As McGilchrist explains in the book, when it comes to processing music, the right hemisphere of the brain deals with harmony, melody, tone, intonation, timbre and pitch-processing. It also has a special relationship to “sad” feelings as well as feelings of connectedness.

Of course, the left hemisphere, too, plays a role in music appreciation and processing (especially, it turns out, for professional musicians who, plausibly, have a more analytical and automated relationship to music they “know”). Certain aspects of rhythm, for example, are often processed in the left hemisphere and due to its affinity for language music with lyrics will involve the left hemisphere. Nevertheless, the way music can evoke emotions in us is a testament to the involvement of the right hemisphere.

Timbre, harmony and rhythm, along with a melancholy theme, seem to be my  required ingredients for this musical “flying ointment”. At the end of this post, I will link to a few of my favourite musical intoxicants, songs that pull all the right strings of the right hemisphere for me.

McGilcrist writes:

“It has been said that music, like poetry, is intrinsically sad and a survey of music from many parts of the world would bear that out – not, of course, that there is no joyful music, but that even such music often appears to be joy torn from the teeth of sadness, a sort of holiday of the minor key. It is what we would expect in view of the emotional timbre of the right hemisphere; and there is a stronger affinity between the right hemisphere and the minor key, as well as between the left hemisphere and the major key. The pre-Socratic philosopher Gorgias wrote that ‘awe [phrike] and tearful pity and mournful desire enter those who listen to poetry’, and at this time poetry and song were one. The relationship between music and emotion is fascinating, and to some degree baffling. Suzanne Langer said that music not only has the power to recall emotions we are familiar with, but to evoke ‘emotions and moods we have not felt, passions we did not know before.”

This ability is a great gift to us. It seems to me that we ought to take every opportunity to broaden our horizons in this way, and that doing so can help further integration. The fact that sadness and feelings of darkness and despair are primarily the territory of the right hemisphere is also meaningful, especially keeping in mind that the left hemisphere is associated with longing for non-ambiguity, certainty and dogmatic belief. McGilchrist  explains that there is a connection between realism and depression. Perhaps cultivating feelings of awe and longing can help to connect us to the world beyond the illusory certainty and self-sufficiency of the left hemisphere, and keep us humble and curious.

Awe is an emotion I feel is very important to the Middle Way. There are some interesting connections between wonder and curiosity, spirituality and skepticism, and I’d like to expand on this further in a later post. In the meantime, here are some songs that inspire awe in me. For me, they all have that peculiar melancholic joy that the right hemisphere enjoys wallowing in.

I think it would be lovely to see suggestions in the comments of music that moves, or inspires awe in you.

Dead Can Dance – “Yulunga” I find this quite awe-inspiring, and the video provides some  dreamy images to stimulate you and imbue with your own associations and meaning. It is also interesting because although it has lyrics, the left hemisphere would have little to work with here as they are entirely an idioglossia (a made up language). Unfortunately the video ends a little bit abruptly, but the journey there is worth it!

Esbjörn Svensson Trio – “From Gagarin’s Point of View” An instrumental song; light and melodic, slightly melancholy and smooth.

Tool – “Right in Two” This is a song that uses complex rhythms and melodies and has beautiful vocals and also some great lyrics to ponder. It inspires a dark sense of wonder in me. A bit of a warning: it does get quite heavy and loud at the halfway mark.

Imogen Heap – “Just for Now” A wondrously creative performance by quirky songwriter Imogen Heap.

Embodied Meaning in a painting.

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Guernica 1937. Picasso.

In the 1930s,, Franco in Spain was waging war against Spanish civilians. With help from Hitler, he chose to bomb the Basque town of Guernica. To quote Picasso ‘ The war in Spain is the battle of reaction against the people, against liberty.’
Picasso had a horror of the military caste, which plunged Spain into a sea of suffering and death. He was making a political stand when he worked on Guernica. He portrayed a mirror-image of a world of atrocity and bestiality – ‘ from which it is man’s duty to emerge.’
The symbols he uses are powerful, the noble horse is struck down, the bull represents a brutal force of darkness. Faces were distorted with pain, light comes from an electric light bulb, not the sun, there is no divine power to relieve them. As work progressed, photographs were taken of each stage, to reveal Picasso’s thinking processes.
In order to understand Picasso, it helps to ‘grasp his idea and hold it.’ It is an historical painting, painted to remember their own history. We are asked to accept Picasso’s idea and images, or we cannot understand his work.
Picasso was aware of the poem by Eluard,
La Victoire de Guernica. 1936:-
Watch the builders at work
They are rich, patient, disciplined, black and stupid
But they do their best to be the only ones on earth
They are on the edges of humanity and heap it over with ordure
They flatten mindless palaces to ground level.
I think of Ground Zero.
Picasso also wrote a poem called The Dream and Lie of Franco.

Mural of "Guernica" by Picasso
Mural of “Guernica” by Picasso

BBC Reith Lectures 2013, given by Grayson Perry. Playing to the Gallery.

