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 14
Above all, one
proviso should be kept in mind. While we are not
interested in narrowly practical issues, let us not
retreat from the matter at hand by immediately entering
into purely abstract philosophical discussions on the
meaning of life and the nature of art. It was said above
that the questions entertained here may be approached
from a philosophical point of view, but this should not
be taken to mean that we will remain wholly within the
realm of ideas and thought. In philosophy, something
accompanies (and ideally even precedes) thought and
ideas, constituting an inseparable part of the process.
We will emphasize this other part, which is based on our
faculties of perception more than conception, a method
employed by Isaac Newton in what he called “Natural
Philosophy.” Intuition also comes into it, which
engenders the realizations that come to the scientist
seemingly out of nowhere.[1] This
process cannot be fully explained, but it partakes of a
direct experience of Nature, transcending all of the
limits of our normal consciousness. It relates also to
the experience of “direct” knowledge that
mystics describe – the experience of being united
with and “understanding” all things.
From this point
of view, we must reflect that the one who sees things as
they really are returns afterwards to normal
consciousness and relates the experience to others in
whatever way is appropriate, be it words or chemical
formulas or music. The account of the experience is
usually a thing of beauty in itself, being the product of
direct inspiration – and so, people inevitably
become fascinated and charmed by the account, forgetting
the existence of the experience itself. But we will not
be dwelling on such second-hand accounts. We must
remember that it is the experience itself that we are
aiming at.
You know how it
is when someone tries to show a dog his dish by pointing
to it. The dog usually runs over to the pointing finger,
smelling it and studying it with immense curiosity.
“No, no, over THERE!” we say, but it’s no
use. It’s not that the dog cannot understand the
concept of pointing. Only look at the utility of the
Pointers, who have been bred for hunting. There is
nothing in a dog that is constitutionally incapable of
understanding the act of pointing. But, as it happens,
the dog is by nature in a constant state of psychedelic
enchantment with all things. It is congenitally happy and
full of delight. Hold up a finger pointing, and the
average dog says, “Oh, what a great finger!”
The concepts and
language of philosophy are like a finger pointing, but
philosophy should properly begin with the apperception of
living experience, just as in science theory depends on
the results of concrete and, often, experimental
research. In this regard, as musicians we have our own
contribution to make to the science of being, for a life
in music is also a kind of philosophical experiment,
providing raw data for the examination and analysis of
reality. A much simpler way of expressing this is to say
that our life as musicians gives us a direct insight into
the nature of reality. We draw on that direct experience
to proceed with the inquiry that will be attempted in
this book. And, as will be seen in what follows, an
emphasis on direct experience is also the principle way
in which we will follow along with the tenor of eastern
culture, broadly speaking, with respect to the arts and
to life itself. The Tao of music, like the Tao of
anything else, is not abstract, but concrete.
[1]August Kekule, who laid the groundwork for
the modern structural theory in organic chemistry, is
often cited as exemplary in this regard, having
discovered the molecular structure of benzene during a
dream. (Next
Page)
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