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Dear Guests, Welcome to my blog which I treat like a creative garden where I regularly plant and change this and that be it poetry, philosophy, an Oboe Brilliance lesson, an essay of some kind, or a journal about composing. May you enjoy, be nourished, and return. Thank you for visiting. Musically yours, Kathryn
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"How do you compose?" That is the most commonly asked question I hear.
This blog is a window into my creative process and philosophies as a composer and instrumentalist. At times it may contain music, photos, and poetry as well. May you enjoy, return, and benefit!  |
Dear Guests,
My brief and too short introduction to philosophy about music, addiction and human need is this. I believe that people in general have an innate need to experience ritual, community, altered states of consciousness, and intelligent creative interaction. When a family, culture, or community fails to provide this in a fulfilling way for the individual then the individual is left to find and/or create this for him/herself. Sometimes religious or intellectual communities can successfully provide fulfilling ways to meet this need. Sometimes people can meet this need through sports, politics, social groups of like minded individuals, through the arts – such as in musical ensembles, theatrical communities, and humanitarian organizations. People who suffer from substance abuse or other negative addictions such as excessive video gaming for example, can find fulfillment through recognizing this unmet need through other means. I believe this is why AA for example is so helpful to many alcoholics. It provides routine, ritual – regular meetings – community, emotional and intellectual connection. It can create a tribe, family, sense of connection and common ground. It goes even farther through creating an empowering mentoring program. An in depth pursuit of meditating and musical discipline can provide altered states of consciousness and develop skill in which to experience emotional, creative, and intellectual connection with others who share this skill. When mediation or music is used for entertainment or escapism however, then it can become a negative addiction. By negative addiction I mean self defacing rather than self liberating. A negative social addiction is like a negative personal addiction in that it is or leads to group defacing or destructive consequences. For example group ritual such as religions CAN lead to negative group/herd mentality resulting in war. On the other hand – which is often overlooked by anti religious people – is that religious groups or groups that practice some sort of emotional intellectual practice, often create helpful forms of positive personal and social behavior. Music, from my perspective, can foster a healthy, liberating connection within an individual who practices a musical discipline in such a way that connects the emotional and intellectual domains. Music also clearly acts as an instant emotional connection within its sonic language crossing intellectual and cultural barriers. People experience great fulfillment through sharing music and creating music regardless of strong differences of various habits, philosophies, theologies. Ideologies, age, race etc. Furthermore, I feel that the emotional body is the key to physical health within the human being. I believe we have an innate need to be emotionally fulfilled in order to be physically and mentally healthy. I’ll go so far as to state that emotional fulfillment is necessary in order to achieve social health. To me this is all very obvious. Emotionally fulfilled people don’t sustain destructive habits. I believe that in order to have a healthy physical body, healthy emotional body, healthy intellectual body, healthy social body, people need to recognize and meet the need to be able to experience altered states of consciousness personally and socially. Personal and group musical study and meditation is excellent for this. Studying an instrument for example with a private teacher for years creates routine, development, and connection. Having a mentor makes a huge difference in a child’s life. It creates lineage, passing of the baton so to speak, a nurturing of human development and potential. The mentor recognizes and respects the student and vice versa. The ideal of knowing thyself becomes a reality not just a nice dream. I don’t want to imagine what I’d be like without having had my mentor Lois Wann, or a musical way to connect the dots within myself, others, community, culture, and history. Music is ideal to use the emotional body to integrate the intellectual, social, historical, and interpersonal realms. Being a musician can be lifelong and vital to all involved – when it’s done in a healthy way that edifies and uplifts. More later. Musically yours, Kathryn |
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