Incredible. Mind stretching. I'm anxious to have this book as a hold in your hand printed bound book so I can better read it, highlight in it, see it on the shelf, others see it in my hand, hold it up on camera and more. Print the book. I'm loving this!
I can't say I've had a dream directly inspire a song (yet!). However, I did have one situation where I was able to solve a challenging computer programming problem in a dream.
I woke up and could still see the solution, wrote the code to implement the algorithm, and it worked perfectly.
Our subconscious minds are far more powerful than we are normally aware of.
I wasn't a dream I had, but on the evening my Father died, I was home from the hospital for a bit, I couldn't sleep so sat down in my studio just to see what would come. I ended up recording a tune that reminded me a bit of late Beatles & was a very atmospheric instrumental. There were 3 movements & the middle one really reminds me of that night & my father.
I've definitely written melodies and/or lyrics based on fragments heard in dreams. But I'm always afraid it's a song someone else has already written so I ask everybody "Have you ever heard this before?" Like the time Benny Golson dreamed an amazing tune, went to the piano in the middle of the night to write it down, went back to bed, woke up, ran to the piano to play the song, and realized it was the verse to Stardust.
The connections between dreams and all manner of creative activity is very tight. But because it's not clearly rational, we tiptoe away from it in our rational, intellectual world. A few examples I know of:
1) In the field of mathematics, in particular number theory, Ramanujan is viewed as a genius-among-geniuses whose insights were found to be correct even without formal proof provided, and some of what he found is still not understood by today's mathematicians. His explanation for this extraordinary creativity? Here are quotes from two online sources: "The mathematician used to claim that it was the protective goddess of his family, Namagiri, who showed him in dreams the equations of his formulas." and "According to friends, he paid careful attention to his dreams and was adept at their interpretation. Throughout his career, 'scrolls of the most complicated mathematics' would unfold before him in dreams, so fluidly and profusely that he could scarcely write them all down upon waking."
2) In my field of meteorology, the first-ever numerical weather forecast was computed in the 1910s. Yes, well before electronic computers were invented. The scientist who computed the forecast, Lewis Fry Richardson, shows up as a pioneer across discipline after discipline, from chaos theory to numerical analysis to number theory to political science. But it's in meteorology that he made his greatest contributions. His forecast, decades ahead of its time, was a failure but paved the way for how the entire world does weather forecasts on supercomputers today. And how did he come up with his idea for doing it? He had a "fantasy" of weather forecasting as a theatre full of human computers, solving the equations of the atmosphere in the round, representing the various continents. He had this vision two years before he ever started working on the mathematics and the numerics that would turn his anthropomorphic vision into a scientific reality.
3) Another example, from modern popular music: the singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop is known for "On and On" and "Save it For a Rainy Day" from his first album "Careless" in 1976, and the Grammy-nominated "Separate Lives" from the film "White Nights." (He also sang, but didn't compose, "It Might Be You," the theme song for "Tootsie.") I grew up listening to "Careless," and one song stuck with me more than the others even though it wasn't a single, a song called "Madge." I thought it was at another, higher level of songwriting from his soft-rock love/breakup songs. Not too long ago, I Googled the song "Madge." And? The song came to him in a dream. I can't find the exact details, but I've asked him on the Facebook page where there's a video of him performing this song: https://www.facebook.com/stephenbishopofficial/videos/267993954743700/
4) In a more prosaic sense: I was on the hook to give a speech to over 500 people when I was an assistant professor. I was struggling with what to say and how to say it. I went to bed, entered that state of half-asleepness that the Romantic poets all refer to, and ding! at 1:15 am the entire speech came to me. Having learned that this is how I work, I got up, scribbled a few notes with an outline of the speech, and went back to bed and slept soundly. The speech went exceedingly well, as I knew it would as soon as it came to me. My wife knows that this is how creativity works with me... I'll tell her, "The lecture/speech/letter/etc. came to me," and she knows that the best thing is simply for me to run with it wherever it's going, even overnight, or in one case an entire day from early morning to night.
thank for this very broad overview. As to power of dreams, I was reminded about the (recent) discovery of neurosciences- Default Mode Network. DMN is a task-negative brain state - dream, mind wandering or trance- that has deep access to our creativty through subconsious mind. Effects of DMN are not unique to music - think of Mendeleev's dream of periodic table- but probably as music involves most of brain areas at once it's even more empowered by switching modes.