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The Final State of Art.
I listened to the third talk in the series today. Grayson Perry first discussed the relationship between Society and Art and how some artists are under the impression that the role of the artist is to shock, he suggested that there is nothing new in this approach, we can think of Duchamp’s work or that of the Fauve artists, who were called the Wild Beasts. He think that many of us seem to looking for rebellion in art, he gave a humorous description of ‘maya’, as being the most advanced yet acceptable! In other words, outrage has become domesticated, ‘gentrification is under way! I think that his humorous approach to the subject, succeeded in involving himself with the enthusiastic audience, it was liberally sprinkled with facetious quips. The fact that he has become part of the Art Establishment he finds amusing, potters at one time were perceived as ‘folksy’ and not serious artists.
He talked about manifestos, can anything be called art as long as it has a manifesto, in which the purpose of the piece is set out? He will always want to encourage artists, while also mentioning that not everything in his opinion, can be called Art.
Many ‘isms’ were listed, pluralism, commercialism, globalism, nepotism and capitalism.
Globalism is inevitable, is art produced for commercial gain really genuine? Art produced without that motivation may become popular, maybe it is beautiful, then the artist will earn his or her keep. It is hard for young artists to earn enough to afford studio rents and many artists gather in low priced housing areas, Grayson Perry warned that these areas can become trendy places to visit!! The Bobos are bourgeois bohemians, I think named so by D. Brooks in one of his books. Tracy Emin was mentioned, the Tory voter, said with feeling, that made me smile. He knows how to create some degree of shock too and relishes it I think.
I hope that some of you heard the talk and would like to add a comment.

Quotes and thoughts on the embodied mind, with painters in mind!

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Over recent decades, a great deal of new research has been done on the brain and how it functions. ‘The embodied mind emphasises that the body helps to shape the way we think, feel and behave, it is an embodied and relational process, that regulates energy and information flow.’ With the Cartesian paradigm -body and mind – ‘we have logical, linear, sequential meaning,’ but this leaves out ’emotions, intuition, creativity and a capacity to dare to try different solutions.’ In the Cartesin paradigm, ‘Taking advantage of the benefits brought about by the right hemisphere of the brain, such as creative imagination, serenity, a global view and a capacity of synthesis are not considered. In Antonio Damasio’s book,’Descarte’s Mistake’ he writes ‘the vision of the human being as a whole, is the key to the global development of the being.’

Meaning comes out of experience.

The writer, James Joyce wrote, ‘Our creativity has propelled human evolution.’
Classical styles of Chinese landscapes developed from the desire to leave the problems of society behind and look towards Nature, ‘men sought permanence within the natural world, it showed the inner landscape of the artist’s heart and mind.’
Impressionist painters, such as Claude Monet, worked outdoors and rapidly, in order to catch the fleeting sun light on the scenes they painted. Art critics at the time, scorned their work, but these painters were ‘in the moment’ when they painted.
Paul Cezanne (1839 – 1906) wrote, ‘The landscape thinks itself in me and I am in its (the landscape). He also had a great respect for Nature, he would look at a mountain, for example, seeing the changing light as he worked, building up the scene in geometric shapes. In his still life paintings of apples, he used soft colours, with certain areas highlighted by stronger colour in small patches. ‘An artist builds up an internal tension of some kind, then comes a need to start work.’ Cezanne called it his ‘petit sensation’ he saw it as a secret key to art, an intimate and private experience. ‘It is like an internal energy or ’emotion’ that needs to be used, ‘it brings about an emotional relationship with the art when it is completed.’ I have painted canvases which result in the same experience, I look at the painting and can relive the feeling I had when I painted it, always remembering of course, that memories are constantly revised.
Some aesthetic quality, such as balance and harmony is required, otherwise it is ‘an expression of mess’ another quote I picked up on!
Howard Hodgkin, whose works are not among my favourites, but I know someone who finds them meaningful,
writes, ‘art has the capacity to recreate a strong effective charge within certain colours and shapes, a way in which his, the artist’s memories, are recovered. Colour, texture and line are ways the painter makes his/her marks. I like to work with colour most of all. He also said ‘we come to a place when we get back something from the painting’ and then the painting may give back a similar experience to the viewer.
Paul Klee took a line for a walk, a wonderful way to express creativity, not a doodle, because his line drawings are simple yet beautiful.
I would recommend that it’s better to look at a painting for a while, before reading about the painter’s life or the message he or she is hoping to convey, study can follow later.

Adreinne Degerick Chaplin, in her book Art and Embodiment…. Biological and Phenomenological Contributions to Understanding Beauty and Aesthetic writes, ‘Art, both as a practice and as an experience, belongs as it were, to the hardware of human nature.’ In her book she refers to the work of three philosophers, Ellen Dissanayake, Susanne K Lnger and Merleau-Ponty.
E. Dissanayake ‘draws on anthropological research to develop an evolutionary based philosophy, based on the notion of ‘making special’.
S K Langer and Merleau-Ponty draw on empirical science, in order to develop a theory of art and embodiment, that takes the body seriously, they each reach conclusions in their own way.
S Langer draws on ‘geology, physics and biology, she has developed a biologically based cognitive philosophy of art and mind, rooted in the notion of ‘symbolism’.
Merleau-Ponty ‘drew on medical science and empirical psychology in order to develop a theory of art.’
I am grateful to the internet for providing so much information, only a tiny fraction of which I have used. I am in awe of the work that goes into research, to help us understand more.

The MWS Podcast: Episode 2, Norma Smith

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Norma SmithIn the first of a series of member profiles, retired art teacher Norma Smith talks to Barry Daniel about her life, why she became a member of the society, the middle way, the importance of art in her life, agnosticism, and the power of metaphor. With regard to the latter, she was especially enthusiastic about the work of George Lakoff. Please see link to a youtube talk he gave on metaphors as embodied meaning below.

George Lakoff: Frameworks, Empathy and sustainability

There is also a slide show version of the podcast available on Youtube.