How good is your musical imagination? And is it better to have more or less of it?

I've encountered a very interesting (and very long) article about "aphantasia" or the inability to see mental images in the New Yorker:

Some people can't see mental images. The consequences are profound. (I had to read the article on my cell phone since if I tried to open it on my computer it would require me to get a subscription to the New Yorker.)

Summary of the article:  Some people can't visualize mental images.  This has been dubbed aphantasia after Aristotle coined the term phantasia as the ability to fantasize.  But there is a wide spectrum for this ability from hyper-phantasia or the ability to experience abnormally vivid mental imagery to aphantasia or the inability to do so.  And this isn't limited to visual imagery but to all of the senses including hearing music, touch, taste or smell.  Supposedly, children are born hyper-phantasic and lose the ability gradually through the pruning of neurons in the brain during normal brain development (although some people claim to have been born with aphantasia).

I have very vivid memories of being able to imagine whole new pieces of music as a child, complete with a full complex instrumentation/orchestration.  I would do this before falling asleep and it was this memory which I attribute to my finding the passion to learn how to compose music later in life.  The article also talked about how children who actively bolster their ability to daydream, fantasize or imagine things can stay hyper-phantasic into adulthood.  Perhaps this is how Mozart was able to foster his ability to compose and remember music completely in his head.

But the question I want to pose for you is whether this kind of ability is something that it is better or worse to have for a composer.  I've heard of many composers who have had the ability to hear a whole piece of music in their head all at once, with full orchestration and they always seemed frustrated because they lacked the ability to capture the music on paper or in their sequencer/DAW or notation software.  The music just sprung into existence so spontaneously that it proved difficult to capture.  It seems that if you don't also develop a great musical memory then the ability to imagine the whole composition in your head all at once is ultimately futile.

I have also been diagnosed with a mental illness and it was around that time that I started losing some of my hyper-phantasia.  To me, that explains why I had to switch to writing music on paper as the music was now being composed at basically the same pace as I wrote it, not any faster or slower.  It was definitely a qualitative shift in the way I wrote music.  Before, the whole piece would be finished in the amount of time it took to imagine it.  Now, I was never sure how the piece would turn out until I actually sat down to write it.  I think there's definitely advantages to both ways of writing.  But for me I found that I couldn't be as easily disappointed by my work when I composed in this way.  People think that aphantasia is a disease or a disorder, but there is a wide spectrum and I think everyone's gotta learn to take the best advantage of whatever kind of gifts that they may have.

Thanks for reading and I'd love to hear what you think!

P.S.:  This article was recommended to me by my friend Lisa who has aphantasia and bought me my own Muzoracle set and Chromatic Harmonica.  So thanks again Lisa!

43 minutes ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

But the question I want to pose for you is whether this kind of ability is something that it is better or worse to have for a composer.  I've heard of many composers who have had the ability to hear a whole piece of music in their head all at once, with full orchestration and they always seemed frustrated because they lacked the ability to capture the music on paper or in their sequencer/DAW or notation software.  The music just sprung into existence so spontaneously that it proved difficult to capture.  It seems that if you don't also develop a great musical memory then the ability to imagine the whole composition in your head all at once is ultimately futile.

I am the opposite. I am never able to imagine the whole piece of music in my head at once. I may have some ideas and planning towards my music, but whether it works or not, I will have to try and write them down. Usually when I start writing, the music tells me what and how they want to be expressed-they simply write themselves out, and usually it's much better and bigger than what I thought or planned beforehand. I am just the midwife of my music and never the real creator of it. Maybe it's from heaven or other places, but definitely not from me. I am still in awe with the emotional power the Sextet brings me to, and I still don't really think it's written by me to be honest.

Henry