Bob Draper, quoting Anton Bruckner:

>"Brahms music' comes from his head. Wagner's music comes from his
>balls.  But, my music, my music comes from God"

I made a point in another posting, (Schindler's List's Bach Second English
Suite) that Western Art as we know it is losing its potency as we become a
more "secular humanist" as a society.

A UC Davis professor of Psychology, and an expert on genius, (I can't
remember his name), said that it takes more than genius to give birth to a
masterpiece: among other things, it takes will and determination.  Did the
religious/mythical/ethnocentric culture of Western Europe enhance the will
and determination of its artists, creating a body of works admired the
world over? (One may cry elitism, but let's not forget some very real
contributing factors: St. Augustine ("City of God" Bk.  xxii Ch.  xxiv),
and St. Gregory unwittingly gave Western Europe *permission* to create
and eased people's fears that the arts would bring about the worshipping
of graven images--In Islamic tradition, to create is to be God-like and
that is a definite no-no!  Artists had to remain craftsman)

Bruckner's statement may seem humble and subserviant, but isn't there a
whiff of egotism? Some quick related snapshots: Wagner saw himself as a
chosen one among a chosen people--could he have accomplished his artistic
feats without such a mindset? Mahler felt he had to swim harder and take
larger strokes in order to gain respect as a Jew in Austria--if he didn't
feel like a lesser person, would he have accomplished what he did? Bach
wrote for the "glory of God," but was he not also writing for his
patrons--who weren't above doing what they could to secure the support of
the Christian God in Battle and Politics?) (Boorsin, The Seekers, pg.  65)

 From a secular point of view, there is always the famous line that
there would be no Shostakovich if there was no Stalin--which brings me
to my other point--the same cultural ingredients that would allow Wagner
to believe not only that he was worthy enough to provide an artistic
*answer* for humanity, but give him inner determination to push his art
to the limits; would also allow people like Hitler and Stalin, (secular
inquisitionists, if you will), to feel like chosen ones and give birth
and execute their ideas.

If we went back and changed history--changed the mindsets that allowed
the "bad guys" to exist, would we not also cause many of the creators and
creations of our Westen Canon to disappear with a "poof?" This is what I
meant by Gandalf saying that "once the magic ring is destroyed, many evils
will pass, but also many things of great beauty."

Back to the Bruckner statement: Would a Secular Humanist make a statement
like this? What will give the artists and peoples of our age, robbed of our
gods and monsters by science and history, and borne of an era that at least
tries to distance itself from what I think are the artistically motivating,
yet dangerous qualities like ethnocentrism and egocentrism; the will and
determination to create like those in the past?

John Smyth