IN QUEST OF EMPTINESS: THE STUDY OF BUDDHIST INFLUENCES ON JONATHAN HARVEY AND HIS COMPOSITIONS

Abstract

Jonathan Harvey, a British electroacoustic composer and one of the most important composers of the twentieth century, integrated Buddhist influences into his life and works particularly composed in the 1990s onwards. Despite his significant contributions, there remains a need for a comprehensive study that investigates what led the composer to embrace spirituality as a foundation for his creativity and categorizes the impact of Buddhism on his compositions. The novel intent of this study is to not only touch on ideas or musical materials in his works that were inspired by Buddhism but also conduct significant analyses of his compositions to show the depth of Harvey’s understanding of Buddhist practice and philosophy, especially the notion of emptiness and how it became the foundation for his musical thinking. This article initially exhibits evidence of spiritually-related influences in his early life as a choirboy and during his exploration of Hinduism even before his encounter with Buddhism in the 1970s. He absorbed every culture and philosophy he had studied to broaden his artistic approaches and aesthetics. Since his first composition inspired by Buddhism in 1986, his music continued to draw upon Buddhist concepts. The religious influence appears in multiple formats for example the use of musical materials from Buddhist monastic music, the use of texts from Buddhist literature, and the depiction of Buddhist terms or stories. Meditation also played an important role in Harvey’s compositions and compositional methods. Being able to contemplate a musical object enabled him to develop musical ideas further while the state of tranquility he experienced during meditation became apparent in his sound world. His study of the Buddhist notion of emptiness led him to the understanding of the nature of human perception and the essence of music as the representation of the illusive reality: the core definition of emptiness. Harvey applied ambiguity to his music through the constant stage of functional change of musical material, the ambiguity of musical timbres, and the play with listener’s expectation. The ambiguity in musical compositions represents the philosophy of emptiness by demonstrating that everything only occurs in the mind.