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anthony storr on music and the mind
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ANTHC)NY STORR
MUSIC AND THE MIND
Iffil THE FREE PRESS
A Divisioll of Macmillan ille NEW YORK
Maxwell Macmillan Canada TORONTO
Maxwell Macmillan International NEW YORK OXFORD SlNGAPORE SYDNEY
I 99 ~ t1 ~~~Ii ~ v - ~ ~ ~J _lt~ L Lc
gt-
OUGINS Af-Jll CdLUCTlV F FUNCTiONS
It will never be possible to establish the origins of human music with any certainty however it seel1ls probahle that music deshyveloped from the prosodic exchanges between mother and infant which foster the bond between thclll from this it became a form ofcommunication between adult buman beings As the capacity for speecb and conceptual thought developed music became less important as a way of cOllvcying information but retaincd its significance as a way of communicating feelings and cemcnting bonds between individuals especially in group situations Today we arc so accustomed to considering the response of the individual to music that we are liable to forget that for most of its history music has been predominantly a group activity Music began by serving communal purposes of which religious ritual and warfare arc two examples It has continued to be used as an accompaniment to collective activities as all adjunct to social ceremonies and public occasions We share these functions of music with pre-literate cultures In Ollr society one cannot imagine a Coronation or a State funeral taking place in the absence of music We know less than we would like about what musical activities went on in the past in private houses hut it is important to recall that the modern concert in which instrumental music is performed in a public concert hall as a separate entity unaccompanied by voices and in the absenc ofany ceremony was not a prominent feature of musical life in England until the late seventeellth century Since then music as a distinct form in its own right has continued to grow in importance During the same period the pen()fJllCf has become more slurply differshyentiated from the listener The individual listeners response to III mil is a principal theme of this book
2]
MUSlc- Nll IIII MIND
stor of many other projective 11 a subiect IS lIlciuced to
same smdcllts of panlting to
ubtl their imaginations by at dal1lD-staillcd walls iCl1ly to sec
mlllllLT of
particular piecc of mllSlC IS
at the til1le llld sOllie part from tile proJcctioll of his
1 emotions sokl Y l dircct cOllseyucllCL IC
a no verbal or refcrence f()r its own sake It IS not sllrpnsll1g
care sometimcs different rcsponses to it What 1S more is the degree of consensLls In spite of the difficulties
earlier C can be t1irly confident that listeners to great IC which is fllniliar to them are usually sharing a closely eneneC ornc writers suggest that music conveys the same llIeaning to
lrellt listencrs more accuratdy than a verbal 11lessage tlut music ~SI likely to be misinterpreted or vlriously interpreted than rds The epigraph to this chapter is 111 extract from a letter by ndclssollll in which he continues
word dots not meal the S~lme tlJlng to one person as to
the tunc SIYS the sallle thillg awakens the sallle (dlllg in both
that flllinl may not be eXDnssnl III the ~lIlJe words)
list speculates along SlIl11Iar li11ls I of a Icert variolls Illembers of the
am what vcrc their words which like every hUI1lJIl and cxtcrllal word left Ille so indifferellt compucd WIth the hClvenly ohrase of
YllllSic with which I hld Just heen cOllllllulling I WlS
~ngd who bllcll fro[ll the illlbrianng bliss of PiLldisl subsides
70
I SON(S ITIIOUI W()HllS
Illto the IlllS hUllldrlllll reality AndJlIst 15 nnllll lTlatllrls m tlil
Ilst surviillg tcstllllOIlY to I tlgtrm oflifc which llltlln has
I wondered whether 1ll1lsi-1I11gilt not be the lIn](llIl ca III plv of wiLit
have bCLl1 - i( thl illll1tlOll of tlllglllgc tillt formatioll of
the anliysls of idcas had nor illtcrvcllnl - the 1l1lIIIS of
tOlllIlIUllicHIOIl betvlcll SOli Is It is like d po~sihility thlt iIl COllll to
nothing ilullJmiry has developed dollg other hillS those of lilt written hllguagc_
It is dC)f that both Proust are reflrring to music Western tLlditioll COJ11IllUIlICltioll betVTl1l
possible if share the sallle culture alld he11(( the same loud of Illllsic
Iluwlvcr 111 I differcnt context soullds without words call be accurately interprcted If two people conduct 1 conversation by hUlllming without parting their lips or using words a good deal of information GIll be conveycd stich as I am weary I alll pleased or evcll I love you The prosodic clements speech CUI
wi thollt the syllta et ie even hetweell aclul ts froll) di fferell t elll tu res because the soullds made rd1cct basic hUI1lltl1l elllotions and have Hot
elaborated into differellt varieties of IlIllsic SOl1le composcrs vc bcclJ particularly aware of the prosodic aspects of
JlIlicck systematically recorded the melodic curves of speech and he called speech melodies relllailled (emral to his Illethod of
composItion I
It Illust always be remembered thtt clllotiollal aroLlsalls partly that clllotions overlap and call change fi-Olll olle
easily Critics may agree that a p1 work of art is SIgnificant because they fInd interestcd and are likely to agree in general terms
work is tragic humorous protlUlld or superfIcial llut deLliled de~criptions oCtheir subjcctive reactions may differ COil sidshy
erably
There is a good exlInpk in BCrIlsteills Harvard knurlS Hl ukes the opening hars of Beethovens Piano SOIllta in E tbt Up 3 I
1No 3 and asks vlhether we listellers arl hea what lklthovcn supposedly felt whcn he -vrotc them Bernstcin thcn verbalizes wiut Bccthuvells IIlLlsic nLlkcs him terms of pleading
alld eqll ails VmiddotCL
71
middotMUSH NIl Till MIND ONes WITII( lUT w( lll IS
IlcISllkhC 11I1I]IOIC you rlltlo If Y lS but ] )Il cnlllIl cOllditiH)s
LTl1stcill thell IS~
But did lkthoVl1l kcl all that or lllythin[ like n I )Id IJust make lip thtse tldillgS out ufthl hlut ur In the to ome degree related to lkcthulns teelings tLlIlstt-rred to me through IllS lotes Wci1 IIlVlr know Wl cant phollc him up bur tIlt probability is that botiz arc trUl And If so Wt havc jllSt disc()end Illqur ambiguity - 1
hClUtltltllllW stllllIlnc lI11hiuitv to dd to our tIst-growing lis( t
lkrusteins proJcctions tcll llS more lbollt Bertlsteill tklll fTthovlll [f I had to put words to Becthovens phr1ses I should
UOOSl diflcrcnt olles But that is unimportant We certainly share
tllC pernptioll that the llIitial COlItTlsting phrases of this sonata are 1st ill terms ofqucstlOll and answer and recognize that
jASlS this pattcrn eiscwhlre For example Bcethoven
notatcs the opcning phrases of the tllllk of IllS last string quartet 3 III r major) by writing Muss es scin) Es muss sein Es
uss selll answer IS so J patterll in humall
we hlrdly recognize it lS snch In these two
is distillilH the essence and answer III
lWusic without words Although I disagree with some of
$chopcnilaller vritcs abollt IlILlsic I Clli appreciate his rdirclIcc to MuslC IS expresslIIg thc illner nature the ill-itsdC of every
fllclIonwnoll
[n The
ftaturcs of
tersollal l$eethovclI IS
P1l1 1IlSWLTlllg
(itlrprltatioll ill
repnscnts thc deepest essential
to know all
portLlycd [n similar Clshiol1
trolll till particular lilat lS
terms of l pkadlllg lIltlTchange between indishyVidlltS CH1SLS llIolllll1L1ry unease as he would have been the first to -lpreciltl IklthovclIs mastcrly gCllcralizJtion should not be
iltcrprcted ill tcrllls of pllnly p~rs)lld lIeeds We arc bOllnd to
brillg om prejudices Ild fcclinp with LIS whcn wc approach a 1
work hm it is the extcnt to which a work thV personII which makes it
Dcryck Cooke in Thl 4MIISi lttcmprcd to show that within the Western is ~1 COllsenSllS betwecn COl1lshyposers as to arc llscd to represellt partlnilar
of the llJljOr third COllllllOllly millllr third IS gcnerally associated with
called bv mediaeval theorists ilitlbolls llsed by co III posers to
or otl1cr Ilorrors Cookes cXl1llples of its llsC include works by Mozart Wagner Liszt Berlioz GOllnod
BUSOIll and lIlallY others I dont think th1t llIYOIlC reading
could Iil to bc convinccd that there is a good deal 111 says but there are also so many exceptiolls that his vinvs
have hcen sharply criticized Moreover Cooke cxplicitly discussion to European art lIlllsic which IS
cl1lotiollal cft(xts of music arc morL dependcllt UpOIl
contcxt less upon pmcly musical devices than Cooke allowed Eduard Hanslick the famous Austrian critic
pilloried as Beckmcsscr in Dit JHlisfcrsil1glr pointcd out lIIelody of (tucks Chc faro sellza Eundicc might be
Jolly if we did not know tlut the aria is reAecting
The French carol Quelle cst cettc odeur agr0ablc lkrgcrs qui
as a bcautifuly tClIder llldod y wllLn sung as 1 carol but the S~llnl tllne serves as 1 rumbustious drinking song Fillcvery glass in The HIIurs Opera Therl is a poillt ill Offertorio of Verdis ReqlliclII at which the te1l0r plcadlllg to
grantcd eternal litl sings sOIlllthing sllspiciollsly like Au pres ilia blonde
expericllced listeners agree that Mozarts String Quilltet ill ( minor K 5 J6 is a predominantly trlgic IlListlrpllCl But sOllle
people flcl that the last lIlovemellt expresses JOY bCl311se alter its adagio introductio1l the key challges to G m~or and the time
signltllrl to 6R Howcver the Mozart scholar Alfrcd Einstein
to this last movelllent as beillg ill the (iIsconsolatl major that MOlart utilizes ill so mallY ofllis last works 1 thus ill~hcatillg that i)r hilll at allY rate the change to the major key continlles the tragedy than lightllIing it
72 73
MUSIC ANI) TIlE MIN)
I k-ryck Cooke dcfllHd l11uic a~ the suprelllc expressioll of
universal emotions in all c1tirdy persollal vay by the great
composersll However it is lot a direct eV()t~1tiOll of those
llllotions vithin llllllsclf which 1l1OVCS the listener but rather the
way in which a great composer transforms universal clll()tioll~
Il1to art So mallY musiCians and critics have wrestled with the problem of
the llleaning of music that some 11lve aballdoned allY attempt Jt
lillking absolute IlllISIC with human t~c1ings The formalists or
non-refcrentialists consider that musIC IS an entirely ll1tOl1omOllS
art that works of music bave no mcamng outside themselves l1Id
