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Muses in our sleep

A

Anonymous

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I've noticed in recent FT letters examples of people hearing voices in their head spontaneously, usually acting as muses, giving artistic and creative advice. I'll summarise one case from FT 167, p55 from Joseph E Barnes, of Brooklyn NY:

''For the last several years, I've experienced the odd phenomenon of sluggishly waking up in the night or morning and finding my mind- or a mind- already active. Typically, I lie back passively and 'listen' to a book being read aloud or dictated, not audiably, but in my head. On the first occasion, it seemed to be an introduction to a work about folklore and archetypes, about Santa Claus specifically. The writing and depth of understanding were quite brilliant. This summer last, I spontaneously thought aloud, ''Who is that speaking?'' when I woke up at night to hear the usual dictation going on. Much to my surprise, a loud, angry bvoice immediately responded with the equivalent of ''Shut up, you! You're nothing but stupid elephants we ride!'' I know that artists from Blake, Rilke, Yeats and Robert Frost experienced hearing voices, often related to present or future creative activity, whether from within or without. Recently, Keith Richards claimed that 'Satisfaction' was composed when he spontaneously awoke in the night and heard the music and lyrics clearly, all of a piece, ringing inside his head.''

FT included some follow-up letters, all along a similar line: people waking up to 'hear' creative activity, of brilliant quality, in their head. Barnes wonders if it is 'psychic background noise' and notes the voodoo claims of gods 'riding' practisioners. However, as I agree with Barnes, when he noted that background noise oughtn't be as organised and creative as what he experienced.

Any ideas about this? The mind releasing its creative potential when it thinks the consciousness isn't looking? Telepathic signals from some great genius hidden away somewhere? The beings of the other world creating through the medium of our minds?

Ian
 
I've had very vivid semi-awake dreams of music. I lay there thinking 'Wow, this sounds f****** brilliant', then can only remember it for a few minutes when I awake.

I love music but I'm not 'musical' IRL in the slightest. Got good rythmn tho...:D

And the stories, the dreams...

I think it's just the creative mind sneaking out to play, having a good blast whilst we aren't shackled to the mundane 'day-to-day'.
 
I've had very vivid semi-awake dreams of music. I lay there thinking 'Wow, this sounds f****** brilliant', then can only remember it for a few minutes when I awake.
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This happens to me often, and I too love music but have no musical skill. It's almost as if I put too much pressure on myself while awake, but I am able to compose when I am in a deeply relaxed state.

Another thing that happens is that sometimes, during a really intense nightmare, I'll hear music in the background for which there is no word in the English language to describe. It is frightening, haunting, and simply not of this world. Sometimes the closest thing would be some cross between heavy metal and techno, other times its more acoustic or classical sounding. In all cases, I don't know if there is an instrument on this planet that could quite replicate it.

I can remember the melody immediately after awakening, but then I try my hardest to shake it out of my head. Although I can't remember the melody or rythmn after fully awakening, I can remember the esscence of the music throughout the day.

If someone were to replicate these sounds in the real world, I'm guessing only the super curious wouldn't be scared away by the evilness of it. This has only happened a few times that I can recall.
 
David Raven said:
I've had very vivid semi-awake dreams of music. I lay there thinking 'Wow, this sounds f****** brilliant', then can only remember it for a few minutes when I awake.
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I've tried for a while now to enhance my dream recall specifically to try and use my unconscious as a musical resource. Over the years I have had many dreams in which I have heard or composed music which has been so indescribably good that even in the dream I am thinking just how amazing it is. In fact, this thinking usually wakes me up.

However, recently I have come to the conclusion that things just aren't this simple. Our (or at least my) unconscious lies! About a month ago, I dreamt that I was listening to a piece of music that (as ever) was unimaginably excellent. It wasn't even particularly the type of music I am currently into. It was kind of Goth-rocky in an 80s way. I actually sat there in the dream thinking how amazing it was. In the dream, it was a record by another artist (i.e. not me) that I'd heard before. I awoke moments later and still had the song in my head, realising that it wasn't an actual record, but a whole piece of music that my mind had just created whilst I was dreaming. With this thought, I quickly found my pen and paper and scribbled down the lyrics while humming the tune so I wouldn't forget it. I didn't really need to, because the tune ended up going through my head for the next hour.

The thing was, that I slowly began to realise that it wasn't in fact a particularly good or interesting or even vaguely original composition at all. In actuality the words were below cliche, the music was less than basic and the whole thing just sounded crap! It was as though a spell had worn off. I woke up thinking that I had 'discovered' a 'world-class' song (although what I'd have done with it is anyone's guess, this not being the 1980s and me not being in a Goth-rock band or anything like that!) and in less than an hour it had seemingly transformed into something that was so dire that I was actually embarrassed that my mind had come up with it.

