One Hand
Clapping:
The Taoe of Music
WholeArts and
The Psychic Internet is proud to present the
"Preface" and "Part One" of this
remarkable book by Daniel d'Quincy. "One Hand
Clapping: The Tao of Music," originally published by
WholeArts in 1991, is a book-length essay on the
performance of music from the perspective of Eastern
philosophy and religion. Mr. d'Quincy is a noted
composer, musician, author, inventor, educator, speaker,
and photographer. Please visit his unique music sites at WholeArts: syNThony, and the WholeArts Online Music Conservatory.
Preface
New wine in
old bottles. Old wine in new bottles.
This is our
dialectical condition at the beginning of a new century
and millenium, and perhaps at the start of a new era of
human life. It may herald a “new age” of human
consciousness. We are developing powerful new insights
into age-old problems through our arts and sciences,
abetted by an advanced technology and greater personal
freedom. At the same time, more widespread access to the
historical and living expressions of the past and its
traditions means that age-old insights are shedding a
nearly forgotten light on all things.
The title of
this book draws on an ancient idea that originated in
China, and this highlights another characteristic of our
new approach to all manner of questions about being and
doing. The days when any nation or civilization could
claim cultural and historical centrality are long gone.
We have experienced a psychic shrinking of the globe
through advances in transportation and exchange, combined
with an unprecedented intermingling of peoples and
cultures. In this way, a word like “Tao”
(pronounced “Dow”) is recognized within the
domain of our global human heritage.
Moreover,
there is an implicit necessity entailed in this
development; there is the need that it serves for life as
we are compelled to live it. There is a just-so rightness
about the timing of it all. It corresponds with a moment
of great crisis, characterized paradoxically by the
juxtaposition of seemingly unlimited human potential and
colossal ecological peril - a crisis which will overwhelm
us if we cannot develop alternative ways of thinking and
being. At the end of the old era, during the 20th
century in both East and West, we experienced a complete
breakdown of our established patterns of existence. Even
now, for most people, the relationships between people in
families, in communities, and in states, are without
clear definition. We may not be the first to feel the
need for a greater harmony between people and nations,
between people and nature. But, we may be the first to
view this issue appropriately as a matter of species
survival.
Music may be
good medicine under the circumstances. In the communion
of music, the musical sharing of common human emotions,
we bridge the gulf between others and ourselves. Music,
as often said, is an international language. (Next Page)
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