# Foreword

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Charles Wolcott, Foreword, Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1989, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> THE CREATIVE CIRCLE
> Art, Literature, and Music in Baha'i Perspective
> 
> Edited by Michael Fitzgerald
> 
> Kalimat Press
> Los Angeles
> •
> 
> First Edition
> 
> Copyright © 1989 by Kalimat Press
> All Rights Reserved
> 
> Manufactured in the United States of America
> 
> "Can Baha" Art Become Distinctive?"
> Copyright © 1989 by Ludwig Tuman
> All rights reserved
> 
> "Poetry and Self-Transformation"
> Copyright © 1988 by Association for Baba" Studies
> All rights reserved
> CONTENTS
> •• •
> Preface by Michael Fitzgerald ....... . ........... .                         V1l1
> 
> •
> Foreword by Charles Wolcott . ..... , , , , , , , • ••••...                    Xl
> 
> Poetry and Sell-Transformation
> by Roger White .................. ........ ..... .                              1
> 
> T he Creative Act and the Spirit
> by Bonnie Wilder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..    17
> 
> But . .. My Mother Was a Singer
> by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .           39
> 
> The Dilemma of the Artist: A Perspective
> on the Development of Baha'i Aesthetics
> by Anne Gordun Atkinson .. . ... .. ........ •••••..                          51
> 
> Can Baha'f Art Become Distinctive?
> by Ludwig Tuman . . .... . ....... ... .• . ••• . • .. . .                    97
> 
> The Artist As Citizen
> by Thomas Lysaght . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 121
> 
> Restating the Idealist Theory of Art
> by Geoffrey Nash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. 159
> 
> v
> vi      Contents
> 
> Poetry and the Arts in Rebuilding Society
> by Duane L. Hemllann . .. . . ...... . .. .. . ....•... 175
> 
> Ladder of the Soul
> an interview with Lasse Thoresen              •   •   • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •   193
> 
> Looking Forward in the Visual Arts
> by Fritz A. Mann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
> 
> Biographical Notes .. ....... ... .. . .... .•...•.. . 241
> "Painting is a way of being."
> - Jackson Pollock
> 
> "It is as difficult to write simply as it is to be good ."
> - w. Somerset Maugham
> ") will hear in Heaven."
> - Beethoven's last words
> Preface
> 
> "The artist creates the uncreated conscience of the race. "
> - James Joyce
> " What bestowal could be greater than tltis, that one's art
> should be as the act of worshiping the Lord?"
> -'Abdul-Baha
> 
> RT IS THE LAST vestige of the mysterious in an age
> that rejects religion . The twentieth century is widely
> known for its themes of alienation and a profound despair
> over the state of human affairs. Religion has abused its office.
> Responding, existentialists put forward a serious, but incom-
> plete, philosophy which sought to address the situation of
> modern man, impotent in the face of titanic destruction.
> Humanists by and large have reserved themselves to intellec-
> tuallabor, disdaining the world's spiritual traditions. There
> is thus a gaping void in human values.
> The Baha'i F aith has emerged as an artist's impetus and
> as an instrument for the renewal of society. Baha'u'llah
> (1817-1892), its Founder, anticipated the need for the inclu-
> sion of religion in a thinking person's modern repertoire of
> ideas. His expansive teachings on the oneness of mankind
> and the oneness of religions lead to a Whitmanesque embrace
> of diverse and conflicting cultures . Thus, the artist informed
> .. .
> VIIl
> •
> Preface      IX
> 
> by a Baha'i sensibility will be able to build on a wide variety
> of cultural raw materials that another artist might not accept.
> Pericles said that "where there is no vision the people
> perish." The planetary vision of a Baha'i artist will lead him
> or her to relish the gifts that an exploding world culture
> offers. Without the need to be restricted by a parochial view,
> the artist with access to the Baha'i Writings can glean a rich
> pool of ethical and aesthetic inspiration.
