the creative talent

the CreativeTalent

Massimo SchincoConservatory of Music G. F. Ghedini, Cuneo

introducing myself

I’m a psychologist and a psychotherapist, working with individuals and families . I’m also a supervisor in social services for children

I teach the so called “Milan Approach” to systemic psychotherapy at the Milan Centre of Family Therapy

I also teach in the Conservatory of Music, Cuneo and lead learning groups in the University of Pavia

I’m a member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams. I’m currently serving as a Member of the Board of Directors in the period 2011 – 2013

I’m an amateur musician and I play violin in the Orchestra Sinfonica Amatoriale Italiana

as an author, I focus on creative change related to dreams and music. My last book is “The Composer’s Dream”, published by Pari Publishing


in this presentation, consistently with the subject and with the ideas I’ll bring forth, I will rely not only on verbal language but also on other languages, mainly on music, and I will make a frequent use of metaphors


I claim that being gifted with a creative talent means having peculiar abilities in translation and re-translation of experiences occurring into different realms of reality, each one speaking its own peculiar language


thus, creativity will be considered mainly in a relational frame, so that

“to be creative” means

to be able to evoke, in someone else, experiences putting in dynamic communication different “layers” and realms of reality such as:


- the nearly chaotic basis of consciousness, both individual and collective

- the narrative description of the self (“identity” both of individuals and of communities)

- the bodily aspects of reality (through movement, sensitivity and perception)

- the symbolic aspects of reality (languages)


examples



in this piece of music the basic sounds of nature, like chirps, evoke and get intertwined with the basic structures of western tonal music, like simples scales and arpeggios.It all raises up into the listener the echoes of experiences such that in verbal language they could be defined as “the beauty and happiness of a natural way of life”


a feeling like this is quite clearly expressed by Carl Gustav Jung in his “Memories, Dreams Reflections” when speaking about his stay in the “Tower” he built in Bollingen.

In Bollingen silence surrounds me in a nearly sensible way, and I live “in a modest harmony with nature”. Thoughts occur that date back in centuries, and in the meantime they anticipate a future far from now; struggle for creation is appeased: creativity and play are side by side.

Edvard Grieg’sbreathing and music


excerpts from Peer Gynt’s suites

Edvard Grieg was born 1843 in Bergen, Norway.When he was 16 studying at the Conservatory in Leipzig (De), contracted TBC. He gave up to later resume, but fret over the incompleteness of his studies ever since.

His left lung completely collapsed so that he could breath only with a part of his right lung. All life long he suffered from breathing disease worsening the depression he fell into in 1869 because of the death of his only 13 months daughter. The consequences of breathing issues on the cardiac muscle led him to death at the age of 64.


in 1874 Henrik Ibsen invited him to write the stage music for his drama Peer Gynt

in 1888 and 1891, out of those 22 pieces of music, Grieg drew the most famous Symphonic Suites

despite his very serious troubles in breathing, until advanced age Grieg used to be a strong mountain hiker

echoes of his health state and habits can be easily detected in this music



morning mood


Aase’s death


thanks to its incipit on the weak tempo (anacrusis), the sorely simple cells raising all the first movement of the 5th Symphony recall to memory the sound of popular dances from the european tradition like “sarabanda” or “allemanda” (deutsche)

in turn it recalls the unresolved issue of Beethoven’s life: “the yearn for a normal life”, meanwhile his whole life was overwhelmed with the peculiar troubles and joys of creativity

a demanding “destiny knocking at his door”, once again…

creativity implies vicinity to chaos

in personal identityin mental healthin cognitive pathwaysin the process of creation itself


examples


vicinity to chaos in personal identity and belongings


Gioachino Rossini (1792 – 1868)

was his father “Il Vivazza “, or the Count Andrea Perticari?


On 29 February 1792 a beautiful baby boy was born in Pesaro and was christened the same day with the names Giovacchino and Antonia, his paternal grandparents.

Indeed, just five months had passed since the baby’s parents were married. The mother, Anna Guidarini, about twenty years old, was a pretty young dressmaker gifted with a nice soprano voice. The father, who was already thirty-three, was a horn player and had arrived from Lugo di Romagna to take on the role of trumpet player in the town. He was known as Il Vivazza (a man with an exuberant character), but his real name was Giuseppe Antonio Rossini.

