Music to Hear on Here: Relaxing music as the music of will

Monday, February 14, 2011

Relaxing music as the music of will

From "Metaphysics of the Beautiful and Aesthetics" p.121: "Thus our music gives us much noise, many instruments, much art, but very few clear, penetrating and touching ideas." In the next paragraph he says, "In present-day compositions more account is taken of harmony than of melody. Yet I hold the opposite view and regard melody as the core of music."
I have chosen this music to represent the music of will because I believe that it is not descriptive and that the melody is more important in it than harmony. Moreover, Schopenhauer's ideas about how to truly know something reminded me of meditation practices, and this music is the kind that puts me in a similar to meditation state.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Course Description

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Martin Mull (or Elvis Costello)

Thinking about the meaning and value, intellectual, affective and neurological experiences, and aesthetics of music has occupied an important position in modern and contemporary philosophical writings. Central to the philosophy of music is a questioning of what music is insofar as it is an art form and practice, akin to but different from other arts, such as drama, literature, painting, sculpture, to name but a few examples. Claims have been made, in fact, that music’s effect, when performed and listened to, surpasses those of the other arts because of its abstact purity, of its universality, and of its singular capacity to express, represent and incite emotions. This course will explore such issues in 19th-20th century philosophy. We will begin with introductory readings of what composes the field and discipline of the philosophy of music. We will read—among other philosophers, novelists, critics and musicologists—Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Barthes and Adorno’s writings on music. Finally, we will have the occasion to read about and listen to specific musicians, both high and low, and explore the contexts of their work, concentrating on the historical and political dimensions of the practice, performance and art of making music.