> Poetry is often termed a "contact" with the natural world,
> as by Whitman; or "contact" with the locality, as by William
> Carlos Williams. When the "locality" is the whole planet, the
> frontiers of the imagination are expanded beyond provincial-
> isms of every sort. Thus, prejudice can be overcome and the
> threat of war due to misunderstanding will be forestalled.
> Still, artistic integrity for the Baha'i must be foremost.
> Without preaching, without didacticism, the Baha'f artist can
> form the themes of his faith into an individual vision that is
> authentic. In seeing art as both a service and as a means of
> healing, the development of young and mature talent must
> become a major priority in an evolving world culture. If
> James Joyce is right, and "the artist creates the uncreated
> conscience of the race," then here is a major responsibility.
> The Baha'i will be eager to practice art in a web of merg-
> ing world visions, be detelmined to maintain the highest ethi-
> cal standards, be assured that the effort to be consistent in
> public and private life will provide new sources. The pros-
> pects of authentic visionary work for a BaM'f, in contrast to
> the documentation of an age at odds with itself, stirs the real
> longings of artists for honest, serious work. In hal mony with
> the best that the contemporary world offers, expressing the
> unique value of diverse cultures, and committed to the
> highest standards of artistic and personal integrity, the Baha'f
> artist can create a new world.
> Michael Fitzgerald
> Winchester, Virginia
> CHARLES WOLCOTT
> musician and member of the Universal House of Justice,
> c. 1982.                    .
> Foreword
> 
> T CAME IN A CLUTTER of mail one morning- an invitation
> I to contribute an essay on music for inclusion in a book on
> the arts. The opening sentence was intriguing: "As a piano
> player and a Baha'" you must certainly, or one would think,
> have experienced the dynamics of artistic endeavor in the
> context of the pull toward community ." My instincts cau-
> tioned me to forget it, but as in a movie flashback, my
> thoughts went scurrying pell-mell through time and space to
> what can best be described as another life, a professional life
> spanning some forty years-encompassing, yes , being a
> "piano player" early on, but widening in scope to include be-
> ing a leader of dance bands, a music arranger, a composer,
> a conductor of studio orchestras, and eventually the General
> Music Director of not one but two major motion picture stu-
> dios . (Not at the same time of course!)
> Though my professional piano playing days are long gone,
> and little time is available for composing, opportunities to
> listen to music are abundant. From that viewpoint, accep-
> tance of the invitation became a definite possibility. So I did
> just that. And you, dear reader, must judge whether the
> exercise was worth the doing.
> What is music? According to that time-honored tome, the
> Oxford English Dictionary, music is defined as:
> •
> XI
> xii     Charles Wolcott
> 
> That one of the fine arts which is concerned with the com·
> bination of sounds, with a view to beauty of form and the
> expression of thought or feeling.
> 
> Listening to some of the noise that pours out incessantly from
> television screens or radio makes me wonder whether the
> creators of such incoherent mish·mash were ever conscious
> of the dictionary's precise definition.
> Where did music get its name? In Greece there is an an·
> cient mount, Parnassus, and legend has it that the mount was
> (and maybe stilI is!) the home of the nine sister goddesses,
> daughters of Zeus, who collectively bore the name of the
> Muses. IndividualIy, each related to an expression of artis·
> tic endeavor. For example, Terpsichore was the goddess
> associated with dance. But since music is inexorably inter·
> twined with all art forms, it seems logical to accept it as the
> offspring of the collective name of the "Muses."
> Before concentrating on music as an art form , we may
> benefit from a few thoughts expressed by some serious
> thinkers about art as a whole. Albert Schweitzer, in addition
> to his medical skills, possessed a truly professional facility for
> playing the pipe organ. That immortal contrapuntist, Johann
> Sebastian Bach, observed that art can be categorized accord·
> ing to the material the artists use to express the world around
> them: The artist "is not only a painter, or only a poet, or only
> a musician, but all in one . ... The distinction consists only
> in that one idea is dominant and artists choose the language
> that suits them best. '" It is said that Goethe fancied himself
> a painter and Schiller reckoned himself a musician, though
> 1;>oth are known as poets.
