These outstanding personalities we know as our great musical creators. But also, this “autobiography of music” is a landmark of the generation of a new age, a generation which today, with scientific accuracy, penetrates into the mechanism of musical creativity, systematically performs research on it, and wants to authentically capture the art of our great masters of music. The first sense of achievement of the modern music student, then, lies in the development of his ability to listen to music creatively – that ability which since all times represents the timeless, true inner basis of the art of sound.
Thus, the book “Natural Music Creation” authentically examines the origin of the musical creations deep within our great masters of music and describes the evolution of their grand masterpieces all the way to the world of the “interpretation.” The author, a composer himself, describes the process of evolution of the musical creation deep within the musical creator with the same scientific accuracy with which he describes the development of a music lover into a true composer.
Before our
cognizing eye the author, in a comprehensible and indeed fascinating manner,
delves deeply into the laws of music and the divine forces in man which alone
are capable of raising the art of sound into the light of our inner, mental
concert sphere.
Here, for the first time in the known history of music, the listener succeeds
in acquiring a true intellectual insight into the smithy of music of our great
masters of the art of sound.
In this book
“Natural Music Creation,” the author introduces us to the true structure
of music – to its inner formal structure, to its natural logic, to its
inherent meaning and to the form and content of this great art.
In this context one must take into consideration that the entire conven-tional
musical education is as little concerned with the true essence of music as
a phonetician investigating ancient Chinese sounds is concerned with their
meaning. Right from his training, the musician is used to reading the notes
of the scores like letters and to only aim at pleasing sounds and at a certain
stimulation of feelings within himself and within the listener.
“To the musical poet, music originally appears in the form of the dance of the sounds, motifs, and sequences,” the composer Peter Hübner states.
“Within the imagination of a musical creator, these musical elements dance in his mind in that same innocent and nonpurpose-bound manner in which butterflies dance over a meadow, waves dance over the ocean, or the leaves of trees dance in the autumn wind.
“From
the level of his passive music appreciation the average music consumer only
recognizes the dancing shoes from below.
The acting personalities of the musical drama are so far invisible to him.
“When musical education succeeds in enhancing the affection, the attention, and the understanding of the listener then, step by step, music will reveal itself to him as his own inner ‘joy of dancing’; and beyond the soles of the dancing shoes and beyond the sounds he will recognize the actors: he will recognize the manifold qualities of his own character and he will discover himself to be the choreographer, the dancer, and also the process of dancing itself, as well as the joy of dancing. Only then will he enjoy himself, in the fullest sense of the word, as the sole entertainer in the ballet of music.”
In “Natural
Music Creation” the author describes the nature-given dimension of music,
its holistic origin within the self-consciousness of the musical creator,
and its systematic course of development in his inner mechanism of creating
– from his intellect, his feeling, and his understanding to the musical
performance within his mind – the first performance proper. Here the
true process of creation is described, just as it takes place within the classical
composer, and systematically examined.
From the insights gained hereby, “the machinery of musical reproduction
must inevitable draw appropriate conclusions – the musician as well as
the conductor and the sound technician, but especially the music teacher,”
says Peter Hübner.
Also, the composer examines the system of conventional musical education and offers inspirations for a meaningful deepening.
“History proves,” the author confirms, “that hardly any school of music in the world can justly claim to ever have succeeded in educating even one great composer; the few great musicians of the last centuries were either not at all associated with any music school, or their accomplishments were beyond the criteria of these institutions of music and were therefore not appreciated.
“However, music schools all over the world aim at artistic achieve-ment; in their curricula, they lean on the accomplishments of the great classical composers, and through guidelines attempt to unite the music students to these accomplishments, to thus give them at least an orientation for their own musical act.
“This association of the curriculum of our music schools with the accomplishments of the great classical composers, however, is only superficial and therefore only touches the composers’ outer product – but misses their inner accomplishment. The syllabus of the schools of music pertains only to the outer composition and not systematically and logically to its underlying musical meaning and purpose.
“A personal message from the classical composer to his listener is therefore not being recognized, and the paedagogical aim which moves the great classical composer is ignored. The musical significance of the general formation of mankind, as well as the basic inspiration as such to form man, is lost from view of the music teacher as well as of the music student, and the study of music is degraded to a system of merely seizing outer control over the world of sound and of aiming at superficial appreciation.”
This book opens completely new horizons for the entire education in the field of music – without causing any confrontation with the established system of musical education; for the statements made in this book do not prove the conventional system of musical education wrong, but merely show that it is extremely limited and that it could and should be expanded.
In “Natural Music Creation” the author considers that aspect of music in particular which makes this “Queen of the Arts” immortal. It is a work for true music lovers, for true music knowers, and for true and righteous music teachers. The facts described in it raise the creative might of our great classical composers from the mysterious realm of their genius creative work onto the platform of systematic scientific investigation.
Thereby, the reader feels the presence of a treasure of a language hidden in music since, in an understandable manner, he is shown how classical music was and is capable of describing our human life at the height of cosmic evolution, and how it succeeds with almost scientific accuracy to inspire us to divine action.
This book shows that the “spoken word” of music, as the realistic, holistic means of describing the living reality, is extremely profound and systematic – even in terms of today’s scientific criteria. This fact presumably accounts for the persuasive power of classical music.
“But,” as the author states, “life cannot be pressed into courses comprehensible in rational numbers. And since, accordingly, the irrational predominates in classical music, and for this reason the various musical parameters must interact in relations of irrational numbers, the great task for the professional world of music is to seize power over the controlled unfathomability of this realistic, living musical language.”
The author observes that, contrary to today’s current materialistically-rationally oriented sciences, especially the natural sciences, music describes the reality of life in the fantastic dimension of irrational values.
“The truly educated musician of the future will be able to comprehend the real world intuitively and holistically conscious – in a manner so far available only to our great musical creators. He will know how to correctly describe it in terms of irrational values, and how to portray the reality of life satisfactorily in accordance with the declared will of the great Natural Music Creation.”
Until now, many of us were wondering why, actually, they enjoy listening to music so very much and why they provided their ears which such a feast again and again.
In this book we realize that it is our love of truth, our love of life, our love of mankind, and our love for the knowledge of the reality of our human-cosmic existence, that made us pursue classical music and, until now, made us surrender – even though rather unconsciously – to the great charm of music again and again.
“Natural Music Creation” – an authentic documentation of the secret legacy of our great musical creators: a musicological document – a statement to the gifted musician, and: certainly a great challenge to the music teacher.
Aar Edition
© AAR EDITION INTERNATIONAL 1982