Now, what does this mean? Either there was some reason why I was made to think that this music was so good when it wasn't, or the music really was good and I've subsequently been made to believe that it wasn't. Whilst pondering this, I have thought that perhaps it is linked to this thing that the unconscious mind doesn't want the waking, conscious mind to know what it is up to, hence why people have difficulty remembering their dreams fully. Perhaps it goes out of its way to make us believe that we (as waking individuals) have no reason to go messing in its business.
 
Muse

I have dreamed I'm reading a book and awakened knowing its contents.

I'll hear a voice, usually saying a sentence. If I write t down, another sentence will come, and if I keep going I'll write a story.

This happens all the time while I'm awake.

So I get both waking and sleeping muse experiences. Are they our subconscious, or are we tuning in to other minds somehow? Are we being focused upon, or is this a general broadcast?

Interesting topic.

I've heard music all my life, too. In fact, I composed and sang or whistled sophisticated, syncopated jazz as a child of four and five, simply by listening and reproducing as best I could what I heard.

Same with imagery. Sometimes a vivid image comes into my head and I either draw it or write a description of it. If I write, usually it leads to a full story.
 
Muse

I have dreamed I'm reading a book and awakened knowing its contents.

I'll hear a voice, usually saying a sentence. If I write t down, another sentence will come, and if I keep going I'll write a story.

This happens all the time while I'm awake.

So I get both waking and sleeping muse experiences. Are they our subconscious, or are we tuning in to other minds somehow? Are we being focused upon, or is this a general broadcast?

Interesting topic.

I've heard music all my life, too. In fact, I composed and sang or whistled sophisticated, syncopated jazz as a child of four and five, simply by listening and reproducing as best I could what I heard in my head.

Same with imagery. Sometimes a vivid image comes into my head and I either draw it or write a description of it. If I write, usually it leads to a full story.
 
I think August describes this sleeping creativity very well and implies
that really our critical faculties are nodding.

It is very similar to those people who claim to have received the meaning
of life and jotted it down, only to find it is gibberish the morning after.

Some people can suspend their critical faculties more or less indefinitely,
often aided by alcohol and drugs. They may even, by their certainty,
succeed in persuading others to believe in their gifts. This kind of certainty
of a revealed Truth applies to politics and cults as well as to the less
dangerous Arts.

Furiously "inspired" creative binges are also typical of the manic depressive
who can work day and night on some project which he or she feels is
a breakthrough: a piece unlike any other. When the glowering critical
faculty returns home, the masterpiece is consigned to the flames.

The experience of finding the fairy gold has turned to stones is not too
surprising when it happens to ordinary mortals but it seems especially
cruel when it strikes those who once had first rate powers. Robert Schumann
wrote a late set of variations on a theme which he believed had been
dictated to him by angels. In fact it was the theme from his Violin Concerto
of a few months earlier but he could no longer recognize it as his own work.

This attribution of the creative powers to other entities leads us towards the
subject of spirit writings and previous lives. :eek:
 
I think August describes this sleeping creativity very well and implies that really our critical faculties are nodding.
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So I guess maybe the music in my nightmares isn't really terrifying at all. Turns out it's really just dull. It certainly doesn't seem dull when I'm trying to get it out of my head in the middle of the night in a cold sweat.

Perhaps it's the work of malicious muses.
 
James Whitehead said:
It is very similar to those people who claim to have received the meaning
of life and jotted it down, only to find it is gibberish the morning after.
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I've also dreamt music and scored it upon awaking only to realise it's quite ordinary. Sometimes, though, I find I hear music when half-asleep and, if I remain relaxed enough, I can "manipulate" it to go all over the place. It's really quite pleasant!

I find I can do something similar when awake and practising an instrument. I have to be really focused on playing, but after a while I can play random chords and phrases and come up with some really good abstract stuff; sometimes if I'm not interrupted it can go on for hours. Unfortunately I never remember how it goes and I never have a tape recorder handy; if I ever considered it I'd almost certainly lose the flow.

Also, does anyone ever have the experience of being caught up in playing a piece you know by heart (I think they call it "being in the zone") where you unconsciously assign phrases and sections of the music personalities and characters and, as you play and the notes interact, the various "characters" interact in some sort of dramatic interplay, in the back of your mind...?

Oh dear. I'm not sure I explained that very well. Does anyone have any idea what I mean? I've never put it into words before!
 
Uncritical

I'm not manic depressive and have found most of what I get this way to be good to excellent, with some of it outstanding. So I don't think it's critical faculties nodding. Might in fact be self-critical attitudes on vacation, though, allowing the better stuff to come through.
 
the greek poet hesiod (VIII century b.c.?) recalls his meeting with the muses who give him advice on his poetry. the funny thing is that it's just and exactply an episode of <trance> or <ecstasy>, occurred to him while he was at some isolated graze with his flock of sheep.
think of lourdes, fatima, medjugorie...
 
Meditation

You're quite right to equate the creative process with meditation, and in fact many of our encounters with the Muses are just that. This doesn't answer the question of whether it's our subconscious conjuring things for us in moments of relaxation or even boredom, or if instead our inner calm allows us to access a higher or different realm.