Now this was a serendipitous find. I feel less lonely out here on the perimeter. Justification from a man with academic cred is literally in my hand now. I so enjoy your writing, and each time I read your work I'm glad that I mention you in my posts. My relationship with my own personal Calliope has now a stamp of approval, Oxford trained. I've not taken any hallucinogenics in decades, but I cannot deny their affect on my understanding of music in my youth that continues to this day. Most of my writing takes place around dawn. With this post, I can now be more steadfast in my greed for the early morning solitude with my "bleeding pen". I ceased writing poetry over 30 years ago. For whatever reasons, I began again about 18 months ago. I penned sonnet #259 this morning just after dawn. Geez, I can't wait to go to bed now. Cheers.
Ted, this is fascinating. On two levels for me: First, I find your treatment of this whole subject riveting; it’s stuff I’ve never considered. I belong to the Orthodox Church and pretty much the entire service is sung/chanted. It’s a premodern liturgy. Now seeing the evolution of song and its relationship to philosophy is, as I said, fascinating. Second, I love that you’re publishing first on Substack. I’ll be interested to follow the publication journey—e.g., where you take it next.
Another great chapter. All the way through it though I was thinking of mathematicians who discover solutions in dreams, like Ramanujan. What a great subject!
Another erudite post about music. Thanks. Incidentally, I was recently surprised to find that an old friend and fellow tech writer, who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, subscribes to this substack too. For a time, she and I both wrote manuals about configuring users and backups for computer labs for Sun Microsystems (before we got voted off the island after several rounds of layoffs). I never suspected she had a more intellectual music-loving side. Most of my acquaintances in the computer industry were so uninterested in culture that I got a crush on a programmer I worked with one time simply because he'd read a novel by John Updike.
Not incidentally: When you wrote, "What happens when you combine words and music in a particularly charged setting where some kind of transcendence is pursued (and sometimes actually achieved)? We have a word for this intersection: it’s called a ritual. But other people might describe it as a rock concert, or a rave, or a visit to a jazz club." But isn't it true that while attending rock concerts, raves, and jazz may lead to some kind of transcendence, that transcendence may not be salutary?
I have another question. How might the tutelary deity who guided Socrates possibly be accounted for in Judeo-Christian understanding of the spiritual world? What is a muse? And who is the giver of dream visions?
I can comment on the concept of a muse vis a vis Judaism. This is my own opinion, and I'm sure that even Rabbi friends might disagree a bit.
I'm an Orthodox Jew who writes poetry, mostly sonnets. Judaism frowns heavily on things that tend to deny a monotheistic outlook. Yet I sometimes mention Greek and Roman deities in my work. I've stated in my posts that these are LITERARY references only, and they are only that. I've written to Calliope often, and "claim" her as my own. Now, how do I make this kosher?
Apart from the literary "out" I just mentioned, I have a real one as well. This is necessary for me because I don't claim to be the sole author of all my work. I most definitely receive incoming words, turns of phrase and lines from the ether.
We hold that God runs His world through שרים, literally princes, but actually angelic functionaries. Three keys He retained control over, while the rest are delegated to these Sarim who carry out the "mundane" functions of creation, always at His command and under His supervision. I simply explain to my dubious friends that I borrowed a name from Ancient Greek for the Sar who helps me write. That seems good enough to keep me from being shunned as a "non believer". Which is good, because I'm NOT an unbeliever. I hope that clarified the "Jewish angle" a bit.
Thanks! Never heard of the Sarim before! This is quite a novel way to think about the personage through whom you get your inspiration from the ether. For Catholics, the only angels whose names we are to use are the ones explicitly named in the Bible: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. Maybe the real Catholic muse is the Holy Spirit of God, the spirit of truth, who we are to call upon for guidance? And then there are our guardian angels, who we aren't supposed to name. A few guardian angel references, one from the Psalms and one from the Gospel of St. Matthew: Psalms 91:11: For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. Matthew 18:10 See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.
