What is musical genius?

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Fitzwilliam Music Essay Competition 2011

Hugo Herman-Wilson – Whitgift School

What is musical genius?

When the term ‘genius’ is investigated, one will receive multiple definitions from the same dictionary. The Collins English Dictionary defines genius as “a person with exceptional ability, esp. of a highly original kind” yet under a different entry it also describes genius as “the guiding spirit who attends a person from birth to death”. This outlines a conflicting idea in defining inherently what genius is. One famous anecdote describes Paul Hindemith’s ability. Whilst rehearsing a new symphony, he was unable to find a score to conduct from so wrote all the parts out from memory to work from instead. The fact that no one understands what it is that gives this gift to Hindemith and others is the basis of the main argument in this essay. Musical genius manifests itself differently in different composers; opinion as to what constitutes musical genius is subjective by definition and therefore impossible to define. Human intelligence does not have the capacity to explain why Mozart and Bach could master the tools of composition to such a high degree, and why some will find one composer’s music beautiful, whilst another will find it horrendous. This essay will not be defining musical genius, and instead will be exploring what it is that gives us the ability to create beautiful music, including the effects of history, genetics, intelligence, upbringing and faith.

Claims of ‘nature over nurture’ or ‘nurture over nature’ have always been subjects of debate amongst both mothers and scholars. It has now, after many years of research, been scientifically proven (through studies of twins separated at birth) that neither party is right: nature accounts for roughly only 50 per cent of a child’s ability, be that musical or not. There are, of course, musical families, such as the Bachs (so musical that the name Bach came to mean musician), Mozarts and the Jacksons, but not all musicians have musical children. George Dyson’s son, Freeman, is a theoretical physicist and mathematician, famous in his own right for works, not in the musical world, but the scientific. I think it highly unlikely that the Director of the Royal College of Music would not introduce music into his son’s life and it is peculiar for his son not to have embraced it further. If being inherently musical yourself does not promise musical children, it would be assumed that providing a child with a musical upbringing and surrounding them with music of all forms would ensure the formation of a musical ability. However, a famous study of children adopted soon after birth, the Colorado Adoption Project, found no correlation between a child’s personality and ability and those of his adopted parents. Judith Rich Harris argued in The Nurture Assumption that parents are incorrect in assuming that the way they bring up their children has a profound effect on their lives, and that the powers of peer-pressure and non-family related experiences play a far greater role in the outcome of their child’s talents. So if musical ability does not originate completely from up bringing or genes, how do we explain musical geniuses? Brian Wilson, chief song writer for The Beach Boys, is an example of a composer, producer and arranger who is a popular musician hailed as genius. A young Brian Wilson could repeat the melody to When the Caissons go marching along prior to his first birthday, and was instantly captivated after hearing a recording of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue at the age of two. One cannot ignore the similarities between the young Wilson’s abilities and those of a young Mozart. Mozart is claimed to have “spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was always striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good.” Mozart is also famous for his dictation of Allegri’s Miserere after just two hearings. These examples of ability and musical maturity, of which there are many more, I believe to be un-teachable.  You can teach a singer to have a good vocal technique, but you cannot teach them to sing in tune. In the same way, musical genius must be inherited from an interior stimulation, which could either be a fortunate mix of upbringing, evolution and inherited genes, or something far more profound.

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Heinrich Schenker believed that Music (with a capital M) created by whom he regarded as ‘genius’ composers resided in a higher dimension, completely unrelated and independent of any other areas of human existence. Schenker claimed that music used genius ‘as a medium, so to speak, quite spontaneously.’ In other words, he claimed that ‘normal’ musicians could write their music and it would be perfectly acceptable but never hailed as genius. He went on to explain that in the case of genius composers ‘the superior force of truth – of Nature as it were – is at work mysteriously behind the consciousness, ...

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