that the experienn induced by hearing 1 fork of lllusic is cntirely consequence of the listeners appreciation of irs structUflt
Hanslick attempted to maintain this position Hc wrote
so many bouks Oil III uSlcal acsthctlcs all of vvhich ddined the nature of music in tefms of the eelintis It arOllses and which ascribed to music a definite expnssive capability had long excited in lIle both doubt and oppositioll rlle 1lltUre uflllllsic is cvell harder to
tix withill philosophical categories than pallltll1g since ill lllllSIC the decisive conccpts offonn alld nmtenr are illlPossible of denec and separatioll If Dill wishcs to attrihut a definite nlIltCnt to
purely instrumcntal music ill voclllllusic content derives from the poem not from the lllusic - thell OllC Illllst discard thc
of the musical art in whICh no Oil( call lkmonsrrltl a content distillct from the form nor evell deduce it On the other hand I readily agree that it is idle to speak of absolute lack of content in instrLIIllentallllusi which my opponcnts accusc Ille llfhaving (Iolll
in my treatise How is onc to distinguish cielltitically in musIc
betweell inspired ClfIll and Clllpty form I had the former in
III y opponents accused llle of th latter
By admitting the notion of inspired fl)flll versus cmpty tltmll
Hanslick is 1 think partially retreating from the ~trictly formalist position especially with his Lise oftlw vonlelllpty l(form has to
contain something what it contains must surely have gt(lIlll
signiticance Stravinsky ftllll1d himsclfin rather the saml position when in IllS
conversations with Hohert Craft he was discussing his
74
()N(S WITHOUT WUHDS
relllark Music IS powerks- to lxprcss anything at all Stravinsky
strongly objected to the notion that a picce of 11111Sic is a trl11scendcntal idea expressed in terms of l1lllsic or that tlwrt was lIIY exact correspondence hctvcll1 the composers teelings and
he set down in notes Stravinsky did adlllit that 1 composers
work is the embodimLnt of his tl~e1illgs but emphasized that for the important fact about J composition was that it was
sOl1llthing Ill heyolld what can be called the composers
feclings He said that A Ilew pilcl of music is a new reality Jnd Il1USIC expresses itself Of the composer he claimed All hl
Knows or (ares about is the apprehension of the contour of the
form for the form is evcrythlllg He can say nothing whatever ~lbollt mcanings
It IS possible to appreciatc StravinsKYs point of view without
agrccment A great deal of gushing nonsense has been written about the mcaning of music but when Stravinsky expresses his dislike orth music of Richard Strauss by calling it tre1Cly he is not rd~rring to its form but to its expression of sentiment 17
Hindelllith agrees with Stravinsky in so far as he writes
Music callnot exprcss the composers feelings Here is what he docs he knows by expericnce that certain patterns of toncshy ~
setting correspond with certain emotional reactions on the listeners pJrt Writing the patterns frcquently ll1d tinding his obscrvations confirmed in anticipatlIlg the listcners reaction he believes himself to be in till saml l1lllltal situation ~
Hindemith docs not deny that music induces clllotion 111
audicllce but he regards the composer as a skilled manipubtor who
believls that he feds what he helieves the listener feels I)
Hc continues
l COlllposer call never be absolutely sure of the elllotionaleftcct of IllS IlltlSlC on the lis teller whell Ilsing complex lllJterial but by experience ami clcver distributioll of this material morcover with
fr(quem refercnces to those lllusical progressions that cvoke the lll1COlllplicarcd fedill(-images of sadness or gaiety ill an ullJmbigushy
75
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MUSIC AND TIll MINll
clothe their insIghts ill tecilmcallangllagl If they did not I claim that mllsic wuuld not continuc to be important to thclJ1 Appnshyeiating musical form and structure is not) techllicallll1ttcr which ()tilly the traJ11ed mllsician IS equipped to IlIldert~lke It is true that describing nlUsicJI form in words requires study and that the
lu do so implies a more complete appreciation of the work involved
-thlIl that available to the ordinary listcner But an ulltrained listener who loves music docs not simply immerse himself ill a sea of
velde although some nineteenth-century music comes clost to
~rovldillg that experience He is also acutely aware of repetition ehange of key and resolution to put it at its minimulIl The
leasures of the unexpected are not confined to musical theorists
for example the listener does not have to be a trained lllUSlCiJIl to fecognize that Haydn is a master of surprise
I think we do need a new type of JanguJge to describe music Although Tovey was unrivalled In his knowledge of the mUSK of
the classical tradition his language is old-fashioned and possibly Iot technic1 enough for todays listeners wl1Q are often wellshy
i)lformed But it is manifestly aosmd to restrict the way we talk and
write about music to language which deliberately excludes any reference to what makes a musical work expressive and capable of
Iausillg arousal To do so is reminiscent ofstructuralists who write ~out the text as if literature had nothing to do with hUI1lJn
Deings either as readers or as authors The f()rmalist analysts are trying to make the appreciation
lIIusic purely cerebral whereas music is rooted in bodily rhythms Alel movement The expressive aspect of music IS difficult to
~isclsS for the reasons outlined earlier but that should not prevent
tts from making the attempt I think it IS possible to do justice to the
Views of both formalists and expressionists without distorting
either When music was still directly tied to words and to underlining
Dr accompanying public ritual there could be little argument kind I )isplltcs between formalists and expreSSIOnists only begin to
be Important with the rise of absolute music Music was bound to
tAke on a life of its OWl when it became el1lJl1cipated from other -Orms ofex pressi011 The rise of romantic music inevitably follows ~e sepHation of music from verbal and other associations Music
711
gtONCS WITHOUT WOIU lS
itsclfillcrets11~ly illcorpllLlled wahin its uwn structure the hUlIlan (lllotion1 lIle~lllillgs which had pnviously belonged to the words ur public occlslons which the musIc accolllpanied 1I1d cnhannd To IILlllltlin tJat absolute music parted compallY with
CIlI()tioIlS beCillsc It began to eXIst ill Its own right is dearly llIItlIllblc The oppoltitc would be more accurate
Music is a temporal art Its patterns exist in time alld require ~ duratioll for their dlveloDIllCIlt and completion Although painting
statel1lents lbout relationships betweell space objects and colours these relatiollshlps are static
Music more aptly represents humall emotional processes because 1 IlIl1sic like lite appears to be in constant motion The fact that v Illusical movement is more apparent than real will be discllssed Lan
It em bc argucd that programmc musIc retains rderences to the cstcrllal world 1I1d cannot thercfilrc be the self-contained isolated Ild more or less perfect structure which formahsts admire But 1
grelt deal of programmc llIllsic is sllllply lllUSIC
evellt story sOllnd or picture has bet1l the trigger Beethovens
Sisth Symphony (Op Mi in r lIllJor) is the obvious example If BeethoveIl had not headed his movements with titles which incidentally he JclJptcd ti-om the titks givln to the movements of
1lI entirely difterellt symphony by Knecht we should accept the Pastoral Symphony as a piece of absolute mllSIC without worryshying whether Bcethoven is depicting By the brook side or Merry
gathering of country folk The same consideration applies to
Mendclssohn ovcrtllre lilt Helirides It is interesting to know that Mendelssohn Jotted down the malll theme whilst in the Hebndes
(Tovey allegcs problbly inaccurately tlLIt he was actually ill
ls cave) but the PICllt stands Oil its own as a magnificent work oJorchstrallllllsic which necds 110 title As Jacques Barzun points
arc lIsed something alien has illto the pure stream of sOllnd
1~llllsky-Korsakovs popular orchestral suite SdlcJ((Iadt is OVLTtly programmatic Every hstellcr recognizes that the sinllolls (llo fl)J Iolin wlllch links the lllllVLll1ents nprlSlllts the voice of SChCItCLIZJdl herself telling the stonlS of the thousand and OI1C
nights to the Sultan But how JIlany listellers Gill rccall the tities
7lJ
MUSIC AND THE MIND
illustrates how the Narrator gradually improves his appreciation of f()rIl1 each time a piece of music lew to him is repeatllL
Theil to tht course of III y thoughts rather than of cards or draughts vith Albltrtine I would ask her to glV(~ me l
little Illusic I relllained in bcd and she would go and sit down at poundIll end of the room before the pianola between the two bookcases She chosc pieces which were either quite new or which she had pia yed to
me only once or tvice for beginning to know lI1e better she was aware that J liked to fix my thoughts only upon what was still obscure to me and to be able in the cour~e of these sUcCt~ssive
thanks to the increasing but distorting and alien of my intellect to link one with another the fragmentary and
interrupted lines of the structure which at first had almost been hiddcll ill mist She knew and I think understood the joy that my mind derived at these first hearings from this task of modellinl a
still shapeless nebula
How refreshing to read that Proust experienced joy ill appreciating structure Formalists often write about music as if understanding
all intellectual III fact the form ofa musical
can balanced of unexpected structural irregularity or decorative detail WillCl1 serves to dispel monotony and reveals the individual hand of a III aster Ifa
listener comes to knc)v a work of music well he is responding to it as a whole Form and content in music and body and suu in human
beings are equally indivisible if either arc to live
CHAPTEI V
ESCAPE FROM REALITY
Musick the grcatc~t good that mortals know And all ofhcavll we have below
JOSEIH ADDISON
A removed from Ollr aside particular periods of time for it and we often go to special places like concert halls and art galleries to find what we arc looking for In pre-literate cultures the arts are more closely integrated with ordinary life 1n Western societies the arts tend to occupy a special