> Then there is the remarkable comment purportedly made
> by an eminent though highly controversial nineteenth-century
> French poet: "A toy is a child 's first introduction to art."
> While accepting the possibility that a child's interest in some
> form of art might, or even should, be stimulated in this way,
> •••
> Foreword       XIII
> 
> it seems •
> to me that the little one who becomes a great artist
> has been blessed by the Almighty with a special gift. And so,
> this brings us to a thought-provoking question: How is music
> related to religion? Given that records pertaining to the ori-
> gins of the handful of ancient, divinely revealed religions with
> adherents in today's world go back less than a few thousand
> years, we must rely on findings of archeologists and other
> scholars who are diligently trying to uncover more informa-
> tion about our forebears.
> It is more or less commonly accepted that in ancient times
> mankind's basic relationship to the gods was one of appease-
> ment, that is, seeking protection from the elements-drought,
> flood, thunderstor illS, earthquakes-by raising one's voice in
> praise of the gods. We may assume that in the beginning it
> was an individual effort: one voice plaintively chanting a sup-
> plication. Later, a communal petition came into being, many
> voices joined in the chanting, and primitive instruments were
> added. Probably the first of these were skins stretched over
> wooden frames, some to be struck by sticks and others with
> strings to be plucked.
> Migrations of Chinese and Hindus added their contribu-
> tions of traditions handed down orally through the genera-
> tions. It is thought that the ancient Greek traditions probably
> came from Asia Minor importing the novel idea of one God-
> Zeus. And after the advent of Abraham, in time there came
> the psalmist, David, who contributed some one hundred fifty
> Psalms, texts dedicated to one God, which live today through
> being sung in synagogues and churches. Originally, the
> psalms were accompanied by the psaltery, a dulcimer-like
> stringed instrument which the player plucked.
> Allow me a momentary digression for the benefit of today's
> youthful generation of Baha'is-many of whom are musicians
> who can, at a moment's notice, produce an instrument case
> and from it whip out a guitar, ready to accompany themselves
> in song or to encourage the eager group surrounding them
> xiv     Charles Wolcott
> to participate in a sing-along. This is in the tradition of the
> troubadors, twelith-century lyric poets who traveled through-
> out southern Europe, accompanying themselves on stringed
> instruments. Often they were the purveyors of news picked
> up as they went back and forth through eastern Spain,
> southern France and northern Italy. Today's troubadors, Sa-
> h:fi youth on projects throughout the world, share songs they
> have picked up along the way, as well as their own tunes.
> Returning to the subject of music related to religion, the
> most famous hymn of the Greek Church, Akathistos, thought
> to be from the fifth century A.D. is still sung today in the
> Feast of Annunciation service.
> Then came the surge of great music suffused with religious
> emotion-the cantatas of Bach and oratorios of Handel (un-
> doubtedly inspired by Luther's impassioned Protestantism),
> and the masses and requiems of Mozart, Berlioz, Brahms,
> Dvorak, and a host of other well-known eighteenth- and
> nineteenth-century composers. The western world is familiar
> with these compositions sung by huge church choirs, the
> texts of which are rooted in Christianity.
> In his great work on Bach, Dr. Schweitzer pays this trib-
> ute to the man: "Music is an act of worship with Bach. His
> artistic activity and his personality are both based on his
> piety." In another passage: "All great art, even secular, is in
> itself religious in his eyes; for him the tones do not perish, but
> ascend to God like praise too deep for utterance." 2 Schweit-
> zer quotes from the rules and principles of accompaniment
> that Bach prescribed to his pupils: "Like all music, the
> figured bass should have no other end and aim than the glory
> of God and the recreation of the soul; where this is not kept
> in mind there is no true music, but only an infernal clamor
> and ranting." HOlm-one could almost imagine Bach had a
> forewarning of the music of the last half of the twentieth
> century_
> At this juncture, it would be pertinent to ask what Baha'u'-
> Hall, Founder of the Baha'i Faith, had to say about the work
> Foreword         xv
> 
> of artists, craftsmen and scientists. The following brief ex-
> cerpts will serve to show the high regard in which He held
> this pursuit.
