1961 January.Pdf

Woven into the fabric of man's existence is a fragile but enduring thread called creativity: elusive but ever present, it survives the alterations of the ages --sometimes frayed but never broken, sometimes lost but never forgotten. In the pages that follow, many minds are brought to bear on a single theme: the creative thread that winds through their own fields of music and poetry, science and pOlitics, teaching and medicine. It is no accident that these minds are gathered under the aegis of a single institution; either as alumni or as faculty members, the writers of this issue have come in contact with creativity at the University of Rochester, and have exer cised their own creative gifts on this campus and beyond. If each eye seems to see a little differently, then that too is a part of crea tivity. And the eye that reads is required to aid its own contribution: to see the similarity in things that appear to be different, and the difference in things that appear to be similar. OCHESTER EVIEW JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1961 VOLUME XXII, Number 3 ~DITOR: Lee D. Alderman, '47 • CONSULTING EDITOR: Charles F. Cole, '25 CLASSNOTES EDITOR: Marjorie A. Trosch, '43, and Ruby Morgan Canning, '42. ?UBLICATIONS COMMITTEE: Dr Roger Terry, 44M; Janet P. Forbes, '40; W. Gilmore McKie, '34; Louis J. Teall, '34; Dr. Norman Ashenberg, '38, '40GM, '51M. Published by the UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER five times per year in September/October, November/December, January/February, March/April, and May/June, and is mailed without charge to all alumni. Editorial Office: 107 Administration Building, River Campus Station, Rochester, 20, New York. Second class postage paid at Rochester, N. Y. Member, American Alumni Council. CREATIVITY DR. HOWARD HANSON Y REASONABLE MODEST WORKER in the creative arts strumentalist or singer brings to the music something of his if there be such-must wonder at times whether there is such own personality. Many years ago I heard consecutively three a thing as creativity. It must occur to him at such moments that performances of my second symphony, the "Romantic," con there is only one Creator, that all beauty and all truth exist eter ducted by Serge Koussevitzky, Arturo Toscanini, and Fritz nally and wait only for discovery. In this conception the cre Reiner. Each time I said to myself, lIThis is the way I wished ative artist differs little from the creative scientist. For the work this symphony to sound," and yet each interpretation differed of the creative scientist, like that of the artist, depends upon radically from the other two! Each conductor brought to the imagination, inspiration, discipline, and freedom. work his own re-creation. When the astronomer searches the vast spaces, spurred on The listener, too, should be a re-creator and a discoverer. He, by his imagination, supported by his discipline and protected too, should bring to his listening imagination, discipline, and by his freedom, he does not create new planets-but he does freedom. Perhaps the most difficult of these acquisitions for the discover them. Perhaps in the same way the beauty of form listener is freedom. It is so easy to be a conformist. It is so lies hidden in the marble or the clay waiting only to be re simple to follow the fad and fashion of the day, whether that vealed by the hands and chisel of the sculptor; perhaps the fad be a combination of the glorification of the old and the most beautiful of melodies and harmonies surround us waiting negation of the new or its opposite twin, the worship of elec only to be discovered by the composer. tronics and the condemnation of Beethoven. Both are equally But this discovery demands imagination and patience, free bad. Both are the products of lazy ears, of non-creative dom and discipline; for there is no imagination without free listening. dom for imagining, no creation without discipline, no art by The quest for creativity is difficult. The road, particularly in pure accident. the arts, is long and stony. Education in these United States In music we think of the composer as the creator, but cre too often seems to be not only non-creative but anti-creative / ativity can also be a characteristic of the performer and of the antagonistic to the artistic disciplines which develop the quali listener. In a distinguished school of music we hear much talk ties of sensitivity, imagination, and spiritual independence of tradition, of the responsibility of the performer to the com which are so important if man is to escape the age of mechani poser. We hear frequently the statement that the duty of the zation. For this reason the search for creativity today sym re-creating artist is to perform the composition "as the com bolizes the search for life itself, the life of the mind and of poser