We generally refrain from using any angel's name, even if we DO know them. I know that everything comes from God, I know that barring those 3 keys I mentioned, He uses these Sarim as his agents, so I just use the name Calliope so that those "in the know" will understand I'm referring specifically to poetry. All others just respond, "Huh?" I mean, technically, Calliope is the muse of EPIC poetry.
Ted Gioia, you are absolutely going to love Stella Maris, if you haven't gotten there already. Much shorter read than the Passenger. Prolly wanna read it before you write about the latter.
I have long thought that music was the first language; that singing was the way humans first shared a thought or feeling beyond grunting a warning. I am so glad to have found your channel, Ted. I appreciate your work.
Philosophy seems to have been motivated by the solving of conundrums.
Music gives rise to a conundrum: seven octaves (ratio of 2:1) is not equal to 12 fifths (ratio of 3:2). What does this mean? The musical scale is built on stacking fifths but it never come back around to an octave. I.e. if you play a scale so derived the last note in the scale is slightly higher than the expected octave.
This conundrum can be “handled” but it cannot be solved. It is at the heart of music.
Studied philosophy too, Ted, but have since been inhabited by literary fiction precisely because I felt the reduction of philosophy to dry text robbed it of its innate musicality. But, as you’re most admirably demonstrating, ‘song’ is the blueprint of all wisdom literature. Fabulous excavation and exposition of this obscured truth! Thank you.
Incredible. Mind stretching. I'm anxious to have this book as a hold in your hand printed bound book so I can better read it, highlight in it, see it on the shelf, others see it in my hand, hold it up on camera and more. Print the book. I'm loving this!
I also want the physical book; probably many do!
When the right publisher comes along it will happen.
When it comes we'll all be composing a new "Hallelujah" 🔥 essential reading for all students.
Yes this book is on my wishlist right now I have his healing songs book and I loved it
I can't say I've had a dream directly inspire a song (yet!). However, I did have one situation where I was able to solve a challenging computer programming problem in a dream.
I woke up and could still see the solution, wrote the code to implement the algorithm, and it worked perfectly.
Our subconscious minds are far more powerful than we are normally aware of.
I wasn't a dream I had, but on the evening my Father died, I was home from the hospital for a bit, I couldn't sleep so sat down in my studio just to see what would come. I ended up recording a tune that reminded me a bit of late Beatles & was a very atmospheric instrumental. There were 3 movements & the middle one really reminds me of that night & my father.
I've definitely written melodies and/or lyrics based on fragments heard in dreams. But I'm always afraid it's a song someone else has already written so I ask everybody "Have you ever heard this before?" Like the time Benny Golson dreamed an amazing tune, went to the piano in the middle of the night to write it down, went back to bed, woke up, ran to the piano to play the song, and realized it was the verse to Stardust.
Utterly fascinating.
The connections between dreams and all manner of creative activity is very tight. But because it's not clearly rational, we tiptoe away from it in our rational, intellectual world. A few examples I know of:
1) In the field of mathematics, in particular number theory, Ramanujan is viewed as a genius-among-geniuses whose insights were found to be correct even without formal proof provided, and some of what he found is still not understood by today's mathematicians. His explanation for this extraordinary creativity? Here are quotes from two online sources: "The mathematician used to claim that it was the protective goddess of his family, Namagiri, who showed him in dreams the equations of his formulas." and "According to friends, he paid careful attention to his dreams and was adept at their interpretation. Throughout his career, 'scrolls of the most complicated mathematics' would unfold before him in dreams, so fluidly and profusely that he could scarcely write them all down upon waking."