I doubt it matters, if the results are good. Hesiod is a great example. 2000 years later we're still citing his work.
 
Keith Richards has always maintained that you 'recieve' music, and that he doesn't write his songs, but recieves them, and feels honoured that the song chooses him to the conduit through which it makes itself heard.

He tells the story that one night he was really tired while messing around with some early recording equipment and his guitar, fell asleep, and in the morning, when helistened to it back, there was the riff for Satisfaction on the tape.
 
Mozart, McCartney, and Others

Mozart, McCartney, and others agree with Keith, (currently channeled by Johnny Depp in the amusing PIRATES OF THE CARRIBBEAN), and in fact I feel the same about much of my fiction, etc.

Being receptive may be the key to creating, in fact.

So get out there and put that Muse into a full-court press.
 
I believe Frank Black / Black Francis / Mr Tubby bloke out of the Pixies claimed he used to write all his lyrics as he woke up, which may explain something.

I have found that when I am writing at my very best ( and a very relative best it is ) it doesn't feel like I am doing anything at all, the words are just happening.
 
Breakfast said:
I believe Frank Black / Black Francis / Mr Tubby bloke out of the Pixies claimed he used to write all his lyrics as he woke up, which may explain something.
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There's a place
in the buried west
in a cave
with a house in it
in the clay
the holes of hands
you can place
a hand in hand
i bleed

You think? ;)
 
Night Owl No More

I used to be a night owl and wrote into the wee hours but these days, thanks I think to medications, I've become a morning person and so do my best writing, it seems, just after waking up, when I am at my freshest.

At least, according to my wife...
 
Creamstick said:
Keith Richards has always maintained that you 'recieve' music, and that he doesn't write his songs, but recieves them, and feels honoured that the song chooses him to the conduit through which it makes itself heard.
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The Shakers thought so, too. All their songs were "received" and spoken of that way.

I agree. Even when I'm composing on-assignment (so to speak), at some point the music simply presents itself. I'm consistently amazed!

When I was very little, I saw musical scores in my dreams, none of which I could actually play.
 
Nick Cave's Letter to MTV

TO ALL THOSE AT MTV,

I WOULD LIKE TO START BY THANKING YOU ALL FOR THE SUPPORT YOU HAVE GIVEN ME OVER RECENT YEARS AND I AM BOTH GRATEFUL AND FLATTERED BY THE NOMINATIONS THAT I HAVE RECEIVED FOR BEST MALE ARTIST. THE AIR PLAY GIVEN TO BOTH THE KYLIE MINOGUE AND P. J. HARVEY DUETS FROM MY LATEST ALBUM MURDER BALLADS HAS NOT GONE UNNOTICED AND HAS BEEN GREATLY APPRECIATED. SO AGAIN MY SINCERE THANKS.

HAVING SAID THAT, I FEEL THAT IT'S NECESSARY FOR ME TO REQUEST THAT MY NOMINATION FOR BEST MALE ARTIST BE WITHDRAWN AND FURTHERMORE ANY AWARDS OR NOMINATIONS FOR SUCH AWARDS THAT MAY ARISE IN LATER YEARS BE PRESENTED TO THOSE WHO FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THE COMPETITIVE NATURE OF THESE AWARD CEREMONIES. I MYSELF, DO NOT. I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN OF THE OPINION THAT MY MUSIC IS UNIQUE AND INDIVIDUAL AND EXISTS BEYOND THE REALMS INHABITED BY THOSE WHO WOULD REDUCE THINGS TO MERE MEASURING. I AM IN COMPETITION WITH NO-ONE.
MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MY MUSE IS A DELICATE ONE AT THE BEST OF TIMES AND I FEEL THAT IT IS MY DUTY TO PROTECT HER FROM INFLUENCES THAT MAY OFFEND HER FRAGILE NATURE.

SHE COMES TO ME WITH THE GIFT OF SONG AND IN RETURN I TREAT HER WITH THE RESPECT I FEEL SHE DESERVES - IN THIS CASE THIS MEANS NOT SUBJECTING HER TO THE INDIGNITIES OF JUDGEMENT AND COMPETITION. MY MUSE IS NOT A HORSE AND I AM IN NO HORSE RACE AND IF INDEED SHE WAS, STILL I WOULD NOT HARNESS HER TO THIS TUMBREL - THIS BLOODY CART OF SEVERED HEADS AND GLITTERING PRIZES. MY MUSE MAY SPOOK! MAY BOLT! MAY ABANDON ME COMPLETELY!
SO ONCE AGAIN, TO THE PEOPLE AT MTV, I APPRECIATE THE ZEAL AND ENERGY THAT WAS PUT BEHIND MY LAST RECORD, I TRULY DO AND SAY THANK YOU AND AGAIN I SAY THANK YOU BUT NO...NO THANK YOU.



YOURS SINCERELY, NICK CAVE 21 OCT 96.
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Giving Props

Cave seems a lad with his priorities straight. Good for him. Now if he could only get his Muse off crack, we'd all be better off.
 
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