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.
Page 12
But in what terms
can we even discuss the source of power and freedom that
gives life to art? If we find what we are looking for,
will we also find the words to describe it? In
Schoenberg’s Moses und Aaron, the prophet
begins with words that are mere negatives – words
that are almost not words: unsichtbarer und
unvorstellbarer Gott! – “Unperceived and
inconceivable God!” Moses stands before the burning
bush, trying to oppose his mandate, pleading his
inability to convey the truth in words to people and to
the nation. “I ask thee let me tend my sheep in
silence.” But he is granted no excuse. And, when he
sinks down in death, he laments that only words have
failed him.
Words alone,
however reasonable, cannot provide access to the dynamic
reality within us, or anchor us in a right way of living.
We cannot define exactly and absolutely for all time what
it means to live in harmony with Divine Law, or any other
kind of law, least of all aesthetic law. On the other
hand, it is not always entirely pointless to try to
express the inexpressible. In this regard, is it so
unlike what we as musicians try to do as a matter of
course? The effort (since surely it can’t be
actually all that dangerous) may be more like the attempt
to square the circle – in short, merely foolish and
foolhardy. But, in an artistic geometry that we cannot
calculate, there may be good reason to make a go of it
after all, casting aside all caution, if not scruple.
Of course this
book cannot offer any prophetic truths on which to base a
way of life, not even a quasi-religion of art. Nor do we
propose to offer a litany of exotic dogmas from the East,
ready-made ideals or systems of belief, lofty
sentimentalities or inspirational twaddle of any kind. At
best, we can only elaborate on certain questions that
arise outside the boundaries of technique and craft in
art. As musicians young and old, amateur and
professional, we may reflect on these questions from a
purely philosophical point of view. This kind of
reflection may produce unanticipated results. While it
has nothing whatever to do with the “how” of
things, yet it is not too much to hope that the answers
might somehow have a bearing on how we approach purely
practical matters. As in science, one never knows where
so-called “pure research” might ultimately
lead, be it in the realm of computers, or communications
- or missiles. Knowledge is never wholly, like virtue,
its own reward.
Is knowledge
itself the thing we seek? “Knowledge is power,”
as the saying goes. And the musician looks with
particular favor on a corollary of this idea, in which it
is said “the Truth shall set you free.” But it
is not clear how the latter proposition necessarily
follows from the former, if it does. Indeed it is not
easy to isolate a greater aesthetic puzzle, with regard
to music or any other art, than the one that reconciles
(integrates) the constraints of traditional craft, based
on true knowledge, with the free originality and creative
inspiration of the artist. That puzzle is at the heart of
this inquiry.
Not that craft
and tradition are the only constraints facing the artist
as an actual living person in the world. For one thing,
history teaches that freedom of expression in the arts is
a political issue (broadly defined) in all forms of
society across the board. Political emancipation, such as
it is for the artist in our time, has meant the freedom
to starve, and today, the commodities markets are every
bit as influential as our former popes, princes, and
commissars were in their day. (Next Page)
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