2) In my field of meteorology, the first-ever numerical weather forecast was computed in the 1910s. Yes, well before electronic computers were invented. The scientist who computed the forecast, Lewis Fry Richardson, shows up as a pioneer across discipline after discipline, from chaos theory to numerical analysis to number theory to political science. But it's in meteorology that he made his greatest contributions. His forecast, decades ahead of its time, was a failure but paved the way for how the entire world does weather forecasts on supercomputers today. And how did he come up with his idea for doing it? He had a "fantasy" of weather forecasting as a theatre full of human computers, solving the equations of the atmosphere in the round, representing the various continents. He had this vision two years before he ever started working on the mathematics and the numerics that would turn his anthropomorphic vision into a scientific reality.
3) Another example, from modern popular music: the singer-songwriter Stephen Bishop is known for "On and On" and "Save it For a Rainy Day" from his first album "Careless" in 1976, and the Grammy-nominated "Separate Lives" from the film "White Nights." (He also sang, but didn't compose, "It Might Be You," the theme song for "Tootsie.") I grew up listening to "Careless," and one song stuck with me more than the others even though it wasn't a single, a song called "Madge." I thought it was at another, higher level of songwriting from his soft-rock love/breakup songs. Not too long ago, I Googled the song "Madge." And? The song came to him in a dream. I can't find the exact details, but I've asked him on the Facebook page where there's a video of him performing this song: https://www.facebook.com/stephenbishopofficial/videos/267993954743700/
4) In a more prosaic sense: I was on the hook to give a speech to over 500 people when I was an assistant professor. I was struggling with what to say and how to say it. I went to bed, entered that state of half-asleepness that the Romantic poets all refer to, and ding! at 1:15 am the entire speech came to me. Having learned that this is how I work, I got up, scribbled a few notes with an outline of the speech, and went back to bed and slept soundly. The speech went exceedingly well, as I knew it would as soon as it came to me. My wife knows that this is how creativity works with me... I'll tell her, "The lecture/speech/letter/etc. came to me," and she knows that the best thing is simply for me to run with it wherever it's going, even overnight, or in one case an entire day from early morning to night.
Hi Ted,
thank for this very broad overview. As to power of dreams, I was reminded about the (recent) discovery of neurosciences- Default Mode Network. DMN is a task-negative brain state - dream, mind wandering or trance- that has deep access to our creativty through subconsious mind. Effects of DMN are not unique to music - think of Mendeleev's dream of periodic table- but probably as music involves most of brain areas at once it's even more empowered by switching modes.
Just wantend to check what you think about it.
Now this was a serendipitous find. I feel less lonely out here on the perimeter. Justification from a man with academic cred is literally in my hand now. I so enjoy your writing, and each time I read your work I'm glad that I mention you in my posts. My relationship with my own personal Calliope has now a stamp of approval, Oxford trained. I've not taken any hallucinogenics in decades, but I cannot deny their affect on my understanding of music in my youth that continues to this day. Most of my writing takes place around dawn. With this post, I can now be more steadfast in my greed for the early morning solitude with my "bleeding pen". I ceased writing poetry over 30 years ago. For whatever reasons, I began again about 18 months ago. I penned sonnet #259 this morning just after dawn. Geez, I can't wait to go to bed now. Cheers.
Ted, this is fascinating. On two levels for me: First, I find your treatment of this whole subject riveting; it’s stuff I’ve never considered. I belong to the Orthodox Church and pretty much the entire service is sung/chanted. It’s a premodern liturgy. Now seeing the evolution of song and its relationship to philosophy is, as I said, fascinating. Second, I love that you’re publishing first on Substack. I’ll be interested to follow the publication journey—e.g., where you take it next.
Not what ya'll want to hear, but supposedly Taylor Swift's songs are often based on her nightmares.
Another great chapter. All the way through it though I was thinking of mathematicians who discover solutions in dreams, like Ramanujan. What a great subject!
Another erudite post about music. Thanks. Incidentally, I was recently surprised to find that an old friend and fellow tech writer, who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, subscribes to this substack too. For a time, she and I both wrote manuals about configuring users and backups for computer labs for Sun Microsystems (before we got voted off the island after several rounds of layoffs). I never suspected she had a more intellectual music-loving side. Most of my acquaintances in the computer industry were so uninterested in culture that I got a crush on a programmer I worked with one time simply because he'd read a novel by John Updike.
