Drop the Needle - Neutral Emotional Totems
Satie, Pärt, Richter, Debussy, Eno, Glass, Budd, Cage, Reich, and Gorecki
Finding Center: Neutral Emotional Totems in Music and the Arts
Explore how music serves as an emotional totem across disciplines, anchoring us in times of turbulence. Part of our series mapping human emotions inspired by Plutchik's Wheel.
In a world where unexpected events can unsettle our emotional equilibrium, finding anchors that help us recenter is vital. Music, with its profound ability to resonate within us, often serves as a powerful emotional totem—a touchstone that brings ourselves back into balance amidst chaos.
This is the second installment in our series exploring human emotions through the lens of Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions. While future issues will delve into specific, intense emotional states, we pause here to focus on neutrality—a balanced point from which all emotions emerge. The playlist we've curated is designed as a musical totem, a collection of compositions that can help you navigate emotional turbulence by providing a calming and centering influence.
Art and music converge to offer solace and reflection. We invite you to immerse yourself in these pieces. Let the music serve as your anchor. Let the melodies be a gentle companion on your path to equilibrium. May this collection serve as a steadfast companion in times of uncertainty, reminding you of the enduring power of simplicity and presence.
By integrating the concept of emotional totems across disciplines, we deepen our understanding of how these tools can enhance our emotional well-being. Whether through music, art, or personal rituals, embracing our emotional totems empowers us to navigate life's uncertainties with greater resilience and grace.
Listen to the Playlist:
YouTube Playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9DUErBn8LGuR09NdQLxjU8r_AY5HRavl&si=MF0t9l9CmiiE7uAZ
Spotify Playlist:
Emotional Totems: Anchors Across Disciplines
The concept of an emotional totem—a symbol, object, or experience that evokes a particular emotional response—is employed across various fields:
Psychology: Therapists use anchoring techniques where a stimulus, like a specific piece of music, is linked to a desired emotional state. This helps individuals recall feelings of calm or confidence when needed.
Education: Teachers incorporate music and art to create environments conducive to learning, using these mediums to reduce anxiety, improve focus, and explore new, confusing emotional states among students.
Performing Arts: Actors and musicians use emotional totems to tap into authentic emotions during performances. A personal object or a familiar melody can help evoke the necessary feelings for a compelling portrayal.
In all these contexts, emotional totems function as tools for emotional regulation, helping individuals manage their internal states in response to external pressures.
Art as a Visual Totem: Agnes Martin's Untitled (1965)
In educational and therapeutic contexts, art like Martin's is used to promote mindfulness and reduce stress. The repetitive patterns can have a calming effect, much like the repetitive musical structures in our playlist.
The Playlist as Your Emotional Totem
At the start of our playlist lies Erik Satie's Gymnopédie No. 1, a piece whose gentle, introspective melody has offered solace to many. Its simplicity and repetitive structure make it an ideal emotional totem.
Similarly, Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel serves as a mirror into our inner selves. Used in various films and therapeutic settings, its minimalist harmonies encourage deep reflection, making it a valuable tool for grounding oneself. The title translates as ‘mirror in the mirror’.
Max Richter's On the Nature of Daylight offers an emotional depth that words often cannot reach. Its use in films like Arrival underscores its ability to convey complex feelings, making it a powerful emotional totem for processing experiences that are difficult to articulate.
Brian Eno's 1/1 Music for Airports was originally created to soothe anxious travelers, illustrating how ambient music can transform a stressful environment into a serene space. This piece demonstrates the practical application of music as an emotional totem in everyday settings.
The Role of Repetition and Minimalism
Repetition and minimalism are key elements that make these pieces effective emotional totems:
Philip Glass's Metamorphosis: One and Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians use repetitive motifs to create a trance-like state, allowing listeners to disengage from intrusive thoughts.
John Cage's In a Landscape blurs the line between sound and silence, encouraging a focus on the present moment—a technique often used in mindfulness practices.
Harold Budd's Plateaux of Mirror and Claude Debussy's Clair de Lune provide atmospheric soundscapes that facilitate relaxation and introspection.
In psychology, such repetitive and minimalist compositions are used to aid in meditation and stress reduction techniques. They help slow down the mind, making them effective tools for managing anxiety and promoting mental clarity.
Connecting with Your Own Emotional Totems
We all have personal emotional totems—songs, images, or objects that bring us comfort. Recognizing and utilizing them can enhance our ability to cope with stress and emotional upheaval.
Identify What Resonates: Pay attention to music or art that naturally brings you a sense of peace.
Create a Ritual: Incorporate your emotional totems into daily routines, such as listening to a calming piece before starting your day.
Use Them Intentionally: In moments of distress, consciously engage with your totems to help recenter your emotions.
Embracing the Journey Ahead
As we continue this series, we'll explore specific emotions in depth—joy, fear, anger, and more. These explorations may stir intense feelings, but each will begin and end with emotional totems. By returning to these neutral, centering pieces, we ensure a safe passage through the complexities of our emotional experiences.
Music matters. It shapes our perceptions, influences our moods, and serves as a steadfast companion in our journey towards emotional balance.
Join the Conversation
What are your emotional totems? We invite you to share the music or art that helps you find balance. Your insights could become a beacon for others navigating similar emotional landscapes.
References in Popular Culture
Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1: This composition has permeated popular culture, perhaps most poignantly in Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 2, Episode 2: Where Silence Has Lease). In a moment of profound contemplation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard chooses this music as the final thing he wishes to hear before potentially sacrificing his ship and crew to avoid becoming subjects in Nagilum’s deadly experiment—a testament to music's power to provide clarity and peace in the face of uncertainty.
Henryk Górecki's Symphony No. 3, Movement 2: This piece has touched many, featuring in films like The Tree of Life, where its haunting melodies underscore themes of loss and hope.
Max Richter's Work in Film and Therapy: Beyond cinema, Richter's compositions are used in therapeutic settings to aid in emotional processing and healing.
Final Thoughts
We hope this exploration inspires you to recognize and embrace your own emotional totems. As we move forward in our series, remember that returning to your center is always within reach—often, it's just a song away.
“We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand.”
— Pablo Picasso, 1923, from an interview with Marius de Zayas, published in The Arts.