of their own as if they might be a luxury rather than a vital has made it possible for the unenlightened
to argue alat musIC anti the other arts arc some kind of substitute t()f or escape from real life It is a
prof(Hlndly disagree but since some influential psychoanalysts have put f()rward notions of this kind it is worth examining their ideas if only to refute them
freud himself was an extraordinarily well-read individual with a lively apprlciatioll of literature At school where he was top of
for SIX years running he became famihar with the Latill Greek classics He learned Hebrew taught
remained Dostocvsk y not far hdlind Shakespeare and believed The Brothers Karaml1zol the greatest novel ever written freud himself was recognized as a literary stylist and was given the Goethe prtze t()r literature He was also moved by sculpture and to a
extent by paintlllg It l~ true that in the introduction to Moses
H~
MUSIC AND THE MINIl
Noise can be threattmiddotnillg to llormal people If someOllC is hypersensitive to noise and unable to filter out what is Irrelevant
from all tilt dintrent noises which cOllstantly impinge upon him he Illay be speClaIly inclincd to deal with it by tryillg to impose a new order on it make sense Ollt of it and thus turn what was into something manageable Maconic puts it sllccinct y
Ifthere is allullderlying truth in the exclamatioll this nOIse is
Illt mad there may be all equivalent truth in its comic this I1lLlsic is driving me sane The form of words suggests 1
relationship between sensory input and pcrcepnJal flSPOIISl
I ha ve noticed that there are considerable diHcrences between
inlhviduals in response to auditory input Some people cannot bear trying to conduct a conversation through background music
others apparently do not notice it or can cut it out of
perccptual field Many people seem to have their television sets switched on all day irrespective of whether any conversation IS going Oll in the samc room or not A few jmllviduals becoT1w
acutely distressed if whilst listening to a talk on the radio someone
in the room addresses them with a comment Such people complain that they cannot listen to two tlungs at once and miss the sense of
what both the broadcaster and the interrupter are saying For a
moment they are threatened with chaos Auditory discrimination depends on being able to filter out
extraneous sOllnds and identify what is significant A mother will
often respond to the cry of her own infant when no Olle else ill room has heard it I remember sitting at breakfast with KOllfJd
Lorenz who suddenly rose from the tablt saying I hear the cry of a
~oosc-baby a sOllnd which no one else had noticed Sure lllough a
gosling was in trouble and had to be rescued
Pillchas Noy suggests that the child who is hypersll1sitiw to
auditory stimuli lllay find it particularly difficult to eliminate or
I~llorc more than a few of the incoming sOllnds to which hc is
and must therefore adopt a different strltcgy
The oilly way out of thiS dilemma is til ltffort toward OrillHtilll III
and lllastery ofrhc auditory DClCCDtllal t1c1d The lntlIlt vill hIVC to
102
~5 1( API I~OM HFAIXlY
develop an lbiJity tll (UlltClltrltc his lttcl1tloll to directing alld
tWllty different silllultallcously rccurrIng sOllnd stimuli
All CXtltJIll cxampk of sllch all accomplishment is presented in
the persoll of the prominent conductor of an orchlstra wilt) has the ofsimultallelllisly lIstening to the urchcstra as Ollt
and to each of the instruments slparncly discinlllishini each
as ifhc concentrated 011 it alonl
author admits tliat this hypotheSIS lacks experimental COIlshy
firmation but it chimes well with the idea that those who are especially threatened by disorder are those most strongly motivated
to discover order We know that sufferers from schizophrenia are hypersensitive ill
that they need protection from rdatives who are intrusive
smothering or critical They fed threatened by such negative input and arc more likely to relapse than if they find themselves surrounded by tolerant acceptance In Chapter Two rderence was made to experiments with dichotic listening which demonstrated
that in normal subjects language was better perceived by the left hemisphere music by the nght Researcb suggests that 111 people suffering from mental illness both schizophrenia and the various forms uf affective disorder the functions of the two hemispheres arc not so clearly differelltiated as they an in normal people Jgt
Since specialization ofhemispheric function has developed partly to flCilitate the effiCIent processing of incol1llllg auditory infonnashytiOll whether this be speech or music it is not surprising that some
melltally ill people arc hypersensitive to such information and may threatened by It Modern theories of information processing
postulate that in the nOrl1lJl person incoming information is rapidly scanned so that stimuli willch are unwanted inappropriate or irrelevant In excluded from conscioustless Schizophrenics
sornetimes complaill of heing overwhelmed bv stimuli as If tlltering process was absent or inefficient
A number of writers haw suggested that creative people JfC
hypersensitive in metaphorically lackillg a sufficiently thick protecshytive skin to shield them from the impact of the external vorld There is a link between lllental illness and creatiVity ill that the
to think Cflatively to make new links between cOllcept~ i~
103
MUSIC AND TIlE MINI)
more oftell (Hillel III fJlllilics winch indudl a member who is
as mcnrally ill I am llot sllgglsting that all crcativl people ar mentally ill although SOnIe of the greatest have been so but onl y that ullconventional thought processes of a similar kind can be delllonstrated in both the mentally ill and the creative From
has already been noted it appeus likely that the mentally ill and the creative may share a difficulty in ckaling with sensory input ti-om the external world whether this takes the f()rm of speech lIo11-verbal sounds or el11otional pressure The mentally ill are overwhelmed by the threat ofconfusion and disorder The creative meN the challellge by creating a new order in their works lI1d thus master the threat Robert Schumanll and I--lugo Wolf are examples of cOlllposers who suffered from manic-depressive illncss_ Alshythough ultimately ddiated by the severity of their mental disshyturbances there is no doubt that their creativity was partly a product of thcir instability Rachmaninov also experienced severe
depression This condition can be so extreme that it prevents
productioll altogether but liability to depression and the threat of its
ITcurrenn can act as a spur to creativity Berlioz whell suffering tormcllting deprcsstoll and anxiety told his flther that without music he could not go on living_ 13 Tchaikovsky who also endured severe bouts ofdcpression wrote Truly there would be reason to
go mad if it WlrC not f()r 1IIIISie His biographer John Warrack thinks tbat he was stating nothing but the sober truth 24
The crcati vc process depends on both conscious and unconscious melltal fUllctions W c are still so influcnccd by Freud that malJY pcople believe that anything emanating from the ullconsciolls must
cmotionaL irrational unacceptable and probably disreputable III reality this is llot the casco Unconscious processes are just as lllllch concerned with pattern and structure as they Ife with
EvelJ more apparcllt tllan rcal
Dreams certailll y impossibilities temporal confusion ami many features unacceptable to the rational Il1md But most are stories The scanning process
goes on 111 matches reccllt events -vith Dast evellts JlId lillks
wgcther mcntal COlltCllts which shan a similar fleling but which llll y not be related in an yother Va y Thc drea m attclll pts to 11uke
10
ESCAPF FHDM ItEALrIYshy
sense out of thlS hotchpotch by trymt to impose the order of a story-Jille
As I bave argued elsewhere the human specics IS compelled to
theorize and strive to make sense of both life and the ulliverse Because human behaviour is not principally governed by the inshy
instinctive patterns of response to stimuli which direct the behaviour of animals lower In the evolutionary order human beings arc forced to become inventive They arc compelled to try to understand the world and themselves and in so domg can reach new and better ltldaptations The processes by which this is achieved arc both unconscious and conscious We cannot avoid making some attcmpt to find cohercnce ill the world and within ourselvcs but the origmal1y unconscious impulse which makes us do this is reinforced refined and given rationality by conscious reasoning
I am sure that one of the reasons why music affects us deeply is its powcr to structure our auditory explrience and thus to make sense out of it Although I have been at pains to dispel the psychoanalytic view that music is an escape from reality or a regression to an mCll1tile state there is no doubt that music provides one path of temporary withdrawal from the hurly-burly of the external world_ This is refreshing because it permits the same kind of scanning sorting and rearrangement of mental contents which takes place ill reverie or ill sleep_ There arc many others ways of achieving this from going f()- a solitary walk in the country to practising trallScendental meditation When we take part in music or listen to an absorbing perfi)fmance we arc temporarily protected from the input of other external stimuli We enter a special sedudcd world 111 which order prevails and from which the incongruous is
This in itsdf is beneficial It is not a regressive manoeuvrc hut reoder pOll I licHX slmter a temporary retreat which promotes a fe-ordering process within the mind aud thus aids OHr
to the external world rather than providing an escape
from it If music and the other arts WCTe more closely interwovell with
activities we might not Ileed this temporary rtreat so Peopit of other cultures sometimes cannot understand why
Europeans secm so tense WhenJung visited Nevv Mexico he talked with all Indian chief who
10)
lHJS[( ANI) 1111 MIN)
Sec hov crud the whitts louk Their lips arc thill thllr lOStS
their faces furrowed and distorted by t~)lds Their eyes have a stanng lXpnSSHlll thcy arc always scckillg sOlllcrhlllg Vhat arc they
The hITes alwys want sOIlltthIII g tbey arc Ilways UllCS)
