Manifesto

Ian Shanahan (1995)

Western society in the 1990s is racked by conflict, avarice, bureaucracy, divisive tribalism,
stupidity, pettiness, politics, dualistic models, the folly of materialism, ignorance, mediocrity, the
ethics of self-interest, illiteracy, fundamentalism in religion, decay and despair, gender war,
corruption, cruelty, disease, ecological disaster, an alienation from nature, indifference,
irresponsibility ... and a relentless sociocultural fragmentation that will soon reach the atomic
level of the individual. Our decadent civilization is, it seems, beginning its terminal meltdown (at
last). Though one must go on...
We live in a crazy world. To compose is my way of trying to make sense of things, to acquire
meaning and purpose; composition and the infinite extension of its artistic possibilities is my
mantra.
Yet I would prefer not to be simplistically pigeon-holed as a composer (let alone young
Australian composer): in my case, such a standpoint is far too restrictively specialized. To the
contrary, and on the basis of my many diverse activities impinging upon the acoustic domain, I do
regard myself more generally as a scientist who happens to work with the physical milieu of sound
in order to construct a private cosmology. In many ways, therefore, I am philosophically and
practically aligned to those marvellous interdisciplinary creators of the Middle Ages who
subscribed to the quadrivium of musica, astrologia (astronomy), geometria and arithmetica, each
one facet of a higher unity. Mine is a Vedic and Platonic ideal of music, that music-making be a
vehicle for higher purpose, beyond the superficiality and transitoriness of culture: my work is
concerned with the mystical and sacramental; integrity; being; pattern and structure; intelligence;
abstractness, number and proportion; interconnectivity; archetype, deepest meaning, and ... unity. I
intend to keep building for myself a dynamic, living ontology founded upon this principle of unity,
in which Weltanschauung, Artwork and personal action are all in accord as much as possible.
The German philosopher and contemporary music commentator Theodor Adorno is reputed to
have remarked aphoristically:
Art that is experiment will live.
Art that is security will die.

Ostensibly, it might seem to be quite at odds with the previous lofty statements, but I am in
complete, absolute agreement with this epigram.
Yet there is a deeper tangible connection. Since I seek a new harmonious unity, how can I be
satisfied with regurgitating secure, established, second-hand musical syntaxes? Part of this endless
theosophical search involves forging ones own creative path, untainted by duality, and this entails
continual experiment. Not a self-seeking, self-serving experimentalism, but one that is pregnant
with vision, spirit, meaning, sincerity, expressivity, giving, and integrity: aspiring to create Art that
is genuine; Art that will continue to reach out, to challenge, to move, to uplift, and to bind us
together; Art that will change your reality; Art that is, and (hopefully) will remain, thoroughly alive.
Music is the knowledge of the order of all things and the science of the harmonic relationships of
the Universe; it rests on immutable principles which nothing can impair.
Antoine Fabre dOlivet

I have always felt the power of music, that it is somehow elemental to nature and the Cosmos.
So in aiming to compose a true musica humana which is at the same time very much a music of
Nature (musica mundana), I invoke the Laws of the Cosmos as codified by Science. Paradigms
from Mathematics, Astrophysics, Quantum Mechanics or Chaos Theory may inhabit my music, at
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every architectonic level; but most importantly, they should naturally permeate the musics soundworld for listeners, so that my composition perceptually becomes a metaphorical mirror filled with
intricate structural networks that could perhaps be interpreted as an (admittedly gross)
simplification, essence, sign, or symbol of the infinite hierarchical nature of the Cosmos. In this
regard, then, all of my music is a religious celebration, a desire to share and unite, an invocation, a
response in awe (Pascal: The Eternal Silence of Infinite Space terrifies me). It is also complex.
But how much more complex is our everyday reality, our mind(s), and the unity of the Cosmos
itself? (James Joyce beautifully encapsulated this verity through his neologism Chaosmos.)
Example: Within its conceptual dimension, my composition Cycles of Vega is galvanized by a
unique long-range quasi-cyclic astronomical process (precession). It therefore utilizes extended
and complex multilevel cyclic transformations within the timbral, temporal and frequency domains;
these operations are scientifically encrypted in the Theory of Permutation Groups. The
instrumentation bringing to bear 18 windchimes in particular physically exemplifies Chaos
Theory through an inherently stochastic acoustical behaviour. Macroscopically, this works soundworld evokes an extremely unearthly, timeless, cosmic, astral state: intended to proclaim our
Universes grandeur, I trust that Cycles of Vega is not just some lifeless acoustical orrery, but is,
rather, a truly vibrant model of the Cosmos it extols.
My ongoing pursuit of unity, and of insight into musics mysterious origins and secrets, has
resulted in a complete immersion over the last five years in various puissant arcana: the esoteric
side of Mathematics (Sacred Geometry, gematria); acoustical symbolism; Hermetic Philosophy; the
Holographic Paradigm; Gnosticism; Mythology; the (Neo)Platonists and Pythagoreans; ancient
Science and Astronomy; theories of tuning and temperament, scales and harmonics... Works (as yet
unfinished) which have been touched by these disciplines include Dimensiones Paradisi and Gate
of Remembrance. Within more recent pieces like my trio Lines of Light and its companion Arc
of Light I have even sought to relinquish total control over the works surface minutiae ... while
nevertheless retaining compositional responsibility for all deeper architecture and teleology. Such a
stripping of notational detail and rigidity seems to have caused no great harm either to me or to my
work, but has instead bestowed a welcome aura of freedom and spontaneity; this is one avenue I do
mean to explore in the future.
As a practitioner of music in many of its aspects, I discern a grand continuum between all a
unity. For me, each aspect informs the others. Focussing here specifically upon performance and
composition, my detailed and far-reaching researches into the acoustical capabilities of the recorder
(and their realization in performance), provide a natural creative basis for considering the full range
of technical resources of every instrument for which I compose. It would be unduly presumptuous
of me, however, to evaluate my contribution to (Australian) music in the compositional field: it is
not my place to do so. I sincerely hope, nonetheless, to leave behind a significant body of living
Art, which will be judged favourably by history. I would like to be remembered as a truly
committed artist who made a real contribution in many areas. (Maybe my documentation and
promotion of the recorder and its potentialities has already left a legacy in that, as a direct outcome
of my instigation through the commissioning process, several excellent Australian recorder
compositions now exist...)
from Sound Ideas: Australian Composers born since 1950 A Guide to their Music and
Ideas (ed. Brenton Broadstock), Australian Music Centre, Sydney, Australia, March 1995,
pp.325-327.

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