A Programme For The Right Brain Non-Verbal Oriented 
Interpretation And Appreciation Of Music

1.	In this modern world, it its post-modernist re-search for cultural roots, we are often presented with scholarly performances of pieces from various periods of early music, e.g., the Baroque, by those of an academic training as if such interpreters were reading their texts and submitting them for some formal degree, or, some other form of intellectual recognition. However faultless the presentation of this type of rendition inevitably the hearer has to work as hard as the performer in order to keep listening to such a literal left brain exercise. Despite the greatness of the musical score, if present, seeping through from time to time those people unfortunate to form such an audience will cease to keep in time and quite literally part company with the unfolding of that music. They will be quickly seen to stop tapping their feet or fingers or head, if having started at some point in time, and it will be the general feeling of an observer that these people will have no need to arrest any tendency to sing along. In other words, in our intuitive assessment, it will be our belief that these people will find no deep physical and psychic enjoyment in this phenomenon of the listening to music as normally understood. The temporal unfolding of that musical piece becomes a chore one must politely endure. Such a deadly exercise, for those people who intuitively know no better, will even be rewarded by an applause that in verbal expression was said to admire the faultless talent of that interpreter, their nimbleness in playing such `difficult' music, etc. Although it might be added that if such people were more honest they might truly say they were merely signaling their pleasure that such a task as having to listen to this piece of music had finally come to an end much like the way a church congregation learns, as I have witnessed on many occasions, to visibly wake up with the pronouncement of the final benediction. Of course in reality performances will find themselves somewhere in between these two extremes and that to that extent the interpreter allows their text to perform itself, with all the pre-conditional help it may need, to that degree we will take an equally related measure of enjoyment given that we are capable of attending to such a performance with the concentration necessary for such appreciation. Certainly, any form of left brain activity that dominates our attention, like idle chatter, etc., will, for the duration of that lapse of attention, defeat us in our discovering and appreciating the intrinsic merit of that particular creative phenomenon. As a general proposal to counter this form of left brain musical interpretation I have proposed the following programme, or manifesto, that might hopefully reverse this trend and instigate a more natural non-verbal right brain interpretation and appreciation (assuming that the interpreter, the teacher, the critic and/or the audience are naturally right handed and engage a right brain dominance in this field of activity. However, for those few people who are to the exception to this rule substitute the words left for right and right for left throughout this tract).

2.	Today there is a whole industry that surrounds works of art and literature with an overwhelming accumulation of commentary along an intellectual left brain orientation. Such verbal concretions are only signs that, hopefully, point, and not obscure, the merit of that phenomenon they wish to highlight, analyze or directly or indirectly comment upon. Let this observation serve then as a warning that our direct appreciation of the non-verbal aspect of a work of art is normally a right brain affair. Moreover, let us realize that any left brain approach can only be superficial, provisional and peripheral in this regard. Words can only encircle that of which they wish to speak of. Ultimately, therefore, all forms of interpretation and/or appreciation must move from the verbal to the non-verbal.

3.	The observation, and warning, noted in my second point accepted it behooves us to realize the paradox that even verbal communication can only be achieve when the non-verbal is successfully communicated. That successful verbal communication is the communication of the non-verbal, and, that the successful communication of the non-verbal is the communication of that non-verbal aspect of sense central to all forms of text. It may come as a surprise to realize that the intentional centrality of a text is fundamentally non-verbal in psychic orientation. Moreover, it is a mistake, therefore, to interpret intentionality purely along verbal-like lines of reference, or, even to give some form of predominance to this aspect that essentially deals with the verbal, the literal and the logical.

4.	The implications drawn in my third point accepted it follows that although a text is provisionally approached through a sequential, verbal-like appreciation our investigations don't properly get under way until we learn to intuitively approach that text holistically and non-verbally. But equally, we must not assume that a text can be read purely in a non-verbal-like frame of reference. Such an idea is correctly absurd. And just as mistaken, we must realize, is the opposite notion that a text can be read purely in a verbal-like, logical reading. Correctly texts are read but their final reading must be viewed as a(n act of) non-reading! Paradoxically a book, or text, is only read when we stop reading it.

