This essay focuses on two themes: man’s receptivity to music, and the verbalization of musical experience in a philosophical context. I begin with the listener’s attraction to music and then move on to longing as a basic concept in understanding musical receptivity. In the philosophy of music, the aesthetic-musical experience is of central importance to being able to verbally express what happens in the meeting between music and listener. Three central philosophers of music, Nietzsche, Adorno and Jankélévitch, all address the possible language character of music, although they do so in different ways and with different aims. I expand on some thoughts of these philosophers that open up for three different constellations of thought about the path from the aesthetic-musical receptivity to music to the philosophical verbalization of man’s attraction to music.
{"title":"Musikkfilosofiske tankekonstellasjoner om musikalsk mottakelighet og språk","authors":"Henrik Holm","doi":"10.23865/noasp.115.ch6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.115.ch6","url":null,"abstract":"This essay focuses on two themes: man’s receptivity to music, and the verbalization of musical experience in a philosophical context. I begin with the listener’s attraction to music and then move on to longing as a basic concept in understanding musical receptivity. In the philosophy of music, the aesthetic-musical experience is of central importance to being able to verbally express what happens in the meeting between music and listener. Three central philosophers of music, Nietzsche, Adorno and Jankélévitch, all address the possible language character of music, although they do so in different ways and with different aims. I expand on some thoughts of these philosophers that open up for three different constellations of thought about the path from the aesthetic-musical receptivity to music to the philosophical verbalization of man’s attraction to music.","PeriodicalId":390651,"journal":{"name":"Musikkfilosofiske tekster. Tanker om musikk og språk, tolkning, erfaring, tid, klang, stillhet m.m.","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122245027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A work of art is never just a thing or an object. In the art experience, a relationship is established between a person and a part-subject/part-object, never between a person and just a “thing”. These claims are in a certain tension with the well-known critique of the traditional western focus on music as works or objects. The discussion in this essay is based on three premises. The first premise is that our object-oriented understanding of music is historically and socially constructed. The second premise is that the historical and social origins of all ways of thinking in no way prevent some ways of thinking from being “better” than others. This opens up the possibility of being able to think that some ways of relating to music are more meaningful than others. The third premise is that a fundamental prerequisite for moving encounters between the human subject and music is the very idea of music as a work of art (as a part-subject/part-object). The necessity of a rethinking of the work of art as a part-subject/part-object is related to the possibility of re-romanticization, re-describing the world poetically.
{"title":"Kunstverkets nødvendighet","authors":"Øivind Varkøy","doi":"10.23865/noasp.115.ch2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.115.ch2","url":null,"abstract":"A work of art is never just a thing or an object. In the art experience, a relationship is established between a person and a part-subject/part-object, never between a person and just a “thing”. These claims are in a certain tension with the well-known critique of the traditional western focus on music as works or objects. The discussion in this essay is based on three premises. The first premise is that our object-oriented understanding of music is historically and socially constructed. The second premise is that the historical and social origins of all ways of thinking in no way prevent some ways of thinking from being “better” than others. This opens up the possibility of being able to think that some ways of relating to music are more meaningful than others. The third premise is that a fundamental prerequisite for moving encounters between the human subject and music is the very idea of music as a work of art (as a part-subject/part-object). The necessity of a rethinking of the work of art as a part-subject/part-object is related to the possibility of re-romanticization, re-describing the world poetically.","PeriodicalId":390651,"journal":{"name":"Musikkfilosofiske tekster. Tanker om musikk og språk, tolkning, erfaring, tid, klang, stillhet m.m.","volume":"5 1-2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114029132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As we improvise in music and become increasingly engrossed in the activity, we are intuitively engaged in a playful negotiation of various aesthetic possibilities in the Now. We are in a state where random impulses and irrational, unintentional actions become key premise providers along with everything we have learned through knowledge and experience. This essay reflects on the responsiveness of the Now in musical improvisation. We ask: What does the experience of the Now offer? Does it come with any kind of ethics and accountability and, if so, what kind and to whom does it apply? In our elaborations we are influenced by our own experiences of, and reflections on, compositional and music therapeutic practice. We refer to the theory of musical improvisation and early interaction, and also philosophical texts, especially those by Mikhail Bakhtin. We suggest that the responsiveness of the Now in musical improvisation is a mindset that challenges us both ethically and aesthetically. It does so by seeking creative satisfaction, joy and insight, taking shape through sensory perception that is close to intuition, mimesis and imagination. Its meaning remains unfinalised and foreign to us. It is also risky and is situated on the boundary between music and performer, between performer and other performers, and between the past and future of our actions. The ideal is to strive for a Now that can be experienced as the right now but also as a Now that suits the responses we try to find room for when we improvise.
