Music Can Heal Humanity

Music Can Heal Humanity

In the early 21st century, much of the world has opted for the insanity of war, race hatred, religious intolerance, nationalism, a thirst for power, class dominance and corporate greed. Humanity sorely needs a return to ideals of peace, brotherhood, tolerance and spirituality. My forty-plus years of experience in music composition and performance have convinced me that music can heal humanity of this pathology. The right kinds of music can heal the consciousness of humanity. This music should not provide any easy answers, or facile solutions, but should dig deep into human consciousness and provide original solutions to big ideas. Music lacking in conviction will not work in this arena. The example of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony makes perfect sense in this respect. Not only does it provide a musical setting for Schiller’s poem depicting universal brotherhood through joy, it also embodies all the creativity, humor, energy and spirituality (soul power) that makes its appeal near universal.

In order to do this, we need to make a music in which the spirit of creativity and universal brotherhood takes precedence over the spirit of materialism. Musicians who aspire to spread this kind of music need to think first of the needs of the human race and their career moves second. This music should not be used to display wealth and power, to establish racial or social dominance or act as a nationalistic call to arms. This is no easy task: the ego dies hard, but the very survival of the human race may be at stake. This task requires people to act in selfless ways, which may run counter to much of what they have been taught since childhood. The music, which can accomplish this task, will be the equivalent of speaking truth to power and the very force of its conviction will sweep away all opposition.

The conflict and struggle of much human endeavor can be worked out in music rather than in war and unbridled competition for a few crumbs. When musicians sit down and make music together, they can’t fight. This is so true as to sound simplistic. Yet it is so obvious as to be constantly overlooked. Musicians must work together to create a coherent result, and many may need to work in a heroic manner to master the technical and musical complexities of new works, in a belief that they are pushing the boundaries of what is humanly possible in music.

The glorification of war and militarism, which is so much a part of the psychology of corporate media news reporting, slants the consciousness of human perception today to the point of pathology. Much of this “news” reporting is little more than nationalistic propaganda of the worst sort. The power of music to touch and move people deeply is generally unquestioned by most rational thinkers, yet most musicians continue with business as usual, putting commercial concerns above service to humanity.

The United States contains about 5% of the world population, yet consumes over 40% of the world’s resources annually. The violence and repression necessary to preserve that level of inequality taints almost all the values of our national mythology and dialog. We must strive to be an equal member of the world community of people with no superiority of position. This innocent sentence is so contrary to conventional American wisdom in 2007 as to sound subversive. When musicians explore the aspects of different cultural values in a context of respect and tolerance, a spirit of love arises spontaneously in listeners and artists. Music that incorporates techniques and sound worlds from different cultural traditions, provided these techniques are well understood and mastered through serious study (not mere exoticism) can make a true integration of consciousness between cultural ideals and transcend the psychological gaps between people of different cultures and technological stages.

Contemporary experimental music with the Cagean listening strategy of welcoming every sound with fascination or the Stockhausenean strategy of exploration of the sense perceptions and cognition of musical process provide further paradigms for healing the human race of narrow closed mindedness and intolerance. The fearless exploration of new instrumental techniques and states of consciousness by contemporary performers such as the late David Tudor, can provide a paradigm for people of good will who want to make peace with former enemies--who may still harbor resentment and fear of communication.

Here is some feedback from American/Australian composer Warren Burt

Just looked at your blog entries. Nice stuff. I look forward to more. Your commonsense attitude to things is refreshing. Why is common sense such an uncommon commodity?