History Assignment 2

Michael Ellis

Music as pleasure, music as beauty, music as insight. Which is most true

for you and why?

Choosing a term that expresses what music means to myself is hardly an

accurate way to portray the complexity of a deeply involved art form. Is
Music pleasure, beauty, or insight? These three terms prove true to my
experience in some way or another but do little to hold any substantial
meaning behind them to where one out-weights the other.

In the book ‘Philosophy of the Arts : An Introduction to Aesthetics’

by Gordon Graham, Graham describes music as ‘only being pleasurable
because it stimulates an emotional response’. In much the same way it
is unlikely to describe a musical piece as ‘beautiful’ if there was not
an induced emotional response. These two terms can thus be discussed as
an emotional reaction to music.

Music is also an intellectual source. Thus the term ‘insight’ to me is

being aware of the ‘form’ and musical structure of a piece to inform
my understanding of how an artist or musician can generate a particular
automated emotional response through their music but also how we can
extract abstract information about ourselves and our society.

From this it is made a point that the three above concepts: pleasure,
beauty, and insight, are all equally relevant in the discussion of how
I conceptualize and feel music and are not isolated responses but are
collective by nature.

It is without doubt that music delivers me pleasure. But as Gordon claims,

“describing a piece as pleasant is ‘faint praise’ “ (Graham, 2005)
To this I agree as the word upholds little value in the description of
a musical piece. It rather suggests that I would feel an uplifting
emotional response but without any substantial description of what the
music sounds like. But to listen to a piece with the intent of it pleasing
you is even further speculative. In the book “Pleasures of the Brain”it
is mentioned that “even today remarkably little is known about how music
evokes emotions and pleasures”(Kringelbach, 2009) but also how ‘the
thought of not having music present with particular activities such as
dancing or hanging out with friends could significantly devalue that
activity to the extent that most of the pleasure may no longer be
present’(Kringelbach, 2009). It is clear as humans we deeply value music
as a source of pleasure but perhaps not everyone recognizes it as the art
form it is. To extract meaning from music requires a deeper more cognitive
engagement as discussed further on rather than it acting solely as an
emotional stimulus. So listening to music for pleasure is of course true
for me as it is by biological nature however deeper more meaningful ideas
are also extracted from the art that carry over to more interpersonal
discoveries.

The term beauty in relation to music in my perspective is more inline with

a cognitive approach to derive a deeper meaning from a piece. As pointed
out by Hanslick, ‘Our imagination, it is true, does not merely
contemplate the beautiful, but it contemplates it with
intelligence’(Hanslick,1891) It would be like looking at a painting; the
‘appreciation of what it represents rests on recognition of the
conventions of their respective symbol systems’(Davies, 2003). So when
I think a piece of music is beautiful it is derived more so from a
structural listening approach where cognitive analysis is more so present
than if I were merely listening for ‘pleasure’. A formulated meaning
inspired by the imagination is what must occur within for me to identify
a piece as beauty. “… A very specific notion of listening, one that can
only be gained through technical training and serious
self-discipline”(DellâAntonio, 2004) The beauty being in the structure
of an artists piece. The melody and rhythm combined with elements of form
that lead to an emotional message being conveyed when dissected by an
informed listener. The beauty is in the structure of the music created
by the artist, and without it there is no way such a feeling could transmit
to the listener.

The insightful aspects of music lie within. Samama claims that “…music
seems to have no other purpose than to display its own beauty and to feed
our sense of enjoyment”(Samama, 2015) He also claims how we “react
differently to the same piece of music”(Samama, 2015). Without trying
to justify why we feel a particular way after listening to a piece, there
would be nothing insightful about music. However this process must occur
naturally if we have the ability to merely ‘like’ a particular song.
The analysis of why we react positively to certain sonic aspects in the
music particularly melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre and form in such a
manner that allows us to learn something applicable to ourselves and
society is mysterious. To formulate a meaning within us that perpetuates
further investigations into the “ethical dimension of structural
listening”(DellâAntonio, 2004)to derive ideas that can be applied to
human nature. Whilst we do not need understanding of the art form to
generate meaning, a studied listener will generate more insight from the
music than the uneducated thus being able to conceptualize deeper more
valued ideas. Like any other field of study or art form, the educated will
be the ones to develop new ideas that widen the scope of knowledge
applicable to society.

To summarise, I believe the above 3 terms pleasure,beauty and insight are

all equally relevant in my interpretation and appreciation of music. These
terms are helpful to raise discussion about the intricacies of our neural
reaction and its application to human nature and society. However, these
terms are by no means conclusive and can only be used as point of analysis
on our intellectual and emotional response to music. The ideas I have
raised are a personal reflection of my ability to comprehend and
appreciate music and are subject to change in the future. As a student
of this art form a constant analysis of terms used to describe my
experience with music will now be under further surveillance to hopefully
yield more information on the topic.
References

Graham, Gordon. Philosophy of the Arts : An Introduction to Aesthetics, Routledge, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ecu/detail.action?docID=254270.

Davies, Stephen. Themes in the Philosophy of Music, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2003. ProQuest Ebook
Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ecu/detail.action?docID=4700218.
Kringelbach, Morten L., and Kent C. Berridge. Pleasures of the Brain : Pleasures of the Brain, Oxford University Press
USA - OSO, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ecu/detail.action?docID=3056240.

Beyond Structural Listening? : Postmodern Modes of Hearing, edited by Andrew DellâAntonio, and Andrew
Dell'Antonio, University of California Press, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ecu/detail.action?docID=223043.

Samama, Leo. The Meaning of Music, Amsterdam University Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ecu/detail.action?docID=4460742.

Hanslick, Eduard. "The Beautiful in Music." (1891).

http://waltercosand.com/CosandScores/Composers%20E-K/Hanslick,%20Eduard/The_beautiful_in_music.pdf