Melvyn J. Willin --- Music and the Paranormal

The paranormal continues to intrigue people throughout many sections of society and it might be argued that mankind’s belief system requires a striving for matters beyond human comprehension. Music plays a role in many aspects of life and in most religions. The singing of popular songs and well-known hymns has long been thought conducive to binding a group of people together and, in the case of Spiritualism, to encourage the communication of spirits. Mediums have spoken of direct contact with the spirits of departed composers and performers. They have played their music, written it down under dictation from these discarnates, and provided information about composers and their works conveyed from an allegedly spiritual source. Although not necessarily claiming spirit contact directly as the source of their inspiration, many well known and respected composers have undergone psychic experiences which have brought them into contact with an external source which has been described as ‘divine’. For the purpose of this chapter I decided to explore the realm of musical mediumship through Spiritualism and spiritualistic sources. This will include the claims of 19th Century believers such as Jesse Shepard, Florizel von Reuter, Charles Tweedale and Jelly d'Aranyi as well as details of interviews given to me by 20th and 21st Century composers and performers such as John Tavener and John Lill. So-called ‘musical mediums’ will be discussed with reference to the validity of their music and the claims attached to their works - the main person studied being Rosemary Brown. A number of well-known classical composers and famous performers will be examined including Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin and Caruso. Throughout the chapter the intangibility of both music and the paranormal will be highlighted. Musical mediums are viewed by the society in which they operate as rather special people. They fulfil a need for the existence of something that lies outside of the material world that we all live in. They allegedly produce music from a spirit world that (they believe) provides proof of survival beyond death. Furthermore, because musical ability is viewed by many as being a ‘gift’ from some unknown source when it is displayed by seemingly normal people then a divine origin can be more easily suggested. These ideas will be examined.