Dreams and Music

[TankGirl]

While reading through the links Ramona provided in the recent Dream Thread I came across this most fascinating and inspiring post by an artist called sao ... simply too good to be missed from here, so let it be quoted:

sao (04-09-2001 15:23):

I am a (semi) professional musician and 'recording artist.' ( I avoided posting about the various musical threads here until now, because I knew that once started, I could ramble interminably, and will no doubt end up shamelessly plugging myself) Take my post with a grain of salt crystallized by my confession that I am extremely preoccupied with both the appreciation and composition of music, and often find myself involved in the mixing, blending and repetitious scrutiny of many simultaneous tracks of instruments for hours on end in the normal, if specialized, course of recording music. Also, I have a degree of 'synesthetic' perceptions associated with music in 'ordinary consciousness,' though not to the exceptional degree that I will describe.

While the majority of my music could be said to be thematically influenced by my dream content to some extent, I find I most often hear the extraordinarily complex aural tapestries to which some of the other posters allude not in dreams per se, but in 'Theta,' or the 'hypnagogic or twilight state.' I assume the designation of Theta is correct here; it is, for me, a vivid state of consciousness from which one may at any moment 'wake up,' find one's self in a dream, lucid dream, or simply fall asleep. It most often precedes sleep for me, or may occur in a 'daydreaming' state where I feel I never 'lose consciousness' at all. Also, experiences I have had and would term as 'out of body' have unilaterally contained a 'Theta Prelude,' more or less as I will describe, if that is the correct term, with marked intensities of sound and/or music and 'kaleidoscopic' imagery. (As I've said before, trying to categorize all these various states and degrees of lucidity makes me a little crazy.)

The most intense and specific aural experiences I've had are synesthetic - the sounds also have color, form and movement. Once in this Theta state, I may feel myself as body-less, but freely mobile within a 'virtual plane,' or a 'zone' with a seemingly infinite potential to generate light, form, sound, movement and even space. Generally, as I gradually or suddenly become aware of myself in this zone, I find its contents may approach a cacophonous chaos of broken blips of sound and sparks of color and image, thundering and distant, reverberating, clashing sounds, and may eventually become a sort of 'a brilliant curtain' and roar of 'dissonance against harmony,' quite reminiscent of an orchestra tuning up. From this, self-assembling musical elements may then begin to spontaneously emerge - often, at first, I sense this as dense, dizzying arrays of 'too many instruments to keep track of,' (with, I might add, far more 'seperation' than is possible with the physical reproduction of music, so that I am able to keep track of them all in spite of this feeling) - patterns and fluidity which I never fail to think of as 'too complex' - 'too rapid' - 'too effortless' - and often, ultimately, 'too damned loud.' (Sounds 'centered' in the 4-dimensional audio field can be almost excruciatingly loud and brilliant, but with no trace of the subtle aura of distortion that is an inherent part of audio reproduction and even normal hearing.)

If this becomes powerful enough I can begin to focus intent, I can 'control' some of the elements, bring some or one of the instruments 'to the foreground' - 'suggest' directions for the arrangements - 'steer more toward dissonance or harmony, preferentially' - but it remains continuously surprising with layer after layer of unexpected developments, so that no mater how interactive it becomes, I generally feel myself a 'spectator' if not completely 'dwarfed.' I can 'will' sudden violent or quiet movements for instance, but whether the sounds are perfect replications of acoustic instruments, entirely synthetic emissions or even human voices, the precise, and often acrobatic confluences of distinct interacting and criss-crossing melodies, the flawless fluidity of the intonation, and even the choices and groupings of instruments and sounds is such that I never fail to think 'holy cow! who are these badass cats?' 'They' seem to race ahead of me, now darting away, now literally chasing circles around me. At the peak of this, I have been able to 'direct' the arrangements and melodies at hand to 'step through' musical styles in rapid sequence according to whim, much like pushing a button for now 'bluegrass,' now 'reggae,' now 'chamber music.' (Interestingly, there have been a number of machines and 'artificial intelligence' programs on the market for some time which primitively approach this same basic possibility, with user input and definable parameters.) While I say 'according to whim,' I should qualify that these 'responses' are so instantaneous that I can barely, if at all, distinguish a lapse between the 'thought and the expression.'

