91Èȱ¬

Writer and music lover Amanda Dalton’s childhood was dominated by her love of playing the piano and loathing of the intensive psychoanalytical psychotherapy she underwent for five years. Coupled with her long, personal interest in how the brain and the body work together, this series takes an unusual look at music.

The essays focus on human stories exploring interactions between music and a troubled mind, discussing some of the key historical and current thinking regarding the relationships between creative individuals with mental health challenges or damaged minds - and music. Some of these will be well known, some less so – all afford rich material to explore the themes. Always returning to the human and personal story, the series references the research and insights of neuroscientists and psychologists, such as Daniel Levitin, Oliver Sacks and Anthony Storr. As arguably the birthplace of psycho analysis and home to a multitude of iconic classical musicians – the starting point is Vienna.

Essay 2: Music, Madness and Unusual Ways of Seeing….

This essay takes a gentle look at aspects of the relationship between musical creativity, mental illness and mood. Woven through with Amanda’s personal story of music as its own form of psychotherapy, the essay references composers Mozart and Schumann and 20th century giants John Ogdon and Glenn Gould as examples of musicians known for their unstable mental health, before opening out to take a look at some of the other ways in which irregularities in the workings of the brain can lead to unusual and creative ways of perceiving the world.

Amanda Dalton is a playwright, poet and essayist. She has three poetry collections with Bloodaxe Books, most recently Fantastic Voyage (2024). Smith|Doorstop published a pamphlet of two long poems, Notes on Water, a version of which she re-created for two voices and soundscape for 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3’s Between the Ears.
Amanda writes extensively for 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3 and 4 including original drama, poetry-dramas, re-imaginings of silent movies and classic film, lyric essays and adaptations of fiction. Her theatre writing also includes text for outdoor and site-specific performance, and work for young people with commissions from Manchester’s Royal Exchange, Sheffield Theatres and Keswick’s Theatre By The Lake.
Until 2019 she was a senior leader at the Royal Exchange Theatre where she also worked as an Associate Artist, theatre maker and project director, in partnership with communities across the North West and beyond.
Alongside her work as a writer, Amanda designs and delivers a wide range of writing workshops, mentors a number of poets and playwrights, and regularly curates and co-delivers collaborative cross-artform projects, most recently with Wainsgate Dances, Manchester Camerata and Quarantine.
Her website is https://www.amandadalton.co.uk

Writer and reader: Amanda Dalton
Producer: Polly Thomas
Sound: Alisdair McGregor
Exec Producer: Chantal Herbert

A Thomas Carter Project production for 91Èȱ¬ Radio 3.