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 4
The Self will
be regarded here in its traditional sense as the ultimate
ground of our being. It is the Self that causes the heart
to beat or the lungs to breathe? The philosophy of music
in the western tradition has recognized the intimate
connection between music and the fundamental well-springs
of life, but teachers of practical disciplines in music
rarely attempt to facilitate the way in which the student
dips into that source of true meaning in expression. The
teacher in the western traditional is primarily concerned
with matters of technique, and in matters of technique it
is the Ego that is properly addressed.
Who causes the
fingers to move with fluidity and agility through the
notes of a song? “I do,” says the Ego, with
pride. The Ego turns the focus to scales and etudes,
mastering them methodically. The Ego treats the body as
something like inanimate clay. This stupid substance must
be patiently informed by the intelligence of the Ego,
painstakingly shaped into something no less instrumental
than the piano or violin on which it will play. Technique
responds to an act of will. It is the product of the will
applied over a very long period of time.
When it comes
actually to making music, however, we come to the act of
expressing the Self, and in this department teachers
typically throw up their arms in defeat. They customarily
demur to the talent of the student. In contrast with the
approach that is taken to the arts in the East, western
teachers make no concerted effort to train the student in
access to the Self. The teaching of expression in music
is restricted to matters of style and taste. Teachers may
convey some knowledge of the conventions of phrasing and
nuance, and the embodiment of these conventions in
notation. They may even impart gleanings of another
dimension through their own practice of the art, or by
imitating how other great musicians played this passage
and that note. But the secret of making really great
music out of gut and wood, reed and brass, note and
score, flesh and blood, is held ordinarily to be
inexplicably locked within the individual soul. “You
either have it, or you don’t.”
This may be
true so far as it goes, even though we tend reflexively
to rebel against the undemocratic idea that some people
have it and some people don't. As in religion, however,
it is not easy even for democratic westerners to dispense
with the idea of the “elect.” At best they
compromise and allow strangers to be co-opted into the
elect on the basis of their submission to certain rules
and standards, rituals, decrees, etc. (Next Page)
|