The 4-dimensionality I mentioned has a curious 'holographic' or simultaneous quality, perhaps largely due to each sound also having a visual form, and it has always caused me to think of a 'computer generated environment,' and reflect that the kinds of amazing computer generated animation effects we now see more or less commonly, with all their peculiar and fantastic qualities, must be by-products of a basic, human ability to 'perceive this zone.' I had some of these experiences as a child, before the explosion of computer generated images onto the mass consciousness, and I can recall seeing certain animations numerous times and thinking "that's from the zone."

A typical specific instance might involve a self-generating saxophone solo, which appears as a silvery, mercurial, highly reflective, morphing and vibrating orb which may leave an intermittent 'trail' of its various forms as it (and I with it) accelerates, swooping and zooming forward in space. 'Chords' of neon 'worms' may chase and writhe around this form. 'Beneath' this might be a rhythm section of percussion, marimbas, basses etc. where each note 'appears' in space as part of a 'geodesic series' or fabric of spinning, multi-colored triangular panels, flocking, re-arranging and bursting forward like a scintillating reptilian skin, the faceted note-shapes with the most emphasis always glinting perfectly with the most light. (And yes, this is all without the aid of psychedelic drugs.) While I have compared all this to computer animation, it is profoundly more clear, fluid, subtle and complex and my presence and movement within it - the spatial quality of the experience, is far from reproducable in the present state of technology.

As I follow this display, I am able to 'look back' and see that not only have larger patterns been created by whatever I am watching and listening to 'close up' - but these larger patterns continue to evolve, or 'branch off' and reconnect, so that the whole compostion may fill enormous panoramic volumes of space, sometimes creating 'landscapes' or 'architecture' and sometimes simply accelerating non-objectively into a 'void.' Complete, coherent 'scenes' may form and break up again in perfect synchronicity to the sounds, and often these scenes will suddenly, momentarily, poignantly reflect the sort of actual, natural scenes one might be 'reminded of' by 'ordinary listening.' (such as 'this reminds me of being on the ocean' or 'in a valley of aspen trees at twilight' or 'in a particular room') Here too, the lapse of being aware that I am 'reminded of something' and perceiving the manifestation of the thing I am reminded of is startlingly instantaneous.

But these states allow a totally unique approach to the 'listening experience' as well, with a very curious effect - I am able to focus my attention on any given 'part' of this structure without compromising the 'on-going' composition. Notes in the 'first part' of the compostion may 'remain' as aural and visual entities, and every note seems to remain 'congruent' to the compostion as percieved from any given point. A limited analogy might be the new approach to film-making and DVD technology that some directors and game-makers are using and experimenting with, where the user can define camera angles, scene sequences, alternate plot lines and outcomes - effectively 'creating their own cut' or 'slicing through' the events of the film or game at will. But more than this, I can seemingly cause the composition to 'lapse back into itself' or 'bring older elements forward' in new ways, such that each note or element in itself, in a sense, seems to be an infinitely sustaining, 'organic member,' simulatneously present to the whole. It's very difficult to describe the sort of 'time modulations, convolutions and distortions' that go along with the perception of this audio-visual interconnectedness. It's almost as if an enormous amount of 'slurring and echoing' is occuring, such that would be impossible to reproduce without compromising the integrity of the music, but there is a much broader range to my 'hearing' and far more accuity to my 'audio-focus' so that far many more things can be 'happening at once' than would be possible with ordinary sound. I've also perceived situations with 'multiple on-going foci,' that is, versions or variations happening more or less simultaneously in different, distant points in space, in 'mathematical harmony' with one another. While in a purely mathematical sense, what I am describing is to some degree also true of my normal conscious experience of listening to music, the perceptive possibilities seem to extend to an order of magnitude beyond the strict linear potential of 'real music.'

