From the creative drive to the musical product : a psychoanalytic account of musical creativity

This thesis is the result of a life's work dedicated to re-introducing people of all ages to their inherent musicality which, more often than not, has been denied and invalidated by society's rigid adherence to the reified status of `creativity'. The main premise sine qua non is that creativity is no more, and no less, than the re-realization of things that already exist, and that it is indeed the ubiquitous mode of Eros itself (libidinal energy). In explaining the means whereby the existents of music per se are imprinted in the minds of us all, and then why only certain people choose to manipulate these existents into musical compositions, we proceed from the universal experience of intra-uterine life. The importance to us all of sound impingement upon the fetus is explained, for it is revealed to be foundational to the genesis of the Self. However, as each one of us has different sound-experiences, the affective reactions to those experiences inform our unconscious attitudes towards music. These are revealed in our projections into `the containing space of music'. Furthermore, it is posited that, in utero, not only are we initiated through sound-impingements into that which is dissonant to the Self (necessitating integration), but we also acquire three paradigmatic schemes of reference which thereafter inform all that we do. Our aesthetic sense is rooted here too, through tactility and even visibility. Choosing the mode d'emploi of musical composition is first dependent upon extrinsic environmental factors, but the imperative to compose arises intrinsically. The process though, is one available to us all, as we already possess the necessary mental function. This is explicated by Freud as the dream-work. The thesis culminates in a three-way synthesis predicated upon the dynamics of the transference and counter-transference, between the work that takes place in psychoanalysis, the tripartite teleology of a musical work from composer to performer and listener, and the musical structure known as sonata form. The first movement of Beethoven's third symphony, the Eroica is used as exemplar. ' Appendices are designed to accommodate information pertaining to both disciplines, while comments are to be understood as the opinions of no-one else but myself