and rcstless We do not kIlOV what they Vlllt We do not understand thclll W l thillk that thev arc mad
If there appears to be an escapist elemcnt 111 musical participation it is because our culture is so concerned with achievcllllllt and the pursuit of conventional success that it makcs ordinary Iik into a tense and anxious business from which thl arts arc absent Music em and should be a lifi-enhancing part ofour day-to-da y existellcc
Music plays special role m aiding the scanning lI1d sorting process which goes on whcn we are asleep or simply day-dreaming Stravinsk y rekrs to the pleasure we gain from uIlorganized natural sOLlllds which may be considerable but which lacks the further dimension provided by IllllSIC
Hut over and above this passivt l1~ioymll1t we shall dis(ovt music Illllsic tbat will make U~ partlcipate activdy in the workm1 ofa lllllld that orders gives Iit( and CleHlS 0(
Psychomalysts rdtr to this participation as proJectivc idclltificashy
tion the process by which a persoll imagines himself to be inside SCHIll object external to himself Imitatioll is not only the sincerest form of flattery but a way of learning By identifying ourselves with those more gifted we can actually improve our own capacities Tlachers of music know that do it the way I do is a more effective way oftelchlllg than theonticli instruction
Music not only brillgs order to muscubr movelllellt but also prol1lotl~ order vitbill the mind This is wby John Blacking writing ill hi~ book A COllllllollsme I itll of All Mush ullCkr the hladlllg The Power of Music i~ able to say
of the SCllCS alld the ldUCltioll of the emotions
the lrtS are lot merely dcsirabk 0P(lUls Th) In essllHiai both 1)1 blimcni action md the dlltnivl liSt of the intllkcrshy
lOt)
1(1I1 HUHl HUI1 y~
IllstLd )( rhrcltlllld all overload of
IlHIIlS or ntllSIC tn impose our will upon this 11 the irrdevalll to pav JttlllilOl til what ilt
1l1d thus to nJte or discover SOJlle order ill tht world I It with the pklsure Vl get from thl explanatory h ufscilllcl
IkclnSl 1 scielltific thcnry makes thL w)rld more comprdHl1sshy W (d kss It thl )r1ds mercy alld lllore able to control
eVlllts ()( courSl iC cannot cOlltrol lverythillg Howevlr
geology we arc still vulmrablc lS We III I y becollle auditoril y sophisticatld but 1Il
loud noise will still darm liS IluWCVLT being able to
~OJllC sense out of the world gives us confidenn Music is l llumber of diffnllH W1yS This is Oi1e winch is
)
Music cm enable brln-dallllgcd people to accomplish tasb could not master VitiJollt ih aid It elll also llIake litt people wl1() arc emotionally disturbed or melltally ilL
BeClllSl 1l111SIC is lot so obviously necessary to 1110st OrllS we tend to ulldcrcsrilllllC its significance in the lives of normal people Yct it is difficult to imagine a world without it Evell if playing music
wcre f(lrbildll1 ll1d every device ilr reproducing music destroyed
we should still hl tulles fUllning ill our heads still be using music to order OLlr actlons and lllakl structured sense Ollt of the world lrollild (I
MUI( AN) TlfE MIND
Wagners plTionality was Chlriimatic andio is his music Both arc predominalltly I )ionysiall Apollollian serellity and cOlltrol afe not wlut one looks t()f III Wagller Nor arc mallY of the
with structure form and iymmetry although Wagners use ot tllL leitmotif is characteristic I du not mean to suggest that Vagllcr did Ilot understand such things I Ie was 011e of the most
lllllsicians to have ever lived lIld could employ any device which appealed to him
form But this is not what he was aiming at
Charisl1lltic individuals such as Wagner open the doors ot our perceptions transcend Ollr limitatil)ls and reveal mysteries unshy
to liS Evel1tllaliy they oftell disappoint us because their narClSSISlll tIld self-absorption preclude engagement with them as human beings of the same order as olleself Composers who are as
as Mozart and Haydn are of course far superior to til( ordinary person but they retain their humanity and we can rclate to
them as human beings Wagner IS ill a ditTerent category His contemporary admirers treated him as a god The modern listener
and becomes a disciple or else becomes disillusioned and escapes 11ow vlll he understands the soul He rules over liS
the arts of a demagogue Nietzsches ambivalence toward Wagner is flithfull y reflected in this remark from an imaginary cot1Versatiol1 in Daybreak
Wagners music either overvvhelms or repels because his style reflects his personality The immense length of his later
illustrates his disregard for the listeller He docs not wish to communicate only to convert It necd not prevent one
recognizing and being mtellsel y moved by his lllusic but it IS
understandable that some lis tellers resent the tceling of being takell over rathcr thall charmed or
I think that people who arc repelled by Wagners music well come to appreciate its power alld bellIty if they realized more
what vvas disturbing them I believe that listeners to Wagner to allow thcmselves to be temporarily overwhelmed if
arc fully to appreciate tbl music But many people arc letting to tillS extent and consequently shy away from the intense enwtiotlallxpcnenn which Wag ncr ofkrs liS
III lDDlvimr personal consideratiolls to mUSIC I want to
120
Till ULTARY LlSTENII~ (a ~) cmphasiZl dut the music always COlllCS first I call th1s chapter Solitary Listener because I am interested ill the 1I1crcase ll purdy
appreciation of lllllsic hilth bas ukell pbCl ill reClllt years people who are imensted m music listell to music more
uft(1l than was possible bct()re the advent of modern technology bur I am lJot arguing that listenillg to music IS or ever could be a
for personal relatiollships SOllie aspects OLl composers personality inevitably manifest themselves in his lllusic but the object ofiistcllillg is to get to kllov thc music not to get to know
the composer Great IllUSlC transcends the intii vidual who created it My
purpose in comparing getting to know a piece ofmusll with getting to know a person was to point out the inadequacy of approaching Illusic emly as if it were a matbematical construction not to delly that music has an impersonal dimension
The examples of Haydn and WagnCf are deliberately chosen as extremes Although music inevitably reflects the personality of the composer to some degree Stravinsky was surely right when referred to a composition as being beyond the composers feelings Listening to music docs bring us into indirect contact with the composer but this meeting ofminds IS not closely comparable with cllcountering another human being or listening to a person speaking Elements ofboth arc present but they do not account for the most important dlccts of music upon the Iistencr
As suggested in the last chapter urban civilization cuts us from our own inner lives We have to be watchful or we shall get nm over We are assailed by many varieties o111oi5e most of which
are unpleasant We cannot escape from other people from tdephonc from having demands made upon liS We easily lose tollch with the wellsprings of creative phantasy willch make lift
the ordinary man and woman must have been
very different when it was predofHmantly rural and agncultural w hell bird-song rather than the noise machinery filled the ears when the farmer could observe the changillg seasons and enjoy tht
of the clouds and when however exhausting the
solitude allowed the exercise illlwillati)J
Many sophisticated nquirc illtdkctual concentration
md detachment which would be contamillated if aesthetic COI1shy
121
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
OUGINS Af-Jll CdLUCTlV F FUNCTiONS
It will never be possible to establish the origins of human music with any certainty however it seel1ls probahle that music deshyveloped from the prosodic exchanges between mother and infant which foster the bond between thclll from this it became a form ofcommunication between adult buman beings As the capacity for speecb and conceptual thought developed music became less important as a way of cOllvcying information but retaincd its significance as a way of communicating feelings and cemcnting bonds between individuals especially in group situations Today we arc so accustomed to considering the response of the individual to music that we are liable to forget that for most of its history music has been predominantly a group activity Music began by serving communal purposes of which religious ritual and warfare arc two examples It has continued to be used as an accompaniment to collective activities as all adjunct to social ceremonies and public occasions We share these functions of music with pre-literate cultures In Ollr society one cannot imagine a Coronation or a State funeral taking place in the absence of music We know less than we would like about what musical activities went on in the past in private houses hut it is important to recall that the modern concert in which instrumental music is performed in a public concert hall as a separate entity unaccompanied by voices and in the absenc ofany ceremony was not a prominent feature of musical life in England until the late seventeellth century Since then music as a distinct form in its own right has continued to grow in importance During the same period the pen()fJllCf has become more slurply differshyentiated from the listener The individual listeners response to III mil is a principal theme of this book
2]
MUSlc- Nll IIII MIND
stor of many other projective 11 a subiect IS lIlciuced to
same smdcllts of panlting to
ubtl their imaginations by at dal1lD-staillcd walls iCl1ly to sec
mlllllLT of
particular piecc of mllSlC IS
at the til1le llld sOllie part from tile proJcctioll of his
1 emotions sokl Y l dircct cOllseyucllCL IC
a no verbal or refcrence f()r its own sake It IS not sllrpnsll1g
care sometimcs different rcsponses to it What 1S more is the degree of consensLls In spite of the difficulties
earlier C can be t1irly confident that listeners to great IC which is fllniliar to them are usually sharing a closely eneneC ornc writers suggest that music conveys the same llIeaning to
lrellt listencrs more accuratdy than a verbal 11lessage tlut music ~SI likely to be misinterpreted or vlriously interpreted than rds The epigraph to this chapter is 111 extract from a letter by ndclssollll in which he continues