At any rate, I certainly feel my 'acknowledgement of this plane' is at the root of all my 'musical dabblings' or that I am attempting to 'draw the listener (or indeed, myself) into that plane of experience,' or that I am 'referring to that' by even creating music - but I don't very often lift actual riffs from these crazy cats. Although 'they' can play any style of music and may be at times as simple and beautiful as a single trumpet note over a sustaining choir, the virtuosity and expression of 'their' playing and arrangements simply far exceeds my technical and intellectual grasp. (and, I must say that I've often thought, perhaps purposefully so.) The result is usually that I am simply awed and inspired, as if by an intricate fireworks display or a wild dance through a garden of indescribably fragile beauty. (or perhaps both simultaneously.) Hopes of 'recording' the events in memory are dashed by sheer onslaughts of speed, scope, and complexity. (and this may be because I am so visually oriented - even when seeing such effects from normal listening to recorded music, the scale of the visual events cannot be rendered by any language or single image.) In writing music, I often, if not always, try to interpret the character of what I hear in these states, but literally transcribing what I've heard, as an old musician friend of mine from Beirut once said, in broken English, "would be quite from out of the impossible."

Anyway, now on to dreams - I happen to find most often, but not perfectly consistently, that my 'wake up in the morning type dreams' have a much different set of characteristics as far as audition, or hearing in general is concerned. I am often quite able to produce sounds by various, sometimes ingenious and sometimes absurd means. I recently dreamt of a series of wires strung from the floor to a high ceiling with rather ornate objects affixed to them and discovered, to my delight, that by moving the objects up and down in different ways I could produce an incredible range and variety of rich, symphonic, vaguely 'oriental' sounds. I also dream of playing 'ordinary instruments,' some of which I cannot play 'in real life,' and sometimes 'better or worse' than I could play them in real life. (they often behave very contrarily - such as blowing on a trumpet and producing a piano-like sound) But I emphasize this difference in overall quality for me personally. In dreams I tend to hear things as distinct, isolated, very singular events. Another way to put this, might be that I hear, or rather sense, a somewhat pervasive silence in my ordinary dreams. (and I purposely sleep with no music or other organized sound sources in the background) Very occasionally I may have a 'soundtrack' element - I may hear 'jungle music' in the a wild forest, or dissonant jazz in 'chase scenes.' I may hear myself breathing, myself or other people speaking, ordinary music - such as occasionally 'real songs' - and many other ordinary sounds in dreams, and I have even 'collaborated' with or watched other groups of musicians perform spontaneously, but the isolated and focused-on sounds seem almost to occur in a sort of 'audio vacuum.' (perhaps a bit like being underwater) Finally, I guess I would say that for me, sound in ordinary dreaming is very much like a more limited version of sound in ordinary waking consciousness - a stark contrast to the explosive 'beyond sound' Theta experiences I've had.

I think comfortably of these Theta experiences as 'hallucinations,' and as being a seperate 'category of experience' from dreams or lucid dreams. Now, what I am saying here maybe only a semantic entanglement, but I also feel them to be far more literally 'lucid' - 'you are there and fully awake' - than the 'category' of events I would say are my own lucid dreams. I guess the best way to say this is that in the lucid dream environment I generally feel myself to have a 'real' body (albeit not always specifically human) and I feel the affects of upon this body in what seems to be more of a 'real place' which I move about within in more a less a typical 3-dimensional way, while my abilities, or 'physics' itself maybe seemingly greatly extended. In a way I simply cannot qualify, it seems that in lucid dreams a great many of the elements are 'planned' or even 'fixed.' It maybe simply a question of the 'pace' of these synesthetic Theta musical experiences, in which even though I feel 'I am in and a part of,' I do not feel any but the slightest 'embodiment' as 'pure motion.' (...as predicted, I have now gone crazy trying to categorize all these various states and degrees of lucidity, perhaps I do not have 'fully lucid' dreams, or perhaps I percieve my fully lucid dreams as 'out of body experiences,' which are to me a whole other thing.)

As to the original question, what do dreams about music mean? I would say broadly, that it means you have the potential to be a musician.

Warning: approaching shameless plug area.

