A high level of emotional involvement (enthusiasm) is the great creative force in the domain of emotion.
- The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm. [widely attributed to Aldous Huxley]
- A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one. [attributed to Mary Kay Ash]
- None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm. [attributed to Henry David Thoreau]
In addition to being the moving force behind transcendence, enthusiasm is also the emotional component of creativity. When a person is engulfed with enthusiasm, her excitement gives rise to greater focus and concentration of energy, and often is a product of a new insight or opening. That is why it is the emotion’s creative force.
Enthusiasm motivates others, teacher-student being a prime example (see also here). “In a traditional classroom environment, instructor enthusiasm has been shown to enhance student’s emotion, affective perceptions, intrinsic motivation, and cognitive outcome. Additionally, emotional response theory argues that enthusiastic verbal and nonverbal cues of an instructor will induce positive emotional states in learners, which in turn, enact learners’ approach behaviours in the learning process.” Enthusiastic parents also exert this influence.
“When individuals communicate enthusiasm for good events in their partners’ lives, they contribute to a high-quality relationship . . .” “Overall, an employee with enthusiasm comes across as someone who wants to be at work and who is willing to do what it takes to get the job done.”
Research has yielded the findings below:
- A study on education in speaking accuracy and fluency revealed: “Enthusiastic learners are more likely to invest effort, persevere in language learning tasks, and actively engage in speaking activities.”
- A study on teaching for creativity (TfC) revealed: “. . . the impact of school climate on TfC is mediated through teaching enthusiasm and teaching metacognition.”
- A study of university students revealed that emotional creativity predicts creative performance;
- A study during the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that university professors with high emotional creativity also performed better as adaptive innovators.
Real
True Narratives
I see an improvement in Helen day to day, almost from hour to hour. Everything must have a name now. Wherever we go, she asks eagerly for the names of things she has not learned at home. She is anxious for her friends to spell, and eager to teach the letters to every one she meets. She drops the signs and pantomime she used before, as soon as she has words to supply their place, and the acquirement of a new word affords her the liveliest pleasure. And we notice that her face grows more expressive each day. [Annie Sullivan, Letters, April 10, 1887.]
Narratives:
- William Morrow, Beneath the Sands of Egypt:Adventures of an Unconventional Archaeologist (Random House, 2010).
- Harold Evans, My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times (Little, Brown and Company, 2009).
- Inger Christensen, The Condition of Secrecy (New Directions, 2018): “all her writing . . . aims to be a history of no less than everything: the origins of the stars and our souls, the beauty of fractals and of third-century Chinese poetry. It is a book about eating strawberries, witch-burning and the challenge that the soft, scumbled sides of clouds pose to geometry. It’s about standing in the garden and watching yellow slugs ‘moving like slow flames’ in sunlight. The poet and classicist Anne Carson has said that Christensen’s omnivorous impulse is matched only by the early Greek poet Hesiod.”
The dark side of enthusiasm:
- Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow (Scholastic Nonfiction, 2005).
Technical and Analytical Readings
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Ian Falconer authored a series of children's books about a pig-child with an insatiable appetite for the world.
- Olivia and the Fairy Princesses (Athenium, 2012).
- Olivia and the Missing Toy (Athenium, 2011).
- Olivia goes to Venice (Athenium, 2010).
- Olivia helps with Christmas (Athenium, 2007).
- Olivia forms a Band (Atheneum, 2006).
- Olivia Counts (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing/Atheneum, 2002).
- Olivia saves the Circus (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing/Atheneum, 2001).
- Olivia (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing/Atheneum, 2000).