wrote it." the spirit. Thi is right; but it is not all. For the great conductor, in- Dr. Howard Hanson, Director of the Eastman School of Music, is a composer, music educator, and conductor of in ternational repute. Since 1921, when he won the first Amer ican Prix de Rome, Dr. Hanson has been the recipient of more than a score of honorary degrees, prizes, and awards, including the 1944 Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No.4, the George Foster Peabody Award, and the Huntington Hartford Foundation Award. He has been a powerful influ ence in championing the works of young American com posers and in stimulating interest in American music. At the invitation of President Eisenhower, Dr. Hanson currently serves as an ex-officio member of the Advisory Committee on the Arts of the National Cultural Center, Washington. 3 . CREATIVITY tn CtenCe DR. EVERETT M. HAFNER T IS EASY TO SUSPECT that the observational sciences cannot laws discovered by Kepler. But do the experimental facts im be truly creative. The natural scientist discovers things by look ply the hypotheses? Could Newton deduce his primitive state ing keenly at the world. He does not--or at least should not ments from the motion of the planets? The truth is that he -invent his data. He may construct ingenious experiments, could not, although students are often taught that he did. We but he designs them in order to bring into the laboratory what know that, in principle, there is an infinite number of sets of ever small part of the world he wishes to observe more pre hypotheses, all implying planetary motions in agreement with cisely. He may appreciate the grand and free sweep of pure observation. One such alternative, differing in a fundamental mathematics, but he uses it as an abstract tool to supplement his way from the Newtonian scheme, was explored by Einstein. It microscopes and vacuum pumps. And what can be said for the was found to account for the same experimental facts just as mathematician himself? Are his imaginary structures inde well if not a little better. So it is with any scientific system; pendent of the natural world, or does he simply discover an laws can be derived from abstract principles, but the truth of objective body of knowledge flowing naturally from laws of the principles themselves cannot be proved. human thought? Surely Euclid's discovery that the number of From this viewpoint we can regard science as a framework primes is infinite might be reproduced by any talented school within which creative work of the highest calibre is possible. boy ignorant of the original work. Thus, if we define an act The artist has chosen a different framework, and it is mainly as creative only if it brings something new into existence, this choice that distinguishes him from the scientist. They both scientific activity can be regarded as uncreative. In this sense assess their work on the basis of its beauty, its elegance, and it is easily distinguished from the literary, graphic, and musi its symmetry. The mathematician adds the demand of logical cal arts. consistency; the natural scientist adds the element of truth. But there is another side to the question. It can be ap Students of science, even those undergoing professional proached by inquiring into what we mean by a scientific proof. training, can easily survive the entire curriculum without de The typical situation of a scientist is one in which, when faced veloping an awareness of scientific creativity. The fault is not by a set of mysterious experimental facts, he looks for a hy entirely theirs. If we avoid teaching the history and philoso pothesis to account for them. He attempts to find abstract state phy of science, if we lost contact with much of the growing ments from which he can deduce laws in conformity with the body of knowledge beyond our specialties, if we inbreed our facts. He has rigorous and unambiguous procedures resem research community by granting doctorates for routine continu bling mathematical proofs for deriving laws from his hypo ations of our own work, and if in fact we fail to nourish in thesis. Thus, Newton's formula for the gravitational force can every possible way the holy curiosity of youth, we cannot ex be regarded as a hypothetical statement which, taken together pect the enterprise to succeed. If on the other hand we are sen with some other primitive notions of mechanics, implies the sitive to our own traditions, they may continue to flourish. Dr. Everett M. Hafner, Associate Professor of Physics, was graduated from Union College in 1940 and received his Ph.D. degree from the UR ill 1948. He was Associate Physicist at Brook- havell National lAboratory from 1948-52 and was a National Science Foundation Fellow at Cam bridge University, England during 1952-53.

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