5.	What then is the role for the verbal, the logical, the sequential outpourings of words or differentiated structures that continually bombard us in the performance of our daily lives? The sign, and signs, of a text are droppings discovered there that in their wrapping around our unfolding of that text allow us to locate the nature of that text, enter its hermeneutically encircled thematization and meet with the re-simulation of the non-verbal reality within, a reality that establishes the intentional textuality of that text under interpretation and appreciation. Therefore structured depositions are important but must be put to the side in our real reading of that text, a reading that allows us in some measure to enter the intentional world of that text.

6.	The parts and whole of that text under investigation, on all relevant levels of psychic appreciation, dialectically interact to thematize the re-simulation of the non-verbal being of that text re-establishing in the process a context for the non-verbal-like appreciation of that text. What is said is `shown' and then spontaneously re-experienced non-verbally.

7.	The non-verbal is experienced and therefore must be structured, and function, in its own manner consciously. But because such experience is primarily non-verbal in orientation it cannot be `talked' about only talked `about.'

8. 	The conclusion drawn in point seven accepted it follows that the realm of the non-verbal must be intentionally differentiated in its own manner, to some degree or other, in the midst of a conscious consciousness. Therefore it places before us the phenomenological question as to the nature, or natures, of non-verbal mental activity? In the following point let me distinguish the structural-functional natures of what I primarily regard as falling under this aspect of right brain oriented mental performance.

9.	Left brain function is primarily logical, sequential, conceptual and verbal in orientation, i.e., essentially cognitive in complexion. On the other hand I perceive the non-verbal as taking place in a pre-cognitive domain, a cognitive domain and a trans-cognitive domain or transcendental level of experiential activity (although the same type of schematization could be applied to the general category of left brain dominance in mental activity. But for the purposes of this paper let us restrict left brain activity to the cognitive sphere of interest only).

10.	Pre-cognitive non-verbal aspects of the phenomenon of music concern, in my opinion, two levels of activity, namely, the motor-sensory level of production and reception, and, the affective level of emotional impressions and overall mood. In the first broad category we have the production of musical sounds and their bare sensory reception and initial processing. On this level we also witness the manufacture of elementary forms of rhythm. On a slightly higher level of psychic organization we have the emotional impressions and overall mood imparted by a piece of music, a process achieved non-verbally through a sentic simulation of patterns of sound that spatio-temporally analogue the signatures of emotional states of consciousness. On this level we also witness more subtle forms of rhythm and rhythmic changes. The aesthetic powerfulness of a work of art, I also believe, primarily utilizes the cognitive manipulation and the harmonic trans-cognitive resolution of such fundamental emotional energies even though such impressional states of affairs may not be ostensively, or directly, analogued in a work of art.

11.	Cognitive non-verbal aspects of the phenomenon of music concern, in my opinion, the perceptual and spatial-like re-organizational processing of pre-cognitive psychic material. In this state of cognitive synthesis there is a concern for cognitive structural-functions, the possible evocation of perceptual-like states of affairs, an attention to a packaging of information, articulation and phrasing of a tune, the introduction of stresses and pauses, rudimentary forms of pulse or rubato, etc. 