Not incidentally: When you wrote, "What happens when you combine words and music in a particularly charged setting where some kind of transcendence is pursued (and sometimes actually achieved)? We have a word for this intersection: it’s called a ritual. But other people might describe it as a rock concert, or a rave, or a visit to a jazz club." But isn't it true that while attending rock concerts, raves, and jazz may lead to some kind of transcendence, that transcendence may not be salutary?
I have another question. How might the tutelary deity who guided Socrates possibly be accounted for in Judeo-Christian understanding of the spiritual world? What is a muse? And who is the giver of dream visions?
I can comment on the concept of a muse vis a vis Judaism. This is my own opinion, and I'm sure that even Rabbi friends might disagree a bit.
I'm an Orthodox Jew who writes poetry, mostly sonnets. Judaism frowns heavily on things that tend to deny a monotheistic outlook. Yet I sometimes mention Greek and Roman deities in my work. I've stated in my posts that these are LITERARY references only, and they are only that. I've written to Calliope often, and "claim" her as my own. Now, how do I make this kosher?
Apart from the literary "out" I just mentioned, I have a real one as well. This is necessary for me because I don't claim to be the sole author of all my work. I most definitely receive incoming words, turns of phrase and lines from the ether.
We hold that God runs His world through שרים, literally princes, but actually angelic functionaries. Three keys He retained control over, while the rest are delegated to these Sarim who carry out the "mundane" functions of creation, always at His command and under His supervision. I simply explain to my dubious friends that I borrowed a name from Ancient Greek for the Sar who helps me write. That seems good enough to keep me from being shunned as a "non believer". Which is good, because I'm NOT an unbeliever. I hope that clarified the "Jewish angle" a bit.
Thanks! Never heard of the Sarim before! This is quite a novel way to think about the personage through whom you get your inspiration from the ether. For Catholics, the only angels whose names we are to use are the ones explicitly named in the Bible: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. Maybe the real Catholic muse is the Holy Spirit of God, the spirit of truth, who we are to call upon for guidance? And then there are our guardian angels, who we aren't supposed to name. A few guardian angel references, one from the Psalms and one from the Gospel of St. Matthew: Psalms 91:11: For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. Matthew 18:10 See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.
We generally refrain from using any angel's name, even if we DO know them. I know that everything comes from God, I know that barring those 3 keys I mentioned, He uses these Sarim as his agents, so I just use the name Calliope so that those "in the know" will understand I'm referring specifically to poetry. All others just respond, "Huh?" I mean, technically, Calliope is the muse of EPIC poetry.
After reading my post,
https://thearchersmarch.substack.com/p/to-my-muse
my cousin sent me this link,
https://youtu.be/rwcsZNwaiHM
Ted Gioia, you are absolutely going to love Stella Maris, if you haven't gotten there already. Much shorter read than the Passenger. Prolly wanna read it before you write about the latter.
I’m about 100 pages into it--and yes!
Incredible books. Agreed, they relate to this discussion. Thank you for making that connection. 🍻
I have long thought that music was the first language; that singing was the way humans first shared a thought or feeling beyond grunting a warning. I am so glad to have found your channel, Ted. I appreciate your work.
One of the most powerful chapters yet.
Philosophy seems to have been motivated by the solving of conundrums.
Music gives rise to a conundrum: seven octaves (ratio of 2:1) is not equal to 12 fifths (ratio of 3:2). What does this mean? The musical scale is built on stacking fifths but it never come back around to an octave. I.e. if you play a scale so derived the last note in the scale is slightly higher than the expected octave.
This conundrum can be “handled” but it cannot be solved. It is at the heart of music.
Thank you for this comment.
Studied philosophy too, Ted, but have since been inhabited by literary fiction precisely because I felt the reduction of philosophy to dry text robbed it of its innate musicality. But, as you’re most admirably demonstrating, ‘song’ is the blueprint of all wisdom literature. Fabulous excavation and exposition of this obscured truth! Thank you.
Reading this, I feel as if a door has been opened for me into a beautiful new, yet very old, world. Thank you.