- A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. [Abraham Maslow]
- Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. [Erich Fromm]
Real
True Narratives
Book narratives:
- Richard J. Lowry, ed., Dominance, Self-Esteem, Self-Actualization: Germinal Papers of A.H. Maslow (Thomas Brooks/Cole, 1974).
- Abraham H. Maslow, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (Viking Press, 1971).
- Abraham H. Maslow, Maslow on Management (Wiley, 1998).
- David W. Johnson, Reaching Out: Interpersonal Effectiveness and Self-Actualization (Allyn & Bacon, 2008).
- Binyavanga Wainaina, One Day I Will Write About This Place: A Memoir (Graywolf Press, 2011): a man who thought his only talent was reading discovers his talent for writing.
- Edward Enninful, A Visible Man: A Memoir (Penguin Press, 2022): “He walks readers from his childhood in the coastal city of Tema, Ghana — where he fell in love with clothes while watching his seamstress mother build a successful dressmaking business — to his teenage years modeling in London, to becoming the youngest-ever fashion director at i-D Magazine at just 18, to his role today as one of the most important figures shaping fashion, media and culture.”
Imaginary
Visual Arts
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Self-Portrait (1910)
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Phil Collins, True Colors
Film and Stage
- Anna and the King of Siam, about a British woman who stands up for herself to an autocratic king. Jodie Foster starred in a later version. The King and I is the musical comedy version.
- Coal Miner’s Daughter, the life story of country singer Loretta Lynn
- Pinocchio: a puppet comes to life
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Naturally shy and introverted, Ella Fitzgerald is considered by most people to be the quintessential jazz singer. She mastered her culture's chief musical form, putting her own spin on it with her technique of scat singing. “She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra.” In realizing her full potential, she set the standard for others, who are still trying to match her.
- Summertime
- Cry Me a River
- How High Is the Moon?
- How High the Moon? (1958)
- Mr. Paganini (1961)
- Live in Australia (1960)
- An evening with Ella Fitzgerald and Roy Eldridge (1964)
- Duke Ellington Orchestra & Ella Fitzgerald Trio, Live in Milan (1966)
- Live in Berlin (1968)
- Live at Montreux (1969)
- Live (1974)
- Live at Ronnie Scott’s (1974)
- Duets in Hanover with Joe Pass (1975)
- Live at the North Sea Jazz Festival (1979)
- Live in Tokyo (1983)
- 100 recorded tracks
- The Cole Porter song book
- The Harold Arlen song book
- The George and Ira Gershwin song book
- The Duke Ellington song book
- The Rodgers and Hart song book
- “But Not For Me” album
- “Ella and Louis” album
- “Ella in London” album
- “Ella in Rome – The Birthday Concert” album
In the same vein is Jazzmeia Horn, with a style similar to Ella Fitzgerald’s:
- Jazzmeia Horn and her Noble Force, “Dear Love” album
- “Where We Are” album
- “Love & Liberation” album
- Live at Emmett’s Place, Vol. 37
- Live from Jazz at Lincoln Center
Ambrose Akinmusire is a jazz trumpeter who plays with quiet self-assurance, in a strong, confident voice, without being showy or overbearing. “Motivated primarily by the spiritual and practical value of art, Akinmusire wants to remove the wall of erudition surrounding his music. He aspires to create richly textured emotional landscapes that tell the stories of the community, record the time, and change the standard.” He gives plenty of room for other voices to speak with him, or while he remains silent. His albums include:
- “on the tender spot of every calloused moment”
- “A Rift in Decorum: Live at the Village Vanguard”
- “Origami Harvest”
Robert Schumann, Kreisleriana, Phantasien für das Pianoforte, Op. 16 (1838) (approx. 27-34'), consists of eight fantasies for solo piano. Schumann said that he composed it in only four days, perhaps when he was at the height of his romantic attraction to Clara Wieck, a top concert pianist and composer in her own right, who would become his wife. Of the work, Clara wrote in a letter to Robert: “Sometimes your music actually frightens me, and I wonder: is it really true that the creator of such things is going to be my husband?” The work is a tour de force of artistic brilliance, both in its technical mastery and in its emotional range. Here are performances by Cortot in 1935, Argerich in 1983, Horowitz in 1986, Lupu in 1993, Pollini in 2001, Buchanan in 2005 and Grosvenor in 2023.
Howard Hanson’s piano works:
- Poèmes érotiques, Op. 9
- Piano Sonata, Op. 11
- 3 Etudes, Op. 18
- For the First Time
- Symphonic Rhapsody, Op. 14
- Variations on a Theme of Youth
- Concerto da Camera for piano and string quartet (1917)
Other works:
- Liszt, Ce qu’on entend sur la montagne (“What One Hears on the Mountain”) (“Bergsymphonie”) (Poème symphonique No. 1), S. 95 (1850)
- Schreker, Der Ferne Klang (The Distant Sound) (1911): a young woman challenges her lover to compose a great work of music – find the distant sound – before she will marry him. He succeeds.
- Robert Fuchs, Piano Sonata No. 1 in G-flat Major, Op. 19 (1877)
- Raga Jogeshwari (Jogeswari) is a Hindustani classical raag for evening performance, composed by Ravi Shankar (performances by Shankar, Ravichandran and Shahid Parvez Khan).
- Widor, Symphony No. 8 in B Major, Op. 42/4 (1887) (1901 edition)
- Aaron Copland, Piano Sonata (1941) (approx. 24 minutes): “I think of the sonata as dramatic—a kind of play being acted out with plenty of time for self-expression. It seems to me that my Piano Sonata follows that idea. It is a serious piece that requires careful and repeated study. There is considerable dissonance in it, yet the work is predominantly consonant.” [the composer]