word dots not meal the S~lme tlJlng to one person as to
the tunc SIYS the sallle thillg awakens the sallle (dlllg in both
that flllinl may not be eXDnssnl III the ~lIlJe words)
list speculates along SlIl11Iar li11ls I of a Icert variolls Illembers of the
am what vcrc their words which like every hUI1lJIl and cxtcrllal word left Ille so indifferellt compucd WIth the hClvenly ohrase of
YllllSic with which I hld Just heen cOllllllulling I WlS
~ngd who bllcll fro[ll the illlbrianng bliss of PiLldisl subsides
70
I SON(S ITIIOUI W()HllS
Illto the IlllS hUllldrlllll reality AndJlIst 15 nnllll lTlatllrls m tlil
Ilst surviillg tcstllllOIlY to I tlgtrm oflifc which llltlln has
I wondered whether 1ll1lsi-1I11gilt not be the lIn](llIl ca III plv of wiLit
have bCLl1 - i( thl illll1tlOll of tlllglllgc tillt formatioll of
the anliysls of idcas had nor illtcrvcllnl - the 1l1lIIIS of
tOlllIlIUllicHIOIl betvlcll SOli Is It is like d po~sihility thlt iIl COllll to
nothing ilullJmiry has developed dollg other hillS those of lilt written hllguagc_
It is dC)f that both Proust are reflrring to music Western tLlditioll COJ11IllUIlICltioll betVTl1l
possible if share the sallle culture alld he11(( the same loud of Illllsic
Iluwlvcr 111 I differcnt context soullds without words call be accurately interprcted If two people conduct 1 conversation by hUlllming without parting their lips or using words a good deal of information GIll be conveycd stich as I am weary I alll pleased or evcll I love you The prosodic clements speech CUI
wi thollt the syllta et ie even hetweell aclul ts froll) di fferell t elll tu res because the soullds made rd1cct basic hUI1lltl1l elllotions and have Hot
elaborated into differellt varieties of IlIllsic SOl1le composcrs vc bcclJ particularly aware of the prosodic aspects of
JlIlicck systematically recorded the melodic curves of speech and he called speech melodies relllailled (emral to his Illethod of
composItion I
It Illust always be remembered thtt clllotiollal aroLlsalls partly that clllotions overlap and call change fi-Olll olle
easily Critics may agree that a p1 work of art is SIgnificant because they fInd interestcd and are likely to agree in general terms
work is tragic humorous protlUlld or superfIcial llut deLliled de~criptions oCtheir subjcctive reactions may differ COil sidshy
erably
There is a good exlInpk in BCrIlsteills Harvard knurlS Hl ukes the opening hars of Beethovens Piano SOIllta in E tbt Up 3 I
1No 3 and asks vlhether we listellers arl hea what lklthovcn supposedly felt whcn he -vrotc them Bernstcin thcn verbalizes wiut Bccthuvells IIlLlsic nLlkcs him terms of pleading
alld eqll ails VmiddotCL
71
middotMUSH NIl Till MIND ONes WITII( lUT w( lll IS
IlcISllkhC 11I1I]IOIC you rlltlo If Y lS but ] )Il cnlllIl cOllditiH)s
LTl1stcill thell IS~
But did lkthoVl1l kcl all that or lllythin[ like n I )Id IJust make lip thtse tldillgS out ufthl hlut ur In the to ome degree related to lkcthulns teelings tLlIlstt-rred to me through IllS lotes Wci1 IIlVlr know Wl cant phollc him up bur tIlt probability is that botiz arc trUl And If so Wt havc jllSt disc()end Illqur ambiguity - 1
hClUtltltllllW stllllIlnc lI11hiuitv to dd to our tIst-growing lis( t
lkrusteins proJcctions tcll llS more lbollt Bertlsteill tklll fTthovlll [f I had to put words to Becthovens phr1ses I should
UOOSl diflcrcnt olles But that is unimportant We certainly share
tllC pernptioll that the llIitial COlItTlsting phrases of this sonata are 1st ill terms ofqucstlOll and answer and recognize that
jASlS this pattcrn eiscwhlre For example Bcethoven
notatcs the opcning phrases of the tllllk of IllS last string quartet 3 III r major) by writing Muss es scin) Es muss sein Es
uss selll answer IS so J patterll in humall
we hlrdly recognize it lS snch In these two
is distillilH the essence and answer III
lWusic without words Although I disagree with some of
$chopcnilaller vritcs abollt IlILlsic I Clli appreciate his rdirclIcc to MuslC IS expresslIIg thc illner nature the ill-itsdC of every
fllclIonwnoll
[n The
ftaturcs of
tersollal l$eethovclI IS
P1l1 1IlSWLTlllg
(itlrprltatioll ill
repnscnts thc deepest essential
to know all
portLlycd [n similar Clshiol1
trolll till particular lilat lS
terms of l pkadlllg lIltlTchange between indishyVidlltS CH1SLS llIolllll1L1ry unease as he would have been the first to -lpreciltl IklthovclIs mastcrly gCllcralizJtion should not be
iltcrprcted ill tcrllls of pllnly p~rs)lld lIeeds We arc bOllnd to
brillg om prejudices Ild fcclinp with LIS whcn wc approach a 1
work hm it is the extcnt to which a work thV personII which makes it
Dcryck Cooke in Thl 4MIISi lttcmprcd to show that within the Western is ~1 COllsenSllS betwecn COl1lshyposers as to arc llscd to represellt partlnilar
of the llJljOr third COllllllOllly millllr third IS gcnerally associated with
called bv mediaeval theorists ilitlbolls llsed by co III posers to
or otl1cr Ilorrors Cookes cXl1llples of its llsC include works by Mozart Wagner Liszt Berlioz GOllnod
BUSOIll and lIlallY others I dont think th1t llIYOIlC reading
could Iil to bc convinccd that there is a good deal 111 says but there are also so many exceptiolls that his vinvs
have hcen sharply criticized Moreover Cooke cxplicitly discussion to European art lIlllsic which IS
cl1lotiollal cft(xts of music arc morL dependcllt UpOIl
contcxt less upon pmcly musical devices than Cooke allowed Eduard Hanslick the famous Austrian critic
pilloried as Beckmcsscr in Dit JHlisfcrsil1glr pointcd out lIIelody of (tucks Chc faro sellza Eundicc might be
Jolly if we did not know tlut the aria is reAecting
The French carol Quelle cst cettc odeur agr0ablc lkrgcrs qui
as a bcautifuly tClIder llldod y wllLn sung as 1 carol but the S~llnl tllne serves as 1 rumbustious drinking song Fillcvery glass in The HIIurs Opera Therl is a poillt ill Offertorio of Verdis ReqlliclII at which the te1l0r plcadlllg to
grantcd eternal litl sings sOIlllthing sllspiciollsly like Au pres ilia blonde
expericllced listeners agree that Mozarts String Quilltet ill ( minor K 5 J6 is a predominantly trlgic IlListlrpllCl But sOllle
people flcl that the last lIlovemellt expresses JOY bCl311se alter its adagio introductio1l the key challges to G m~or and the time
signltllrl to 6R Howcver the Mozart scholar Alfrcd Einstein
to this last movelllent as beillg ill the (iIsconsolatl major that MOlart utilizes ill so mallY ofllis last works 1 thus ill~hcatillg that i)r hilll at allY rate the change to the major key continlles the tragedy than lightllIing it
72 73
MUSIC ANI) TIlE MIN)
I k-ryck Cooke dcfllHd l11uic a~ the suprelllc expressioll of
universal emotions in all c1tirdy persollal vay by the great
composersll However it is lot a direct eV()t~1tiOll of those
llllotions vithin llllllsclf which 1l1OVCS the listener but rather the
way in which a great composer transforms universal clll()tioll~
Il1to art So mallY musiCians and critics have wrestled with the problem of
the llleaning of music that some 11lve aballdoned allY attempt Jt
lillking absolute IlllISIC with human t~c1ings The formalists or
non-refcrentialists consider that musIC IS an entirely ll1tOl1omOllS
art that works of music bave no mcamng outside themselves l1Id
that the experienn induced by hearing 1 fork of lllusic is cntirely consequence of the listeners appreciation of irs structUflt
Hanslick attempted to maintain this position Hc wrote
so many bouks Oil III uSlcal acsthctlcs all of vvhich ddined the nature of music in tefms of the eelintis It arOllses and which ascribed to music a definite expnssive capability had long excited in lIle both doubt and oppositioll rlle 1lltUre uflllllsic is cvell harder to
tix withill philosophical categories than pallltll1g since ill lllllSIC the decisive conccpts offonn alld nmtenr are illlPossible of denec and separatioll If Dill wishcs to attrihut a definite nlIltCnt to
purely instrumcntal music ill voclllllusic content derives from the poem not from the lllusic - thell OllC Illllst discard thc
of the musical art in whICh no Oil( call lkmonsrrltl a content distillct from the form nor evell deduce it On the other hand I readily agree that it is idle to speak of absolute lack of content in instrLIIllentallllusi which my opponcnts accusc Ille llfhaving (Iolll
in my treatise How is onc to distinguish cielltitically in musIc
betweell inspired ClfIll and Clllpty form I had the former in
III y opponents accused llle of th latter
By admitting the notion of inspired fl)flll versus cmpty tltmll
Hanslick is 1 think partially retreating from the ~trictly formalist position especially with his Lise oftlw vonlelllpty l(form has to
contain something what it contains must surely have gt(lIlll
signiticance Stravinsky ftllll1d himsclfin rather the saml position when in IllS
conversations with Hohert Craft he was discussing his
74
()N(S WITHOUT WUHDS
relllark Music IS powerks- to lxprcss anything at all Stravinsky
strongly objected to the notion that a picce of 11111Sic is a trl11scendcntal idea expressed in terms of l1lllsic or that tlwrt was lIIY exact correspondence hctvcll1 the composers teelings and
he set down in notes Stravinsky did adlllit that 1 composers
work is the embodimLnt of his tl~e1illgs but emphasized that for the important fact about J composition was that it was
sOl1llthing Ill heyolld what can be called the composers
feclings He said that A Ilew pilcl of music is a new reality Jnd Il1USIC expresses itself Of the composer he claimed All hl
Knows or (ares about is the apprehension of the contour of the
form for the form is evcrythlllg He can say nothing whatever ~lbollt mcanings
It IS possible to appreciatc StravinsKYs point of view without
agrccment A great deal of gushing nonsense has been written about the mcaning of music but when Stravinsky expresses his dislike orth music of Richard Strauss by calling it tre1Cly he is not rd~rring to its form but to its expression of sentiment 17
Hindelllith agrees with Stravinsky in so far as he writes
Music callnot exprcss the composers feelings Here is what he docs he knows by expericnce that certain patterns of toncshy ~
setting correspond with certain emotional reactions on the listeners pJrt Writing the patterns frcquently ll1d tinding his obscrvations confirmed in anticipatlIlg the listcners reaction he believes himself to be in till saml l1lllltal situation ~