12.	Trans-cognitive non-verbal aspects of the phenomenon of music concern, in my opinion, with the very heart and soul of music, namely, with the particular generation of harmony in accordance with the potential aesthetic nature of that piece of music subject to our current interpretational attention and/or appreciation. In the interpretation of a well-formed text, possessing adequate detail, and of intrinsic aesthetic substance, if all necessary preparation is performed and a trans-cognitive approach is allowed to be self-induced and self-informed then that text is allowed to communicate its essential nature and transmit indirectly in association any verbally-oriented cognitive forms of transmission intended by that text regardless of whether such an aspect of communication is narrowly textual as, e.g., in the form of a song, or, more openly religious, political, etc., in aspiration. From this transcendental level of psychic organization cognitive and pre-cognitive material is subtly over-written in order to re-create the aesthetic potential of the piece of art, e.g., a refined, super-controlled playing around with the illusion of a pulse as needed necessarily in the dance ethos of Baroque and early forms of Classical music. On such a level we should get the self-derived production of an interpretation in accordance with the overall spirit of that piece of music which is at the same time an unintended reflection of the interpreter them self or interpreters themselves (in their current psychical state of gestalt integration).

13.	Cognitive verbal aspects of the phenomenon of music concern, in my opinion, firstly, the sequential re-reading of that text, and, secondly, the communication of any form of message that might appear to be associated with that text regardless of whether such an association also assists in the generation of that `transcendental aesthetic,' or `aesthetic power,' of that work of art. A musical score is first approached via this aspect of its cognitive verbal-like encoding.

14.	A text also necessitates the necessary reconstruction of adequate and appropriate context for its re-interpretation. All works of art have this semiotic aspect of deferring to at least an implicit textual context that allows our re-reading that text. This often tacit non-verbal aspect is approached through the implicit rules of interpretation laid down on pre-cognitive, cognitive and trans-cognitive levels associated with the nature of that particular textual environment even if the depositional text was not designed to be re-read (like a trail of footprints that may or may not have been removed from the scene of their imprinting).

15.	That a textual context is always greater in psychic mass than the ostensive deposition of that text (otherwise that background could not `background' that deposition of text as a gestalt phenomenon in an act of appreciation). 

16.	That the interpretation of the interpretational levels of context necessary for the adequate interpretation of a text in turn necessitates a higher order of contextualization which is none other, in the final analysis, than a reflection of the individual as a member of a social world in all its generality and subtlety of detail.

17.	That all forms of interpretation and appreciation necessitate a high degree of gestalt self-organization to and beyond that degree necessary for such discernment. That works of art of merit, as well-formed texts, reflect this degree of gestalt self-organization and have the ability to induce the same degree of internal integration of psychic organization in those exposed and attentive to such complexly resolved structures. In this process the personality of the artist, or artists, and their artistic world of genres along with their social being in a world of human culture will find an inadvertent reflection, and crystalization, in those acts and depositions associated with that creative production. This deposited intentionality, in all its levels and aspects, will find itself essentially imprinted in an holistic form from the point of view of that artist, or those artists, etc., and which in re-interpretation will totally, to some thematized degree or other, re-manifest itself, albeit, now from the point of view of the interpreter or interpreters involved in its reconstructive re-simulation.

18.	Hence the greater importance in the field of active musical interpretation and passive appreciation that must be laid upon the structural-functions of the non-verbal in its focused and contextual forms of the pre-cognitive, cognitive and trans-cognitive. That as a final court of appeal the transcendental trans-cognitive must be listened to in order to realize, in its authentic spontaneity, the activity of interpretation and the passivity of appreciation derived from our careful reception of that work of art letting it directly speak to us through our returning non-verbally to the musical phenomenon itself!

19.	The following guidelines are noted in the hope that they might assist in the production of an authentically-oriented act of musical interpretation.

	1.	The musical text must first be approached in a verbal-like frame of reference but never fully played thereunder. 

	2.	If possible the text should be played twice, at least, by an able interpreter in order to appreciate, first, its detail, and, then, the well-formed nature of its harmonic text (if such aesthetic merit is intrinsic to that text).

	3.	Sequences must be clearly articulated slowly in order to programme our automatic and accurate pre-cognitive treatment of that text on a mechanical level of performance.

	4.	The basic rhythmic and emotional nature of that text should also be appreciated.

	5.	Verbalization associated with that interpretation should be minimized.

	6.	Levels of evocation and spatial-like phrasing, etc., should then be instigated carefully through an act that allows an  instantiation of our feelings, and overall feeling, for that piece of music.

