Violinist Vilemina Neruda leading a string quartet, c. 1880. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Music I hear or sense in my dreams before waking is beautiful and enchanting, heard delivered in ethereal voices or with chamber ensembles or orchestras. Sometimes it may be jazzy sounding or a song that may have an air of familiarity as though it is something I have heard often.
I may lie in bed for a while trying to hear the music within my mind, but it is usually a sound so otherworldly that I cannot recreate it. Some times I have written songs that were either based on my dream or came directly from my dream. I usually have to add to the lyrics or try to recreate the lyrics I think I remember having heard, but they are songs that were delivered to me by a dream.
The question is are they original or derived from something I've heard sometime in waking life? This could be a similar question that a writer or visual artist might ponder. The fear of influence can paralyze us in our acts of creating. Then again, the acceptance of similarity of theme done in our own style might be the better way to look at our creative endeavors.
Are our dreams tapping into new ideas generated from within us? Or do our dream ideas have a connection to memories of things that are already out there but we just don't recognize them? Perhaps our subconscious creative mind is taking old themes and turning them into new variations to suit our own perspectives. Do you think the dreaming mind is creating or merely remembering in its own way?
Good question. I had a friend who believed in reincarnation who said that our dreams were reminders of places we had already been.
ReplyDeletePerhaps our brains have two lives. We are all familiar with the brains waking life. It is fully developed. Perhaps the dream life is in its infancy, and, when we depart our waking lives forever we will move into the realm of the other life that is being prepared for us. (queue twilight zone music)
ReplyDeleteDamn that's a really good question. I've still to hear music in my dreams. One thing that does happen to me very often is my dreams will take place in the same locations as others, but with mild differences. I don't ever remember being to these places do where do they come from! :)
ReplyDeleteMost interesting to read Gregg, I am still wondering about tht photo in the hotel in LA who was identicle to me.As for music when I was learning to play the piano I asked if I could learn to play a Rachmaninov piece, unknown to me it was my late father's favourite.
ReplyDeleteGreat to be back.
Yvonne.
I think it's a mixture of both the mind tossing things together in a weird way and some creating. I've dreamed of things I've never seen or experienced, so it couldn't have come from a memory.
ReplyDeleteI believe in the Jungian theory that dreams are messages from our unconscious psyche. So, even if it takes elements or details we might have encountered in our waking life, our psyche still reassembles all these elements according to new patterns and a new logic. So, to me, dreams are pure acts of creation.
ReplyDeleteI posted an article on dreams myself. I'd love to hear your opinion on the matter!
Have a great weekend!
The mind has the amazing ability to make sense of the world. I believe dreams are just a mental grenade can. But, sometimes I find that my dreams have a life of their own. I on ce had a dream about a viking leader with a rabbit head. It lead to one of my favorite unfinished comic books about a man with a disability leading his people to a new world.
ReplyDeleteinteresting post :)
ReplyDeleteMost of my dreams feels like my madness is getting out for some exercise.
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of sounding rather esoteric, which isn't my intent, I think the dreaming mind is tapping into the cosmos or collective consciousness - a place, where at some point, we all go when we are dreaming.
ReplyDeletePaula -- It could very well be so. I think many share that theory.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your comments. Maurice, the image of the Viking with the rabbit head was very strange.
Lee
Hello again Arlee, Just stopping over from the A-Z challenge to follow here too :)
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