The idea of the unconscious mind first occurred to me during the strange area of time, space, and creativity that occurs when you are in the process of falling asleep. While falling asleep my mind would quickly jump from one seemingly perfect musical idea to the next, but when I woke up these ideas would be completely foreign to my conscious mind. The title of this piece also comes in relation to Schoenburg’s idea of writing music for the unconscious mind- a desire to create within a completely original, transcendent world of music that would not be understandable by listeners. (Un)conscious Mind straddles the line between familiar and unfamiliar along with comfortable and uncomfortable when it comes to meter, voice leading, repetition, and cycling through musical ideas. The piece is influenced by the manipulation of a minor third and alternating textures of arco and pizzicato. Without a significant presence of melodic themes, these textures become the basis of the shifting musical ideas, at first unfamiliar to the listener.  The piece ends with a synthesis of these different musical ideas which become completely part of the conscious mind of the listener.

Cover art credit to Maddie Chaffer (www.chafffer.tumblr.com)

(Un)conscious Mind

Willem Mudde