But serious doubts regarding Gioachino being biologically the son of Vivazza have been put forward. He was a beautiful boy with noble features…perhaps Anna’s spring passion flared up whilst squeezed in an aristocratic embrace, that of Count Andrea Perticari, it is said.

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)used to consider himself as being born in 1772 instead than 1770 and was pleased of the widespread gossip that he was son of a King of Prussia. All life long he complained for being a misunderstood aristocrat.


Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883)the true story of his birth would take the entire presentation… most likely his real father was not the Police Officer Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner, but the actor, playwright and portraitist Ludwig Geyer (who bore a pretty Jewish last name!)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)entire books have been written on the controversial story of his death and burial

vicinity to chaos in mental health


Gioachino Rossini (1792 – 1868)

suffered from a severe depression for around 25 years


one thing the creative person and the psychically suffering person share is a condition of sensitivity, a magnified condition relative to the average person. The creative person is more vulnerable than the average person in regard to the mystery of being, in which he participates in a much more intense way than others.

“In sensitivity one exposes oneself, one exposes a nude more nude than the skin which, as form and beauty, inspires the statuesque

arts: the nude of a skin offered for contact, for a caress that always – even equivocally in voluptuousness – is a suffering for the suffering of others.”

Emmanuel Lévinas

vicinity to chaos in cognitive pathways


an excerpt from a Wolfgang’s letter to his cousin Maria Anna Thekla, November 5th, 1777


Wouldn't you like to visit Herr Gold-smith again?-but what for?--what?--nothing!-just to inquire, I guess, about the Spuni Cuni fait, nothing else. nothing else?-well, well, all right. Long live all those who, who-who-who-how does it go on?-I now wish you a good night, shit in your bed with all your might, sleep with peace on your mind, and try to kiss your own behind; I now go off to never-never land and sleep as much as I can stand. Tomorrow we'll speak freak sensubly with each other. Things I must you tell a lot of, believe it you hardly can, but hear tomorrow it already will you, be well in the meantime. Oh my ass burns like fire! what on earth is the meaning of this!-maybe muck wants to come out? yes, yes, muck, I know you, see you, taste you-and-what's this--is it possible? Ye Gods!-Oh ear of mine, are you deceiving me?-No, it's true-what a long and melancholic sound!-today is the write I fifth this letter.

vicinity to chaos in the creative process


a Giacomo Puccini’sautograph of one page of “the Girl from the Golden West”


the story of the Bach’s “Air on the G string”

at the beginning of a story its location in time a space is fundamental, but when we search for reference points in the chronology of Bach’s musical production, we inevitably stumble across problems that trigger endless controversies among scholars


actually it is almost always difficult, and at times impossible, to date Johann Sebastian Bach’s musical production precisely

we have to make use of hypothetical expressions that give a sensation of suspension: ‘it seems…’, ‘it emerges…’, ‘presumably…’, almost…’

it seems that Bach composed the Orchestral Suite in D major (BWV 1068), presumably between 1729 and 1737, in Leipzig where he conducted the Collegium Musicum founded by Telemann


the suite consists of five movements; the second of these is the Aria

it is almost certain that he obtained the suite from one of his previous compositions with concertante violin dating back to the final period of his stay in Köthen, where he had served as Kapellmeister to the court of Prince Leopold between 1717 and 1723


here the problems of dating the suite cannot be said to be entirely solved: indeed, those listening to the second movement (adagio ma non tanto) of the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 (BWV 1051) will recognize a very similar melody in the fugue for two voices assigned to violas


if the Brandenburg Concertos bear the dedication date of March 24, 1721, several parts that were integrated into them were certainly composed previously; the oldest, amongst which is the aria under discussion here, probably date back to the Weimar period, between 1713 and 1717


as on many other occasions, we have before us a musical idea that exists, albeit in various forms, in an all but ephemeral way within the composer

it is as if an idea would “visit” the creative person, and he or she has the skills necessary for receiving it and working on it later on


the ordinary logics of causes and effects cannot be applied to creativity

we have not the time left now to dwell on it. I’ll just hint, For those who are fond of these inquiries, that, as a general model of explanation, I rely the most on

David Bohm’s and F. David Peat’s insights on

implicate/explicate – and superimplicate - ordersgenerative ordersholomovement



all these models finally allow us to take seriously the impression that, at times, creations create their authors rather more than the other way round

the same impression we have with dreaming

both dreams and creativity sprout from the implicate, enfolded, unexpressed side of reality, grows up in the explicate, unfolded, expressed one and to “the other side” they return in an unceasant movement…

…and when it’s over, it is for real

John Lennon1940 - 1980


Yeah. I don’t believe in the Beatles, that’s all. I don’t believe in the Beatles myth. “I don’t believe in the Beatles”–there is no other way of saying it, is there? I don’t believe in them whatever they were supposed to be in everybody’s head, including our own heads for a period. It was a dream. I don’t believe in the dream anymore.