{"title":"Nuets responsivitet – når det fremmede og det uperfekte setter premissen! Et filosofisk essay om musikalsk improvisasjon","authors":"Karette Stensæth, Bjørn Kruse","doi":"10.23865/noasp.115.ch15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.115.ch15","url":null,"abstract":"As we improvise in music and become increasingly engrossed in the activity, we are intuitively engaged in a playful negotiation of various aesthetic possibilities in the Now. We are in a state where random impulses and irrational, unintentional actions become key premise providers along with everything we have learned through knowledge and experience. This essay reflects on the responsiveness of the Now in musical improvisation. We ask: What does the experience of the Now offer? Does it come with any kind of ethics and accountability and, if so, what kind and to whom does it apply? In our elaborations we are influenced by our own experiences of, and reflections on, compositional and music therapeutic practice. We refer to the theory of musical improvisation and early interaction, and also philosophical texts, especially those by Mikhail Bakhtin. We suggest that the responsiveness of the Now in musical improvisation is a mindset that challenges us both ethically and aesthetically. It does so by seeking creative satisfaction, joy and insight, taking shape through sensory perception that is close to intuition, mimesis and imagination. Its meaning remains unfinalised and foreign to us. It is also risky and is situated on the boundary between music and performer, between performer and other performers, and between the past and future of our actions. The ideal is to strive for a Now that can be experienced as the right now but also as a Now that suits the responses we try to find room for when we improvise.","PeriodicalId":390651,"journal":{"name":"Musikkfilosofiske tekster. Tanker om musikk og språk, tolkning, erfaring, tid, klang, stillhet m.m.","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131110821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A word often used to describe music is “smooth”. It is mostly meant as a negative term, used to label music as commercial, light, superficial and easily forgotten. However, smooth music is also well-made, with a high level of professionality. In this chapter I take as a starting point the criticism of beauty as smoothness found in Byung-Chul Han’s book Die Errettung des Schönen [Saving beauty], and investigate how this criticism applies to music. Furthermore, I try to define what makes music smooth. While smoothness can easily be defined when speaking about physical objects, music is evasive. Hence, smoothness is defined metaphorically, and according to what it is not, e.g. a work of art, or something that can lead to an experience, a concept I discuss in light of Gadamer, Heidegger, Adorno and Vetlesen. I claim that due to the elusive character of music almost any music can lead to an experience, but it is not a product of the subject’s efforts alone. Moreover, smoothness as a characteristic of music seems to have a liminal quality to it, as it cannot be defined in light of its opposite, but is trapped in its own perfection.
