HN002 Composing songs in dreams

There is a less known tradition of composers receiving melodies and songs when dreaming.

 We can take two examples provided in Lewis M. Holmes’ fascinating book, The Mystery of Music;

The first is from ancient China, where the reforming Emperor XUANDONG, who took a keen interest in music both as a state regulated activity and a composer himself, is alleged to have drawn inspiration from dreams. YO SHI a later commentator reported that ‘the Emperor composed a song called “Return to the Purple Clouds” after having dreamt of ten immortals descending in chariots, holding musical instruments, and singing. Dreaming of a dragon lady supposedly led him to compose the song titled “Skimming the Waves.” According to Chinese legend, it was a fantastic visit to the moon that inspired his. composition Nishan yuyi qu’^[i]

The second example is from Al-Andalūs and the musician, singer and composer Ziryāb, who lived between 790 and 850 CE. Ziryāb would sleep but have two attendant slaves on the alert each night, named Ghizlān and Hunayada. Ziryāb  would sleep and if he dreamt of a new song or melody, he would awake and teach these musically trained slaves the music and words to memorise which they would then dutifully play for him the next morning. Then he would revise the compositions.^[ii]

To demonstrate that dreaming of music is still relevant in modern times, we can turn to a contemporary, Paul McCartney. In McCartney’s own words as reported by Hugh MacIntyre on the 22 February 2024, in Forbes Magazine, “I went to sleep one night and dreamed a tune. Somewhere in my dream I heard this tune. When I woke up, I go I love that tune–it’s great. I love that one,” McCartney stated in the interview. He added that once he was awake and realized he had something special in mind, he “kind of fell out of bed and the piano was right there to the left of my bed and I just sort of thought well I’ll try and work out how this song goes.”^[iii] The song McCartney is referring to, is the classic and unforgettable, ‘Yesterday’. How many more musical compositions are there out there dreamt by their composers? How often do we dream new melodies?