(from Jann Wenner’s interview on Rolling Stone Magazine, 1971)

…And then the fuckin’ fans tried to beat me into being a fuckin’ Beatle or an Engelbert Humperdinck, and the critics tried to beat me into being Paul McCartney.


creative persons own the necessary skills to guarantee the unfolding of this process, which are:

openness to chaos (inner thin boundaries)selective attentioncapability of producing metaphors (creativity is not psychosis – psychosis is a failure in the creative process)capability of mastering a techniquecapability of waitingcapability of playingcapability of working and renouncing

sensitivity


the “price” that is paid:

self-perception of diversity and isolationrigidity (tendency to yes/no attitude)exposure to violent oscillations of mood (exaltation vs. depression, anxiety vs. laziness)tendency to take things to the limitcompensatory behaviors (e.g. addictions, vulnerability in relationships)need of outer thick boundaries to protect the inner thin boundaries (e.g. tendency to affiliation to rigid systems, narcissism)

examples




Do you think you’re a genius? Yes, if there is such a thing as one, I am one.When did you first realize that? When I was about 12. I used to think I must be a genius, but nobody’s noticed. I used to wonder whether I’m a genius or I’m not, which is it? I used to think, well, I can’t be mad, because nobody’s put me away, therefore, I’m a genius. A genius is a form of madness, and we’re all that way, you know, and I used to be a bit coy about it, like my guitar playing.If there is such a thing as genius–which is what... what the fuck is it?–I am one, and if there isn’t, I don’t care. I used to think it when I was a kid, writing me poetry and doing me paintings. I didn’t become something when the Beatles made it, or when you heard about me, I’ve been like this all me life. Genius is pain too.




People like me are aware of their so-called genius at ten, eight, nine... I always wondered, “why has nobody discovered me?” In school, didn’t they see that I’m cleverer than anybody in this school? That the teachers are stupid, too? That all they had was information that I didn’t need. I got fuckin’ lost in being at high school. I used to say to me auntie “You throw my fuckin’ poetry out, and you’ll regret it when I’m famous,” and she threw the bastard stuff out. I never forgave her for not treating me like a fuckin’ genius or whatever I was, when I was a child. It was obvious to me. Why didn’t they put me in art school? Why didn’t they train me? Why would they keep forcing me to be a fuckin’ cowboy like the rest of them? I was different, I was always different. Why didn’t anybody notice me?


Eric Clapton1945 -


“(addiction to drugs or alcohol)… it is an obsession. A part of my personality is obsessed with pushing things to the limit. It can be of great use when my obsession is funneled into constructive thoughts or creativity, but it can be destructive as well, mentally, physically or spiritually. I guess this is what happens to an artist who, when he feels his mood swaying – something we all suffer from, when we are creative – instead of facing reality being aware that this is an opportunity of creation, turns himself to something that will switch that mood off and stop that irritation. And this can be drinking, heroin, or anything else.One doesn’t want to face that creative urge, because he knows the self-exploration that shall be undertaken, the suffering that shall be carried on. This happens mainly, or in a quite painful way, to artists.Until they do not understand what it is that does this to them, they will keep doing something to kill this.”

(from Robert Palmer’s interview on Rolling Stone Magazine, 1985)

Henri Bergson (1859 – 1941)

“consciousness is urge of creation”



consciousness needs obstacles to get over so to raise up creativity

sometimes the more harsh and demanding are the obstacles, the more sublime are creativity’s outcomes

The most beautiful sea hasn't been crossed yet.

The most beautiful child hasn't grown up yet.

Our most beautiful days we haven't seen yet.

And the most beautiful words I wanted to tell you I haven't said yet


)

Nazim Hikmet to his wife, from the prison of Bursa, Anatolya, 1940


Thank You

the creative talent

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