一个经常用来形容音乐的词是“流畅的”。它通常是一个贬义词,用来给音乐贴上商业、轻松、肤浅和容易被遗忘的标签。然而,流畅的音乐也制作得很好,具有很高的专业水平。在这一章中,我将从韩炳哲的《拯救美》(Die Errettung des Schönen)一书中对“平滑的美”的批评为出发点,研究这种批评如何适用于音乐。此外,我试图定义是什么让音乐流畅。当谈到物理对象时,流畅性很容易被定义,而音乐则是回避性的。因此,平滑是隐喻性的定义,根据它不是什么,例如,一件艺术作品,或者可以导致一种体验的东西,我根据伽达默尔、海德格尔、阿多诺和维特勒森的观点来讨论这个概念。我认为,由于音乐难以捉摸的特性,几乎任何音乐都可以带来一种体验,但它并不是主体努力的单独产物。此外,平滑作为音乐的一种特征,似乎具有一种有限的品质,因为它不能根据它的对立面来定义,而是被困在它自己的完美之中。
{"title":"Den glatte musikken og muligheten for en erfaring","authors":"Bendik Fredriksen","doi":"10.23865/noasp.115.ch5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.115.ch5","url":null,"abstract":"A word often used to describe music is “smooth”. It is mostly meant as a negative term, used to label music as commercial, light, superficial and easily forgotten. However, smooth music is also well-made, with a high level of professionality. In this chapter I take as a starting point the criticism of beauty as smoothness found in Byung-Chul Han’s book Die Errettung des Schönen [Saving beauty], and investigate how this criticism applies to music. Furthermore, I try to define what makes music smooth. While smoothness can easily be defined when speaking about physical objects, music is evasive. Hence, smoothness is defined metaphorically, and according to what it is not, e.g. a work of art, or something that can lead to an experience, a concept I discuss in light of Gadamer, Heidegger, Adorno and Vetlesen. I claim that due to the elusive character of music almost any music can lead to an experience, but it is not a product of the subject’s efforts alone. Moreover, smoothness as a characteristic of music seems to have a liminal quality to it, as it cannot be defined in light of its opposite, but is trapped in its own perfection.","PeriodicalId":390651,"journal":{"name":"Musikkfilosofiske tekster. Tanker om musikk og språk, tolkning, erfaring, tid, klang, stillhet m.m.","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126319866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
What is time? What is the relationship between music and time? Does time flow towards us from the future to the past, or do we move through time from the past to the future? Is there even such a thing as the “passage of time”, or is that a just another metaphorical construction? “The now” in human short-term memory lasts for approximately 3–5 seconds. In this article, the topic is how the consciousness can construct, experience and maintain coherence in longer-term occurrences, for example, a musical composition lasting 20–30 minutes. The article suggests that the form of these musical compositions is perhaps structured analogously with the long-term memory’s own hierarchical divisions and mode of operation in the human mind. The article discusses the connection between overview (hors-temps, meaning outside time) and process (durée, meaning duration) in the listening experience. To be able to follow a long-lasting musical form, be it in performance or in musical listening, one needs to be both “in” the time-flow and outside of it at the same time. Hence, since “presence” and “distance” are clearly different perspectives, they form a paradoxical relation of being both contradictory and mutually interdependent. The interplay between musical detail, overview and direction is relevant to the concept of Fernhören, coined by Heinrich Schenker and Wilhelm Furtwängler. Since music needs to unfold during time, a large-scale musical work cannot be seen merely as an object (Sein, or being) but is also a process of constant re-shaping and change (Werden, or becoming) in the workings of perception, memory and expectation in the listening experience.
{"title":"Om den psykologiske realiteten av langstrakt musikalsk form: Et musikkfilosofisk forsøk","authors":"Erling E. Guldbrandsen","doi":"10.23865/noasp.115.ch11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.115.ch11","url":null,"abstract":"What is time? What is the relationship between music and time? Does time flow towards us from the future to the past, or do we move through time from the past to the future? Is there even such a thing as the “passage of time”, or is that a just another metaphorical construction? “The now” in human short-term memory lasts for approximately 3–5 seconds. In this article, the topic is how the consciousness can construct, experience and maintain coherence in longer-term occurrences, for example, a musical composition lasting 20–30 minutes. The article suggests that the form of these musical compositions is perhaps structured analogously with the long-term memory’s own hierarchical divisions and mode of operation in the human mind. The article discusses the connection between overview (hors-temps, meaning outside time) and process (durée, meaning duration) in the listening experience. To be able to follow a long-lasting musical form, be it in performance or in musical listening, one needs to be both “in” the time-flow and outside of it at the same time. Hence, since “presence” and “distance” are clearly different perspectives, they form a paradoxical relation of being both contradictory and mutually interdependent. The interplay between musical detail, overview and direction is relevant to the concept of Fernhören, coined by Heinrich Schenker and Wilhelm Furtwängler. Since music needs to unfold during time, a large-scale musical work cannot be seen merely as an object (Sein, or being) but is also a process of constant re-shaping and change (Werden, or becoming) in the workings of perception, memory and expectation in the listening experience.","PeriodicalId":390651,"journal":{"name":"Musikkfilosofiske tekster. Tanker om musikk og språk, tolkning, erfaring, tid, klang, stillhet m.m.","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125199273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}