If any of you should happen to use Napster and be interested in my musical pursuits, here's a link to more information about how to find my music with Napster than anyone could want. For those of you who don't have Napster, but are on friendly terms with mp3s in general, there's a link toward the end of the page that will direct you to my mp3.com site, with streaming and downloadable media (or simply go to www.mp3.com/sao) Feel free to email me for more info or help with any of this. As I write, the piece that comes to mind as perhaps the best single example of this 'frenetic multiplicity' and 'contrasting flux of the geometric and the organic' I've been describing, might be 'A Demon In Flatland,' on the other hand, several of my entire albums evolved, impressionistically, from 'dream themes,' and the majority of my music is somewhat more 'meditational.'

Uh oh, we've got a long winded Napsterite quoting an other long winded Napsterite. I better get comfortable cause I'm gonna be reading it for a while. Thanks TG.

This theta state you refer to is very familiar to me as well. I reach it often before I go to sleep at night and I've spoken of it in the dream thread too. Whereas you see chaotic images and hear chaotic melodies I myself find myself in a universe of pure theory. Sometime I contemplate mathematical theroms, sometimes theology and metaphysics, and sometimes I come up with iedas that yield practical results. I tend to have ideas that seem absolutely, completly coherent, but since I tend to forget myself and reality in this state I make up my own rules and upon close examination these ideas fall appart (I happen to think that the whole universe is a closed system, if all components are added together the sum will be zero, buy in my imaginary universes I sometimes forget to carry the one). When this happens I wake up and find the last memoris of the made up universe conflict with reality and I get confused, then I realize that I was dreaming, then I get frustrated that I can't remember the genius idea I just had.

But sometimes my theta dreams are rooted in reality and I can remember what they were and how they came to me. As it happens I was listening to Dido while trying to go to sleep and I realized something about the basic "geometry" of music and how it can be computerized. There is a number system that I can't remember the name for that uses binary in an interesting way. It produces a series of numbers like this: 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 4, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 5, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 4, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1... Say it out loud in a slow and steady pace, you can hear the rythem. Look on a standard ruler (with inches) and look at the hight of the tick marks:

|               |               |
|       |       |       |       |
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

It follows the same pattern (except in my illustration it begins and ends with 5 instead of 1).

What if you applied a random note to each number from to, I don't know, how about 88, they don't all have to be different notes, you can apply the same note to more than one number, you could even apply silence to some numbers to provide rests. Now play the note that corresponds to each number in the order I gave and listen to what you get. I havn't tried it myself but I bet any computer could do it with the right program. Just tell it to randomize a bunch of notes and give each a number and play each note in this order, after a few trials you might hear some very complex melodies.

This is the kind of stuff I think of before I go to sleep.

I have been able to 'direct' the arrangements and melodies at hand to 'step through' musical styles in rapid sequence according to whim, much like pushing a button for now 'bluegrass,' now 'reggae,' now 'chamber music.'

This reminded me of an other idea I had. You could concievably play the same song with the same tempo in different styles and genres by tweaking the harmonies and instrumentation. I think this could be used in shoping malls to replace that awful elevator music. As you walk from one part of the mall to the other you would hear the same song played with different instrumental arrangments, different harmonies, maybe even different lyrics and genres. The same song would sound different depending on what "zone" you're in. Perhaps instruments could be isolated and replayed through their own speakers. As you walk around the music will seem to change in style but not in rythem so that each person can have an individual musical experience, or the same person could have different experiences with the same song on different occasions. And if there's lots of space you might hear echoes from other zones that would multiply on top of each other.

You speak of th 4-dimensionality of your audio/visual dreams and their correlation with imagery. I generally think of sound as one dimensional in nature, unilinear, simply a line that changes color along it's length. An image on the other hand is a series of pararllel lines forming a plane. Video is a series of parallel planes layered on top of each other illustrating motion. Computers can handle video with ease, parsing millions of parallel multicolored lines at once. If each line had an audio output instead of a visual output, well lets just say that there's lots of room for speculation. When you speak of kaleidoscopic imagery and cacophonous chaos I imagine that this is what it must be like, hearing each "pixel" as well as seeing it. Except that the the 4-dimensionality comes from multiple video streams playing in your field of view all at once.