> 
> The third Tajallf (Effulgence) is conceming arts, crafts and
> sciences. Knowledge is as wings to man 's life, ami a ladder for
> his ascent. Its acquisition is incumbent upon everyone.
> 
> And:
> 
> The ft/th Tardz (Omament) concemeth the protection and
> preservatimi of the statiOlts of God's servants. . . . In this Day
> the sun of craftsmanship shineth above the horizon of the oc-
> cident and the river of arts is flowing out of tile sea of that
> •
> regIOn . ..
> 
> Finally:
> 
> It hath been revealed and is now repeated that the true worth
> of artists and craftsmen should be appreciated, for they ad-
> vance the affairs of mankind.
> 
> T hough Baha'u'llah is addressing all humankind, and we
> are aware that all work done with care is akin to worship, we
> must distinguish between the exceptional and the pedestrian
> when assessing the work of those who place the results of
> their creative endeavors before us. The burden falls on fa l-
> lible human beings-all of us. In my view, with regard to
> music, people can be classified as those who create, those
> who perfor 10 , and those who listen. Those who listen consti-
> tute by far the greater proportion of humankind. They may
> never compose or perforlll on an instrument, though they
> may attain the joy of raising their voices in song. And it is to
> them my plea to read and digest the above words of wisdom
> from Bah<i 'u 'llah is addressed.
> We should all be concerned about the state of music today.
> xvi     Charles Wolcott
> 
> Parents of young children and soon-to-be parents need espe-
> cially to be aware of what is happening to the current crop
> of teenagers according to the findings of a California State
> University study, published in the Los Angeles Times, June
> 1986. The intent of the study was to ascertain the impact of
> song lyrics on youth. Two excerpts from that study will
> suffice:
> 
> [Only] 2% or 3% of all teenagers devote their full attention
> to lyrics; most use rock'n 'roll as background noise.
> Teenagers cannot accurately describe their favorite songs,
> they are seriously lacking in literary skills to understand
> and interpret metaphors and symbolism .
> 
> This sad state of affairs didn 't just appear in the 1980s . It
> is an insidious virus that has been slowly developing since the
> 1950s. However, before further commenting on the present,
> let's take a peak at the past.
> The use of music to enhance drama wasn't a discovery of
> the twentieth century. Ancient Greek dramas rediscovered
> by the Renaissance were not just plays with spoken verses
> but dramas requiring actors and actresses who could s ing!
> Seventeenth-century Claudio Monteverdi, composer of
> madrigals and part songs, delighted by this new development,
> set about to write music for the stage-his works were called
> operas. We are the beneficiaries of Monteverdi's zeal. Operas
> by Mozart, the Italians-Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, Rossini-and
> others too numerous to mention grace today's opera house
> stages. Eve n seventeenth-century works of Monteverdi,
> Or/eo and The Coronation 0/ Poppaea, have been revived.
> Opera lives today because it communicates through its music.
> Arias are carried in one's head to be savored over and over
> •
> agam.
> Now to revert to the plight of today's teenager and his in-
> ability to absorb the incoherent lyrics of so many of the cur-
> ••
> Foreword      XVll
> 
> rent songs. Two instances that occurred during my stint at
> MGM studios in the 1950s will illustrate the importance of
> understanding the words of a pop song. The writer/director
> of a black-and-white movie about the pupils and teachers in
> a high school located in a New York slum district asked me
> to hear a record he had which he felt caught the spirit of the
> film he was about to make. He was right. The music and the
> lyrics supplied the color he was looking for to set the mood
> of his picture. The record he played for me had been released
> by the record company some two or three years before and,
> as they say in show business, it died . I wrote a 24-measure
> drum solo in the style of Gene Krupa which built up in inten-
> sity to the first words of the record- "Rock Around the
> Clock." The film, Blackboardjlmgie, became a sensation. The
> record by Bill Haley and His Comets was reborn; to date it
> is second only to Bing Crosby's 'White Christmas" in the
> number of records sold. The point is, while the rock'n'roll
> rhythm was loud and incessant, every word of the lyric was
> heard distinctly. The young people dancing in the theatre
> aisles were singing along with the movie! It happened every
> time the picture began.