Hindemith docs not deny that music induces clllotion 111
audicllce but he regards the composer as a skilled manipubtor who
believls that he feds what he helieves the listener feels I)
Hc continues
l COlllposer call never be absolutely sure of the elllotionaleftcct of IllS IlltlSlC on the lis teller whell Ilsing complex lllJterial but by experience ami clcver distributioll of this material morcover with
fr(quem refercnces to those lllusical progressions that cvoke the lll1COlllplicarcd fedill(-images of sadness or gaiety ill an ullJmbigushy
75
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MUSIC AND TIll MINll
clothe their insIghts ill tecilmcallangllagl If they did not I claim that mllsic wuuld not continuc to be important to thclJ1 Appnshyeiating musical form and structure is not) techllicallll1ttcr which ()tilly the traJ11ed mllsician IS equipped to IlIldert~lke It is true that describing nlUsicJI form in words requires study and that the
lu do so implies a more complete appreciation of the work involved
-thlIl that available to the ordinary listcner But an ulltrained listener who loves music docs not simply immerse himself ill a sea of
velde although some nineteenth-century music comes clost to
~rovldillg that experience He is also acutely aware of repetition ehange of key and resolution to put it at its minimulIl The
leasures of the unexpected are not confined to musical theorists
for example the listener does not have to be a trained lllUSlCiJIl to fecognize that Haydn is a master of surprise
I think we do need a new type of JanguJge to describe music Although Tovey was unrivalled In his knowledge of the mUSK of
the classical tradition his language is old-fashioned and possibly Iot technic1 enough for todays listeners wl1Q are often wellshy
i)lformed But it is manifestly aosmd to restrict the way we talk and
write about music to language which deliberately excludes any reference to what makes a musical work expressive and capable of
Iausillg arousal To do so is reminiscent ofstructuralists who write ~out the text as if literature had nothing to do with hUI1lJn
Deings either as readers or as authors The f()rmalist analysts are trying to make the appreciation
lIIusic purely cerebral whereas music is rooted in bodily rhythms Alel movement The expressive aspect of music IS difficult to
~isclsS for the reasons outlined earlier but that should not prevent
tts from making the attempt I think it IS possible to do justice to the
Views of both formalists and expressionists without distorting
either When music was still directly tied to words and to underlining
Dr accompanying public ritual there could be little argument kind I )isplltcs between formalists and expreSSIOnists only begin to
be Important with the rise of absolute music Music was bound to
tAke on a life of its OWl when it became el1lJl1cipated from other -Orms ofex pressi011 The rise of romantic music inevitably follows ~e sepHation of music from verbal and other associations Music
711
gtONCS WITHOUT WOIU lS
itsclfillcrets11~ly illcorpllLlled wahin its uwn structure the hUlIlan (lllotion1 lIle~lllillgs which had pnviously belonged to the words ur public occlslons which the musIc accolllpanied 1I1d cnhannd To IILlllltlin tJat absolute music parted compallY with
CIlI()tioIlS beCillsc It began to eXIst ill Its own right is dearly llIItlIllblc The oppoltitc would be more accurate
Music is a temporal art Its patterns exist in time alld require ~ duratioll for their dlveloDIllCIlt and completion Although painting
statel1lents lbout relationships betweell space objects and colours these relatiollshlps are static
Music more aptly represents humall emotional processes because 1 IlIl1sic like lite appears to be in constant motion The fact that v Illusical movement is more apparent than real will be discllssed Lan
It em bc argucd that programmc musIc retains rderences to the cstcrllal world 1I1d cannot thercfilrc be the self-contained isolated Ild more or less perfect structure which formahsts admire But 1
grelt deal of programmc llIllsic is sllllply lllUSIC
evellt story sOllnd or picture has bet1l the trigger Beethovens
Sisth Symphony (Op Mi in r lIllJor) is the obvious example If BeethoveIl had not headed his movements with titles which incidentally he JclJptcd ti-om the titks givln to the movements of
1lI entirely difterellt symphony by Knecht we should accept the Pastoral Symphony as a piece of absolute mllSIC without worryshying whether Bcethoven is depicting By the brook side or Merry
gathering of country folk The same consideration applies to
Mendclssohn ovcrtllre lilt Helirides It is interesting to know that Mendelssohn Jotted down the malll theme whilst in the Hebndes
(Tovey allegcs problbly inaccurately tlLIt he was actually ill
ls cave) but the PICllt stands Oil its own as a magnificent work oJorchstrallllllsic which necds 110 title As Jacques Barzun points
arc lIsed something alien has illto the pure stream of sOllnd
1~llllsky-Korsakovs popular orchestral suite SdlcJ((Iadt is OVLTtly programmatic Every hstellcr recognizes that the sinllolls (llo fl)J Iolin wlllch links the lllllVLll1ents nprlSlllts the voice of SChCItCLIZJdl herself telling the stonlS of the thousand and OI1C
nights to the Sultan But how JIlany listellers Gill rccall the tities
7lJ
MUSIC AND THE MIND
illustrates how the Narrator gradually improves his appreciation of f()rIl1 each time a piece of music lew to him is repeatllL
Theil to tht course of III y thoughts rather than of cards or draughts vith Albltrtine I would ask her to glV(~ me l
little Illusic I relllained in bcd and she would go and sit down at poundIll end of the room before the pianola between the two bookcases She chosc pieces which were either quite new or which she had pia yed to
me only once or tvice for beginning to know lI1e better she was aware that J liked to fix my thoughts only upon what was still obscure to me and to be able in the cour~e of these sUcCt~ssive
thanks to the increasing but distorting and alien of my intellect to link one with another the fragmentary and
interrupted lines of the structure which at first had almost been hiddcll ill mist She knew and I think understood the joy that my mind derived at these first hearings from this task of modellinl a
still shapeless nebula
How refreshing to read that Proust experienced joy ill appreciating structure Formalists often write about music as if understanding
all intellectual III fact the form ofa musical
can balanced of unexpected structural irregularity or decorative detail WillCl1 serves to dispel monotony and reveals the individual hand of a III aster Ifa
listener comes to knc)v a work of music well he is responding to it as a whole Form and content in music and body and suu in human
beings are equally indivisible if either arc to live
CHAPTEI V
ESCAPE FROM REALITY
Musick the grcatc~t good that mortals know And all ofhcavll we have below
JOSEIH ADDISON
A removed from Ollr aside particular periods of time for it and we often go to special places like concert halls and art galleries to find what we arc looking for In pre-literate cultures the arts are more closely integrated with ordinary life 1n Western societies the arts tend to occupy a special
of their own as if they might be a luxury rather than a vital has made it possible for the unenlightened
to argue alat musIC anti the other arts arc some kind of substitute t()f or escape from real life It is a
prof(Hlndly disagree but since some influential psychoanalysts have put f()rward notions of this kind it is worth examining their ideas if only to refute them
freud himself was an extraordinarily well-read individual with a lively apprlciatioll of literature At school where he was top of
for SIX years running he became famihar with the Latill Greek classics He learned Hebrew taught
remained Dostocvsk y not far hdlind Shakespeare and believed The Brothers Karaml1zol the greatest novel ever written freud himself was recognized as a literary stylist and was given the Goethe prtze t()r literature He was also moved by sculpture and to a
extent by paintlllg It l~ true that in the introduction to Moses
H~
MUSIC AND THE MINIl
Noise can be threattmiddotnillg to llormal people If someOllC is hypersensitive to noise and unable to filter out what is Irrelevant
from all tilt dintrent noises which cOllstantly impinge upon him he Illay be speClaIly inclincd to deal with it by tryillg to impose a new order on it make sense Ollt of it and thus turn what was into something manageable Maconic puts it sllccinct y
Ifthere is allullderlying truth in the exclamatioll this nOIse is
Illt mad there may be all equivalent truth in its comic this I1lLlsic is driving me sane The form of words suggests 1
relationship between sensory input and pcrcepnJal flSPOIISl
I ha ve noticed that there are considerable diHcrences between
inlhviduals in response to auditory input Some people cannot bear trying to conduct a conversation through background music
others apparently do not notice it or can cut it out of
perccptual field Many people seem to have their television sets switched on all day irrespective of whether any conversation IS going Oll in the samc room or not A few jmllviduals becoT1w
acutely distressed if whilst listening to a talk on the radio someone
in the room addresses them with a comment Such people complain that they cannot listen to two tlungs at once and miss the sense of
what both the broadcaster and the interrupter are saying For a
moment they are threatened with chaos Auditory discrimination depends on being able to filter out
extraneous sOllnds and identify what is significant A mother will
often respond to the cry of her own infant when no Olle else ill room has heard it I remember sitting at breakfast with KOllfJd
Lorenz who suddenly rose from the tablt saying I hear the cry of a
~oosc-baby a sOllnd which no one else had noticed Sure lllough a
gosling was in trouble and had to be rescued
Pillchas Noy suggests that the child who is hypersll1sitiw to
auditory stimuli lllay find it particularly difficult to eliminate or
I~llorc more than a few of the incoming sOllnds to which hc is
and must therefore adopt a different strltcgy
The oilly way out of thiS dilemma is til ltffort toward OrillHtilll III
and lllastery ofrhc auditory DClCCDtllal t1c1d The lntlIlt vill hIVC to
102
~5 1( API I~OM HFAIXlY
