Expert: David Froom - 10/10/2009

Question
Hi David, from what I understand, the right side of the brain is attributed to creativity and that certain types of classical music can stimulate the right side of the brain. I was subsequently wondering which are the best composers or, best classical music to listen to whilst drawing/painting?
Best Regards
Gary

Answer
Gary,

My cognitive psychologist friends tell me that this right/left brain thing is a big simplification of something that is far more subtle. Many have pointed out the intense connection between so-called emotions and so-called rational thought.  For example, people with brain injuries that cause them to lose the ability to experience emotion lose a surprising amount of ability in areas we think of as rational -- in effect, losing emotional response can make them behave in a way we would call irrational.

Even if you buy into the right/left brain thing, the determination that the arts reside in a purely emotional realm (vs. some combination of the intellectual and emotional realms) is something that is far from clear.  

For me, classical music is best when both sides of the experience are present -- when the music stimulates rational thought as well as emotion.  Certainly the composers typically called great -- like Beethoven -- have this effect on me.  When some people respond more in one way (say, intellectually without much feeling), it seems the balance might be tipped.  That might be why some people call Bach or Brahms "too intellectual" or Wagner or Berlioz or Mahler "too emotional."

Further, this varies from piece to piece within these composers.  Maybe Bach's Art of the Fugue is heard by some to be a little dry, but his B-minor Mass could be an overwhelming emotional experience.  Or Beethoven's "Wellington's Victory" or the piano fantasies seem to be sloppy indulgence to some, while his Grosse Fuga string quartet seems to be way too intellectual -- but his Opus 131 string quartet or 9th Symphony seem to be a perfect balance.

Finally, for us serious listeners, the idea of using music for something other than listening intently is hard to imagine.

So, my advice to you is to try all kinds of things, first listening, then while drawing.  If you find anything that works, ask for advice on things that are similar.

A couple of stories

1)  a painter friend of mine asked for a recording of 20th century music.  I gave him a big sampling.  Though he was hoping to find some recent music that connected to his way of thinking artistically, he ended up liking only the earliest music on that tape:  some symphonies by Mahler from the turn of the 20th century.

2) I was friendly with Earle Brown, one of the avant garde pioneers who, together with the composers John Cage and Morton Feldman, were in the social world of the abstract expressionists in New York in the 1950s.  While the composers all studied (and wanted to own) the art that their friends made, and while they all got together and found much in common when they talked about aesthetics, Brown told me that it was frustrating that these artists all listened to 1950s Jazz when they worked.

David Froom