Did you dream last night?
Dreams are a very old topic. "Zhuang Sheng Xiao dreamed of butterflies, and looked forward to the cuckoo in the heart of emperor Spring". More than 2,000 years ago, the story of Zhuang Zhou Mengdi once told the wonder of dreams.
Everyone dreams, but perhaps many people don't know that there has always been a close connection between dreams and music and art.
During the Qingming Festival, we introduced an artistic song related to dreams - "After the Dream" created by musician Fore, which mainly expresses the composer's loss after waking up in a beautiful dream, and the cruel contrast between the beauty of the dream and the reality is extremely tragic, so that we feel the pain of the composer's loss.
How painful is the pain of loss? - Tell you with music
The composer Berlioz, known for his romance, also expressed his almost morbid sensitivity in the case of love and inability to describe strange dreams in his Symphony of Fantasies.
Symphonie fantasie fantastique (conducted by Karajan) _Bilibili _bilibili
Symphony of Fantasies was written by Berlioz for his long-loved actress Harriet Smithson.
The first movement, titled "Dreams and Passions", tells the story of a young musician who commits suicide by taking opium due to a loss of love, but the dose is insufficient to cause death, and when he falls asleep, he has strange fantasies in his dreams, and eventually the woman he loves and the sick imagination in his mind are transformed into notes and music.
Because it is a description of dreams, this movement breaks out of the shackles of the scope of thought, is more flexible, free, full of tenderness and incredible imagination.
Conductor Inbar once said of Berlioz: "He was the first person in the history of music to turn the rhythm upside down, and each line on the score had its own life, melody, rhythm and color. ”
The deep feeling of dreams makes Berlioz's imagination seem to have wings, and it also makes him romantic and crazy.
Yes, the illusory and unconscious nature of dreams often coincide with the freedom and imagination of music. This special form of thinking can produce great creativity in artistic creation.
For example, in addition to expressing complex emotions by depicting dreams, dreams are often the inspirational muse of the artist's creation.
Stravinsky's famous masterpiece, The Rite of Spring, was inspired by a dream by the composer at the time: he dreamed of participating in a solemn pagan festival in which a group of elders sat in a circle, in which a young girl danced and was asked to dance until death—she was the sacrifice they used to sacrifice to the god of spring.
Stravinsky woke up and recorded and enriched this absurd fantasy dream with music. That's why when we listen to the music of the Rite of Spring or watch this dance drama, we may have a fragmented sense of unreality.
The famous violin piece "The Devil's Vibrato" (Violin Sonata in G minor), also inspired by the dreams of composer Tartini.
Tartini [Devil's Vibrato] Perlman_Bilibili _bilibili
It is said that Tartini has always dreamed of learning the most amazing violin skills in the world. One night, in his sleep, a devil appeared and tried his piano skills against him.
At the beginning of the game, the unassuming devil came to play first, but it stunned Tartini—it was the most beautiful music he had ever heard, beyond the limits of human imagination. He was intoxicated, ecstatic, and agitated in his dreams. When he woke up, he tried to retain the memories of his sleep, even if only a small part.
So he recalled the melody of his dream as much as possible, and finally wrote this classic Violin Sonata in G minor, which was named "The Devil's Vibrato" according to the plot of the dream. Although in Tartini's view, this piece is still very different from the beautiful song in his dream, but he thinks that this is already the best creation of his life.
And, perhaps, many people have also heard such an interesting rumor: the musician Mozart has a habit of wearing glasses every night before going to bed. People wonder why this is, and Mozart replied: "I often dream of melodies and sheet music, and if I don't wear glasses, I can't see any notes, and when I wake up, I forget everything."
We can't confirm how much the rumor is true, but it's also clear that dreams are important to musicians.
In fact, in addition to music, artists in other fields also find inspiration in their dreams.
The Spanish painter Dalí would deliberately place a glass on the ground when he slept, and then place one end of the spoon on the edge of the glass, with his fingers between the other end. After falling asleep, the fingers relax, the spoon falls, and you will wake up. At this moment, he immediately got up and drew the strange image in his sleep.
This is why many of Dalí's masterpieces are depictions of dreams, full of extraordinary imagination.
△ Dalí's masterpiece: "The Eternity of Memory"
The writing tools of the famous writer Kafka are "insomnia" and "nightmares". Before writing, he would always stay up late and then sit at his desk and doze off to let inspiration come out of his subconscious. He once recorded in his diary: "This power comes from my dreams, which shine when I am not asleep, and make me sleepless at night."
△ Illustration of Kafka's Metamorphosis
Speaking of which, many people may wonder: is inspiration only for artists, otherwise why would they only come to the artist's dream?
In fact, dreams may seem illusory, but they are not completely devoid of causal relationships with the activity of the brain.
When Wagner created "The Gold of the Rhine", he never thought of a good introduction and thought about it every day. Finally, one time, he crossed the sea by boat, and on a sleeping afternoon, he heard a self-contained tune of water flowing in his half-dream and half-woke up, and found inspiration from it.
Artists' dreams and inspirations are not generated out of thin air, but are based on their frequent artistic conception and strong desire to create.
As we often say , " thinking about the day and dreaming at night " , when the artist's creative thoughts accumulate to a certain extent , when sleeping at night , the brain will sort out, review, select and eliminate the information frequently received.
Therefore, dreams that seem to be full of emotion and accident have actually undergone a process of rational accumulation and careful thinking.
Yin Ye, an expert in the field of biological genes, also recently talked about the meaning of dreams in "Round Table Pie". He also stressed that dreaming is not a bad thing, and dreams are not just illusory, illogical thoughts.
In fact, dreaming can also help us learn and help people expand the boundaries of cognition. Many of the great achievements of the scientific and artistic worlds were born in half-dreams and half-awakenings, which people called the "Edison moment".
At the same time, he believes that in addition to bringing inspiration, dreams can also make our brains produce a lot of memory connections, and these memories and thoughts will regularly "cleanse" our brains, remove waste in the brain, and prevent Alzheimer's disease.
So, be thankful for your dreaming self.
I hope you can sleep and dream well every night.