develop an lbiJity tll (UlltClltrltc his lttcl1tloll to directing alld
tWllty different silllultallcously rccurrIng sOllnd stimuli
All CXtltJIll cxampk of sllch all accomplishment is presented in
the persoll of the prominent conductor of an orchlstra wilt) has the ofsimultallelllisly lIstening to the urchcstra as Ollt
and to each of the instruments slparncly discinlllishini each
as ifhc concentrated 011 it alonl
author admits tliat this hypotheSIS lacks experimental COIlshy
firmation but it chimes well with the idea that those who are especially threatened by disorder are those most strongly motivated
to discover order We know that sufferers from schizophrenia are hypersensitive ill
that they need protection from rdatives who are intrusive
smothering or critical They fed threatened by such negative input and arc more likely to relapse than if they find themselves surrounded by tolerant acceptance In Chapter Two rderence was made to experiments with dichotic listening which demonstrated
that in normal subjects language was better perceived by the left hemisphere music by the nght Researcb suggests that 111 people suffering from mental illness both schizophrenia and the various forms uf affective disorder the functions of the two hemispheres arc not so clearly differelltiated as they an in normal people Jgt
Since specialization ofhemispheric function has developed partly to flCilitate the effiCIent processing of incol1llllg auditory infonnashytiOll whether this be speech or music it is not surprising that some
melltally ill people arc hypersensitive to such information and may threatened by It Modern theories of information processing
postulate that in the nOrl1lJl person incoming information is rapidly scanned so that stimuli willch are unwanted inappropriate or irrelevant In excluded from conscioustless Schizophrenics
sornetimes complaill of heing overwhelmed bv stimuli as If tlltering process was absent or inefficient
A number of writers haw suggested that creative people JfC
hypersensitive in metaphorically lackillg a sufficiently thick protecshytive skin to shield them from the impact of the external vorld There is a link between lllental illness and creatiVity ill that the
to think Cflatively to make new links between cOllcept~ i~
103
MUSIC AND TIlE MINI)
more oftell (Hillel III fJlllilics winch indudl a member who is
as mcnrally ill I am llot sllgglsting that all crcativl people ar mentally ill although SOnIe of the greatest have been so but onl y that ullconventional thought processes of a similar kind can be delllonstrated in both the mentally ill and the creative From
has already been noted it appeus likely that the mentally ill and the creative may share a difficulty in ckaling with sensory input ti-om the external world whether this takes the f()rm of speech lIo11-verbal sounds or el11otional pressure The mentally ill are overwhelmed by the threat ofconfusion and disorder The creative meN the challellge by creating a new order in their works lI1d thus master the threat Robert Schumanll and I--lugo Wolf are examples of cOlllposers who suffered from manic-depressive illncss_ Alshythough ultimately ddiated by the severity of their mental disshyturbances there is no doubt that their creativity was partly a product of thcir instability Rachmaninov also experienced severe
depression This condition can be so extreme that it prevents
productioll altogether but liability to depression and the threat of its
ITcurrenn can act as a spur to creativity Berlioz whell suffering tormcllting deprcsstoll and anxiety told his flther that without music he could not go on living_ 13 Tchaikovsky who also endured severe bouts ofdcpression wrote Truly there would be reason to
go mad if it WlrC not f()r 1IIIISie His biographer John Warrack thinks tbat he was stating nothing but the sober truth 24
The crcati vc process depends on both conscious and unconscious melltal fUllctions W c are still so influcnccd by Freud that malJY pcople believe that anything emanating from the ullconsciolls must
cmotionaL irrational unacceptable and probably disreputable III reality this is llot the casco Unconscious processes are just as lllllch concerned with pattern and structure as they Ife with
EvelJ more apparcllt tllan rcal
Dreams certailll y impossibilities temporal confusion ami many features unacceptable to the rational Il1md But most are stories The scanning process
goes on 111 matches reccllt events -vith Dast evellts JlId lillks
wgcther mcntal COlltCllts which shan a similar fleling but which llll y not be related in an yother Va y Thc drea m attclll pts to 11uke
10
ESCAPF FHDM ItEALrIYshy
sense out of thlS hotchpotch by trymt to impose the order of a story-Jille
As I bave argued elsewhere the human specics IS compelled to
theorize and strive to make sense of both life and the ulliverse Because human behaviour is not principally governed by the inshy
instinctive patterns of response to stimuli which direct the behaviour of animals lower In the evolutionary order human beings arc forced to become inventive They arc compelled to try to understand the world and themselves and in so domg can reach new and better ltldaptations The processes by which this is achieved arc both unconscious and conscious We cannot avoid making some attcmpt to find cohercnce ill the world and within ourselvcs but the origmal1y unconscious impulse which makes us do this is reinforced refined and given rationality by conscious reasoning
I am sure that one of the reasons why music affects us deeply is its powcr to structure our auditory explrience and thus to make sense out of it Although I have been at pains to dispel the psychoanalytic view that music is an escape from reality or a regression to an mCll1tile state there is no doubt that music provides one path of temporary withdrawal from the hurly-burly of the external world_ This is refreshing because it permits the same kind of scanning sorting and rearrangement of mental contents which takes place ill reverie or ill sleep_ There arc many others ways of achieving this from going f()- a solitary walk in the country to practising trallScendental meditation When we take part in music or listen to an absorbing perfi)fmance we arc temporarily protected from the input of other external stimuli We enter a special sedudcd world 111 which order prevails and from which the incongruous is
This in itsdf is beneficial It is not a regressive manoeuvrc hut reoder pOll I licHX slmter a temporary retreat which promotes a fe-ordering process within the mind aud thus aids OHr
to the external world rather than providing an escape
from it If music and the other arts WCTe more closely interwovell with
activities we might not Ileed this temporary rtreat so Peopit of other cultures sometimes cannot understand why
Europeans secm so tense WhenJung visited Nevv Mexico he talked with all Indian chief who
10)
lHJS[( ANI) 1111 MIN)
Sec hov crud the whitts louk Their lips arc thill thllr lOStS
their faces furrowed and distorted by t~)lds Their eyes have a stanng lXpnSSHlll thcy arc always scckillg sOlllcrhlllg Vhat arc they
The hITes alwys want sOIlltthIII g tbey arc Ilways UllCS)
and rcstless We do not kIlOV what they Vlllt We do not understand thclll W l thillk that thev arc mad
If there appears to be an escapist elemcnt 111 musical participation it is because our culture is so concerned with achievcllllllt and the pursuit of conventional success that it makcs ordinary Iik into a tense and anxious business from which thl arts arc absent Music em and should be a lifi-enhancing part ofour day-to-da y existellcc
Music plays special role m aiding the scanning lI1d sorting process which goes on whcn we are asleep or simply day-dreaming Stravinsk y rekrs to the pleasure we gain from uIlorganized natural sOLlllds which may be considerable but which lacks the further dimension provided by IllllSIC
Hut over and above this passivt l1~ioymll1t we shall dis(ovt music Illllsic tbat will make U~ partlcipate activdy in the workm1 ofa lllllld that orders gives Iit( and CleHlS 0(
Psychomalysts rdtr to this participation as proJectivc idclltificashy
tion the process by which a persoll imagines himself to be inside SCHIll object external to himself Imitatioll is not only the sincerest form of flattery but a way of learning By identifying ourselves with those more gifted we can actually improve our own capacities Tlachers of music know that do it the way I do is a more effective way oftelchlllg than theonticli instruction
Music not only brillgs order to muscubr movelllellt but also prol1lotl~ order vitbill the mind This is wby John Blacking writing ill hi~ book A COllllllollsme I itll of All Mush ullCkr the hladlllg The Power of Music i~ able to say
of the SCllCS alld the ldUCltioll of the emotions
the lrtS are lot merely dcsirabk 0P(lUls Th) In essllHiai both 1)1 blimcni action md the dlltnivl liSt of the intllkcrshy
lOt)
1(1I1 HUHl HUI1 y~
IllstLd )( rhrcltlllld all overload of
IlHIIlS or ntllSIC tn impose our will upon this 11 the irrdevalll to pav JttlllilOl til what ilt
1l1d thus to nJte or discover SOJlle order ill tht world I It with the pklsure Vl get from thl explanatory h ufscilllcl
IkclnSl 1 scielltific thcnry makes thL w)rld more comprdHl1sshy W (d kss It thl )r1ds mercy alld lllore able to control
eVlllts ()( courSl iC cannot cOlltrol lverythillg Howevlr
geology we arc still vulmrablc lS We III I y becollle auditoril y sophisticatld but 1Il
loud noise will still darm liS IluWCVLT being able to
~OJllC sense out of the world gives us confidenn Music is l llumber of diffnllH W1yS This is Oi1e winch is
)
Music cm enable brln-dallllgcd people to accomplish tasb could not master VitiJollt ih aid It elll also llIake litt people wl1() arc emotionally disturbed or melltally ilL
BeClllSl 1l111SIC is lot so obviously necessary to 1110st OrllS we tend to ulldcrcsrilllllC its significance in the lives of normal people Yct it is difficult to imagine a world without it Evell if playing music
wcre f(lrbildll1 ll1d every device ilr reproducing music destroyed
we should still hl tulles fUllning ill our heads still be using music to order OLlr actlons and lllakl structured sense Ollt of the world lrollild (I
MUI( AN) TlfE MIND