Poetry
If you have eagerness in your heart, it means you are alive,
If your eyes are filled with dreams, it means you are alive
Learn to be free like the wind,
Learn to flow freely like the river,
Embrace every moment with open arms,
See a new horizon every time with your eyes,
If you carry surprise in your eyes, it means you are alive,
If you have eagerness in your heart, it means you are alive…
[Javed Akhtar, “If you have eagerness in your heart”]
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
“Composer, conductor, pianist, teacher, thinker, and adventurous spirit, Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990) transformed the way Americans and people everywhere hear and appreciate music.” On the podium and in life, Bernstein wore his heart on his shirtsleeve, making his enthusiasm obvious to everyone who saw him. New York Philharmonic archivist Barbara Haws has said: “Sometimes when you watch Bernstein conduct, and he's so involved and he's so into it — you know, it's his own expression . . . It's not even trying to communicate something specific to the orchestra. It's his own involvement and enthusiasm at that moment, his own kind of oneness with the work.” Bernstein famously said: “I can’t live one day without hearing music, playing it, studying it, or thinking about it.” He authored a book entitled – exactly as he conducted – The Joy of Music; and a book entitled The Infinite Variety of Music. His letters have been collected in book form. “Through his imaginative programming ideas and his own engaging presence (most memorably, in the award-winning Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic) he made even the most rigorous elements of classical music an adventure in which everyone could join.” Books about Bernstein – his work, his life, his politics – are by Allen Shawn, Charlie Harmon, Paul R. Laird, Caroline Everson, Alicia Kopfstein-Penk, Jonathan Cott, Barry Seldes, Kenneth LaFave, Susan Goldman Rubin, Paul R. Laird & Hsun Lin, and Daniel Abraham, et. al., eds. He was the main subject of an American Masters documentary, “The Gift of Music” documentary, a documentary in which he discusses Mahler, and this documentary. He made 53 Young People’s Concert videos. He left behind a vast set of releases and playlists. In particular, watch him conducting:
- Mahler, Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection”
- Mahler, Symphony No. 3
- Mahler, Symphony No. 5
- Mahler, Symphony No. 6
- Mahler, Symphony No. 9
- Beethoven, Symphony No. 9
- Beethoven, Symphony No. 5
- Beethoven, Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”
- Beethoven, Symphony No. 8
One Saturday evening I drove into Manhattan to pick up some files from my office in downtown New York, not realizing that many of the streets were blocked off for a weekend basketball tournament. I wasn't a happy fellow but by chance I had brought with me a recording by a guitarist from the Bahamas, Joseph Spence. Within a few minutes I was smiling, listening to the musical artist who seemed to enjoy what he was doing more than any other musician I have ever heard, before or since. Spence's guttural humming accompaniment to his masterful guitar work captures the ideal of playing as though no one was watching. Despite his prodigious talents, he never strayed far from his native Bahamas, where he had been discovered playing guitar on his porch while he was in his forties. The classic recording that I heard that Saturday evening captures that discovery. Here is a link to Spence’s albums and singles. On the recordings of Christian songs, you can hear how those church ladies durn near ruined him. Obviously, that was not where his heart was. He could sing Christian songs with his characteristic enthusiasm but only if the spirit of enthusiasm was in the music.
Chris Thile rose to prominence as a mandolin player, as a boy. He brings a sense of joyfulness both to popular and classical music. For the past several years, he has hosted the popular radio program Prairie Home Companion. Here are links to his releases, his playlists, an interview, and some videos. Live shows include Microshow for the Current and NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert.
Albums:
- Per Mathisen, “Sounds of 3” (2016) (47’); “Sounds of 3 Edition 2” (2019) (58’); and “Sounds of 3 Edition 3” (2023) (45’): “What you get as a listener . . . is tremendous power trio playing the skirts the edges of jazz-rock / funk / fusion and prog-rock in ways that blend a variety of musical styles.”
- Phronesis, “Life to Everything” (2013) (63’): “. . . irresistible excitement, skillful flair and expansive compositional craft . . .”
- Phronesis, “Parallax” (2016) (57’): Recorded in studio on a single day, this “. . . adrenalin soaked . . .” album “has all the standout features of the trio’s work. Rhythmic drive. Constant shifts in mood and texture. Drama heightened by dazzlingly fast reactions. All leavened by a melodic sense all three draw on as much when improvising as composing.”
- Phronesis, Julian Argüelles, and Frankfurt Radio Big Band “The Behemoth” (2017) (65’): “Consisting of ten new arrangements of compositions from the Phronesis catalogue by Julian Argüelles, commissioned for their tenth anniversary, this remarkable, vibrant new album featuring the Frankfurt Radio Big Band is rich in colour and bursting with spirit and creativity.”
- Rick Stotijn, et. al., “Double Concertos for Bass Instruments” (2022) (55’) conjures a vision of Joseph Spence playing double bass. A reviewer writes “This is the first time I ever truly enjoyed a double bass album.”
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Van Halen, "Panama" (lyrics)
- The Beach Boys, "Good Vibrations" (lyrics)