After dinner this evening I watched the performance by Evelyn Glennie of the James Macmillan percussion piece “Veni, Veni, Emmanuel”. It really was an incredible experience, and although it was a performance of music set me thinking about art more generally.
Watching Glennie’s performance I began to think that there was definitely a “sexual” element about it. This had nothing to do with an intention on her part to communicate sexuality. It is not a question of whether or not I fancied her as a woman. What I have in mind is the extraordinary intensity of her performance which I can only compare to sexual experience. The music of that piece is phenomenally complex, and I’m sure that it would only be possible to play it in a state of complete commitment that is not only mental but physical also. It was an astonishing achievement.
After watching the concert I began to wonder whether other art forms ever elicit or require anything like this level of intensity, that I have compared to a sexual experience. I know that on many occasions my own work as a painter has gone beyond the kind of meditative frame of mind which I regard as normal. It makes sense, on some occasions, to talk about “throwing yourself” into the task of painting. There have been some occasions when the realisation that I have achieved what I set out to do has brought tears. I have to admit, however, that I find it hard to imagine the act of painting as requiring the kind of complete emotional and physical commitment that I saw in Evelyn Glennie’s performance. Am I missing something? I would love to hear from other artists about their own experience.