	7.	Through the development of our transcendental intuition our appropriately pre-informed spontaneity in interpretation should now be allowed to speak for itself.

	8.	Our powers of critical appreciation retrospectively attempting to evaluate and find ways of refining the collective performance of these procedures, an activity assisted by the return of a verbal left brain approach that knows its place in this 	non-verbally dominated scheme of things.

	9.	That, finally, all forms of verification are re-evaluated in non verbal-like terms of reference.

20.	The following guidelines are noted in the hope that they might assist in the realization of an authentically oriented act of musical appreciation.

	1.	That good interpretations be evaluated in contrast with generally self-accepted instances of poor interpretation.

	2.	That all forms of relevant research be conducted in order to reconstitute an adequately reconstructed frame of reference that will allow us to better appreciated pieces and genres from the time period of the piece of music under current examination.

	3.	That a dialectical appreciation of pieces and genres before and after our period of current research be conducted in order to see what aspects in musical style, performance, etc., get promoted or discounted in the course of history.

	4.	A critical re-appraisal of that which spontaneously delights in order to ascertain non-verbally, but perhaps focused verbally, as to what in our intuition better promotes one interpretation over some other.

	5.	Finally, putting into practice, if possible, the insights realized both in our appreciation and our ongoing critical re-evaluation of the same; being guided in this pursuit by a returning to the phenomenon of the text itself and intuitively listening to its degree of distinctive non-verbal self-declaration!

21.	To complete this brief exposition I must make one last qualification in order to avoid one form of misunderstanding that might be easily made. The interpretation or performance of music, along with its appreciation, must in its exercise be a right brain affair. However, this does not mean that there is no role for the verbal introduction of comments, the logical treatment of textual signs, the sequential reading of that text, etc. Rather, a necessary left brain attitude must be exercised only as a pre-condition for the former and once established insulated and protected from disturbing a right brain execution and reception of that music. The brain in its function is so arranged that when confronted by a problem, a certain task to perform, it will intuitively judge, perhaps learnt form past experience, whether the situation is best dealt with in a left brain orientation or in a right brain orientation. Under such circumstances once all left brain pre-conditions are established for the reading of that text a right brain orientation should not be disturbed, in my belief, lest this task be left incomplete, through a loss of concentration, or inefficiently and inappropriately commissioned by a mis-direction into a left brain sphere of production. An `orientation' by its very nature can not be completely exclusive in its preferences and hence a reading without some form of left brain involvement is just as impossible as a reading without some form of a right brain participation. On the other hand the musicality of music demands, it would appear, a right brain orientation in order to realize and successfully orchestrate its full potential in interpretation and appreciation! The introduction of a verbal left brain component should not be conducted other than in a manner that keeps the overall right brain dominance of this type of situation in its place. In this regard the almost automatically learnt process of `counting' might actually assist in this keeping the left brain practically side-lined whilst the better suited right brain is allowed to play along with the totality of that musical experience. On the other hand, as noted in 19/1,3,8 and 20/2,3,4, there is a role for the verbal left brain involvement in the form of a pre-conditional reading of that text and the thematization of a critical retrospective critique of our interpretational and appreciational forms of appropriation in an attempt to more fully promote our right brain functioning through its future pre-conditional re-programming.

						 Noël Tointon, Sydney, 6.9.92. 

Note my restrictive treatment of a left brain orientation as Cognitive (Conceptual through its location in a conceptual, verbally oriented sequentially "structured" sphere of mental performance), whereas, I treat the right brain orientation as falling collectively under the three headings of the Pre-Cognitive (Sensory-Motor and Affective in subdivision), the Cognitive (Perceptual-Imagination), and the Trans-Cognitive (Transcendental). 
Editorial Comment: The metaphor of ‘left and right-brain’ should not be treated absolutely as consciousness is more complex than any description of it.