> The second instance involved a rising young pop singer
> who was making his first movie at the studio. Listening in the
> control booth at his first recording session, it was impossible
> for me to distinguish the words he was singing. The sound
> engineer was asked to adjust the microphone set-up , but the
> singer's manager objected, saying, "That's the sound we get
> with all his records and they sell ." His argument was that if
> a teenage buyer couldn 't understand the lyrics, he (or she)
> would buy another copy.
> And that, I'm sorry to say, was his method of selling the
> records of his singer. This incident underscores my belief that
> the deterioration in pop music started in the late 1950s.
> Teenagers today react to the loud, driving rhythms of what
> they see and hear on television and videos. If you were to
> •
> 
> • ••
> XVIII      Charles Wolcoll
> 
> read the lyrics of a T op-40 song without being distracted by
> . the superstar charisma, the flashing colored lights, the gyra-
> tions of the performer, you would discover another reason
> why youth are unable to describe their favorite songs. In the
> vast majority of cases, the words are incoherent or utterly de-
> void of meaning.
> Having examined the art of music, where its name comes
> from , and its historical relationship to religion. ow we need
> to determine, as Baha 'is, how we can use music to support
> the thesis that man is created to carry forward an ever-
> advancing civilization. Those who comprise the largest
> group- the listeners-are reminded of Baha 'u'llah 's words in
> the Kitab-i Aqdas: " We have penllilled you to lis/en /0 trIusic
> and singing. Beware lest such listening co use you to transgress
> fhe bounds 0/ decency and dignity."3 They can also follow the
> advice given by 'Abdu 'I-BaM . That is , from the earliest age,
> teach the child the verses of God, expose him to music that,
> in the words of Bach, are tones that "do not perish, but
> ascend to God like praise too deep for utterance."
> Those who create music have an enormous responsibility.
> We know that in bygone days, composers were given us-
> tenance by royal patrons. Mozart, for instance, composed for
> the royal court . Bach was a church organist and composed
> for the weekly services held throughout the year. T oday, to
> eam his livelihood, a composer may find it necessary to spend
> much of his time and God-given talent on producing music
> of a secular nature. But in whatever he does he should main-
> tain the highest standards . God willing, in the future, national
> governments will recognize their responsibility to provide
> subsidies to qualified artists who will then be able to contrib-
> ute to the well-being of mank ind. The perf01 Iller mayor may
> not also be a composer, but he should be guided, as is the
> composer , to so develop his artistic talent that his perfor-
> mance provides a " ladder by which souls may ascend fa the
> realms on high. '"
> CHARLES WOLCOTT
> editing music at his desk at the Walt Disney Studios. c. 1945.
> xx       Charles Wolcott
> 
> What about the teenage Baha'j composer and/or per-
> former? Everything depends on God-given talent. Is it
> present? If so , that person should be given whole·hearted en·
> couragement by parents and peers. Talent is an elusive thing.
> Proficiency is often confused with talent and can be the
> source of eventual hear tbreak for the proficient but untal·
> ented musician. Nevertheless, there is a place for those who
> lack talent, but have sufficient ability to give enjoyment to
> an audience. They belong to a category into which falls the
> majority of Bahli' is who are guitarists, drummers, or other
> instrumentalists. They constitute the reservoir of manpower
> on which Baha'i youth projects often depend.
> We can't all be stars, but we can all be Baha'is!
> 
> Charles Wolcott
> Ha ifa, Israel
> 
> Editor's Note: Charles Wolcol/, musicum and member a/the Univer·
> sal HOllse 0/ jllstice, passed away all the day he dictated this essay.
> 
> Notes
> 
> 1. Johann Sebastian Bach, Vol. II , Chap. 20, p.8.
> 2. Ibid ., Vol. I, Chap . IX, p. 167.
> 3. Compilation of Extracts from the Baha'i Writings on Music.
> 4. Ibid.
>
> — *Foreword (Used by permission of the curator)*