Marek Dolewka

Musical dreams as a source of inspiration for composers in the light of neuroaesthetics research

The goal of this paper is to present musical threads in dreams of selected 20th century leading classical music composers. Musical dreams may come during the period of writing the piece, affecting its shape (Edgar Varèse, Igor Stravinsky), or appear totally unexpectedly, giving an impetus to compose a new work (Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mauricio Kagel). Dreams are a potential answer to the concerns of composer (Threni) or a source of inspiration for a short fragment of musical material (Arcana, Histoire du soldat), instrumentation (Octet), some specific features of the piece (The Rite of Spring, Musik im Bauch, Tierkreis, Helikopter-Streichquartett, Himmels-Tür), or even a course of the whole composition (Trans, Match). It is also interesting to observe the occurrence of musical dreams featuring intensive colours.

The examples are referred to the current state of research on links between music and dreams. The studies of a group of scholars from the University of Florence, working under Valeria Uga, or Irving Massey, American working in neuroaesthetics, present the statements of composers concerning the pieces inspired by the music heard in a dream in new light. These results provide further evidence that making use of this alternative source of work is possible.

The link between silence and death has been a recurring theme of human thought and can often be found in reflections on music. Among many attempts to approach this problem, the author of this paper focuses on those done by GisèleBrelet and Tōru Takemitsu. The “faithful companion” of music which “perpetually is born, dies and is born again” – this is one of the ways in which French musicologist describes silence. “For a human being, there is always the duality of life and death. Music as an art form always has to connect vehemently with both” – notices Japanese composer, who in another statement combines silence with “the dark world of death”. Interestingly, both Brelet and Takemitsu arrive at the conclusion that such connotations may well be the source of the fear of silence that affects some composers or performers. Despite different contexts, some analogies to their thought – like connecting silence with nothingness and loneliness – may be also found in the Canadian composer Raymond Murray Schafer’s writings, presented fragmentarily in the last subsection. The differences in the notion of the problem between the authors are, moreover, discussed in this paper.