Wagners plTionality was Chlriimatic andio is his music Both arc predominalltly I )ionysiall Apollollian serellity and cOlltrol afe not wlut one looks t()f III Wagller Nor arc mallY of the
with structure form and iymmetry although Wagners use ot tllL leitmotif is characteristic I du not mean to suggest that Vagllcr did Ilot understand such things I Ie was 011e of the most
lllllsicians to have ever lived lIld could employ any device which appealed to him
form But this is not what he was aiming at
Charisl1lltic individuals such as Wagner open the doors ot our perceptions transcend Ollr limitatil)ls and reveal mysteries unshy
to liS Evel1tllaliy they oftell disappoint us because their narClSSISlll tIld self-absorption preclude engagement with them as human beings of the same order as olleself Composers who are as
as Mozart and Haydn are of course far superior to til( ordinary person but they retain their humanity and we can rclate to
them as human beings Wagner IS ill a ditTerent category His contemporary admirers treated him as a god The modern listener
and becomes a disciple or else becomes disillusioned and escapes 11ow vlll he understands the soul He rules over liS
the arts of a demagogue Nietzsches ambivalence toward Wagner is flithfull y reflected in this remark from an imaginary cot1Versatiol1 in Daybreak
Wagners music either overvvhelms or repels because his style reflects his personality The immense length of his later
illustrates his disregard for the listeller He docs not wish to communicate only to convert It necd not prevent one
recognizing and being mtellsel y moved by his lllusic but it IS
understandable that some lis tellers resent the tceling of being takell over rathcr thall charmed or
I think that people who arc repelled by Wagners music well come to appreciate its power alld bellIty if they realized more
what vvas disturbing them I believe that listeners to Wagner to allow thcmselves to be temporarily overwhelmed if
arc fully to appreciate tbl music But many people arc letting to tillS extent and consequently shy away from the intense enwtiotlallxpcnenn which Wag ncr ofkrs liS
III lDDlvimr personal consideratiolls to mUSIC I want to
120
Till ULTARY LlSTENII~ (a ~) cmphasiZl dut the music always COlllCS first I call th1s chapter Solitary Listener because I am interested ill the 1I1crcase ll purdy
appreciation of lllllsic hilth bas ukell pbCl ill reClllt years people who are imensted m music listell to music more
uft(1l than was possible bct()re the advent of modern technology bur I am lJot arguing that listenillg to music IS or ever could be a
for personal relatiollships SOllie aspects OLl composers personality inevitably manifest themselves in his lllusic but the object ofiistcllillg is to get to kllov thc music not to get to know
the composer Great IllUSlC transcends the intii vidual who created it My
purpose in comparing getting to know a piece ofmusll with getting to know a person was to point out the inadequacy of approaching Illusic emly as if it were a matbematical construction not to delly that music has an impersonal dimension
The examples of Haydn and WagnCf are deliberately chosen as extremes Although music inevitably reflects the personality of the composer to some degree Stravinsky was surely right when referred to a composition as being beyond the composers feelings Listening to music docs bring us into indirect contact with the composer but this meeting ofminds IS not closely comparable with cllcountering another human being or listening to a person speaking Elements ofboth arc present but they do not account for the most important dlccts of music upon the Iistencr
As suggested in the last chapter urban civilization cuts us from our own inner lives We have to be watchful or we shall get nm over We are assailed by many varieties o111oi5e most of which
are unpleasant We cannot escape from other people from tdephonc from having demands made upon liS We easily lose tollch with the wellsprings of creative phantasy willch make lift
the ordinary man and woman must have been
very different when it was predofHmantly rural and agncultural w hell bird-song rather than the noise machinery filled the ears when the farmer could observe the changillg seasons and enjoy tht
of the clouds and when however exhausting the
solitude allowed the exercise illlwillati)J
Many sophisticated nquirc illtdkctual concentration
md detachment which would be contamillated if aesthetic COI1shy
121
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSlc- Nll IIII MIND
stor of many other projective 11 a subiect IS lIlciuced to
same smdcllts of panlting to
ubtl their imaginations by at dal1lD-staillcd walls iCl1ly to sec
mlllllLT of
particular piecc of mllSlC IS
at the til1le llld sOllie part from tile proJcctioll of his
1 emotions sokl Y l dircct cOllseyucllCL IC
a no verbal or refcrence f()r its own sake It IS not sllrpnsll1g
care sometimcs different rcsponses to it What 1S more is the degree of consensLls In spite of the difficulties
earlier C can be t1irly confident that listeners to great IC which is fllniliar to them are usually sharing a closely eneneC ornc writers suggest that music conveys the same llIeaning to
lrellt listencrs more accuratdy than a verbal 11lessage tlut music ~SI likely to be misinterpreted or vlriously interpreted than rds The epigraph to this chapter is 111 extract from a letter by ndclssollll in which he continues
word dots not meal the S~lme tlJlng to one person as to
the tunc SIYS the sallle thillg awakens the sallle (dlllg in both
that flllinl may not be eXDnssnl III the ~lIlJe words)
list speculates along SlIl11Iar li11ls I of a Icert variolls Illembers of the
am what vcrc their words which like every hUI1lJIl and cxtcrllal word left Ille so indifferellt compucd WIth the hClvenly ohrase of
YllllSic with which I hld Just heen cOllllllulling I WlS
~ngd who bllcll fro[ll the illlbrianng bliss of PiLldisl subsides
70
I SON(S ITIIOUI W()HllS
Illto the IlllS hUllldrlllll reality AndJlIst 15 nnllll lTlatllrls m tlil
Ilst surviillg tcstllllOIlY to I tlgtrm oflifc which llltlln has
I wondered whether 1ll1lsi-1I11gilt not be the lIn](llIl ca III plv of wiLit
have bCLl1 - i( thl illll1tlOll of tlllglllgc tillt formatioll of
the anliysls of idcas had nor illtcrvcllnl - the 1l1lIIIS of
tOlllIlIUllicHIOIl betvlcll SOli Is It is like d po~sihility thlt iIl COllll to
nothing ilullJmiry has developed dollg other hillS those of lilt written hllguagc_
It is dC)f that both Proust are reflrring to music Western tLlditioll COJ11IllUIlICltioll betVTl1l
possible if share the sallle culture alld he11(( the same loud of Illllsic
Iluwlvcr 111 I differcnt context soullds without words call be accurately interprcted If two people conduct 1 conversation by hUlllming without parting their lips or using words a good deal of information GIll be conveycd stich as I am weary I alll pleased or evcll I love you The prosodic clements speech CUI
wi thollt the syllta et ie even hetweell aclul ts froll) di fferell t elll tu res because the soullds made rd1cct basic hUI1lltl1l elllotions and have Hot
elaborated into differellt varieties of IlIllsic SOl1le composcrs vc bcclJ particularly aware of the prosodic aspects of
JlIlicck systematically recorded the melodic curves of speech and he called speech melodies relllailled (emral to his Illethod of
composItion I
It Illust always be remembered thtt clllotiollal aroLlsalls partly that clllotions overlap and call change fi-Olll olle
easily Critics may agree that a p1 work of art is SIgnificant because they fInd interestcd and are likely to agree in general terms
work is tragic humorous protlUlld or superfIcial llut deLliled de~criptions oCtheir subjcctive reactions may differ COil sidshy
erably
There is a good exlInpk in BCrIlsteills Harvard knurlS Hl ukes the opening hars of Beethovens Piano SOIllta in E tbt Up 3 I
1No 3 and asks vlhether we listellers arl hea what lklthovcn supposedly felt whcn he -vrotc them Bernstcin thcn verbalizes wiut Bccthuvells IIlLlsic nLlkcs him terms of pleading
alld eqll ails VmiddotCL
71
middotMUSH NIl Till MIND ONes WITII( lUT w( lll IS
IlcISllkhC 11I1I]IOIC you rlltlo If Y lS but ] )Il cnlllIl cOllditiH)s
LTl1stcill thell IS~
But did lkthoVl1l kcl all that or lllythin[ like n I )Id IJust make lip thtse tldillgS out ufthl hlut ur In the to ome degree related to lkcthulns teelings tLlIlstt-rred to me through IllS lotes Wci1 IIlVlr know Wl cant phollc him up bur tIlt probability is that botiz arc trUl And If so Wt havc jllSt disc()end Illqur ambiguity - 1
hClUtltltllllW stllllIlnc lI11hiuitv to dd to our tIst-growing lis( t
lkrusteins proJcctions tcll llS more lbollt Bertlsteill tklll fTthovlll [f I had to put words to Becthovens phr1ses I should
UOOSl diflcrcnt olles But that is unimportant We certainly share
tllC pernptioll that the llIitial COlItTlsting phrases of this sonata are 1st ill terms ofqucstlOll and answer and recognize that
jASlS this pattcrn eiscwhlre For example Bcethoven
notatcs the opcning phrases of the tllllk of IllS last string quartet 3 III r major) by writing Muss es scin) Es muss sein Es
uss selll answer IS so J patterll in humall
we hlrdly recognize it lS snch In these two
is distillilH the essence and answer III
lWusic without words Although I disagree with some of
$chopcnilaller vritcs abollt IlILlsic I Clli appreciate his rdirclIcc to MuslC IS expresslIIg thc illner nature the ill-itsdC of every
fllclIonwnoll
[n The
ftaturcs of
tersollal l$eethovclI IS
P1l1 1IlSWLTlllg
(itlrprltatioll ill
repnscnts thc deepest essential
to know all
portLlycd [n similar Clshiol1
trolll till particular lilat lS
terms of l pkadlllg lIltlTchange between indishyVidlltS CH1SLS llIolllll1L1ry unease as he would have been the first to -lpreciltl IklthovclIs mastcrly gCllcralizJtion should not be
iltcrprcted ill tcrllls of pllnly p~rs)lld lIeeds We arc bOllnd to
brillg om prejudices Ild fcclinp with LIS whcn wc approach a 1
work hm it is the extcnt to which a work thV personII which makes it
Dcryck Cooke in Thl 4MIISi lttcmprcd to show that within the Western is ~1 COllsenSllS betwecn COl1lshyposers as to arc llscd to represellt partlnilar
of the llJljOr third COllllllOllly millllr third IS gcnerally associated with
called bv mediaeval theorists ilitlbolls llsed by co III posers to
or otl1cr Ilorrors Cookes cXl1llples of its llsC include works by Mozart Wagner Liszt Berlioz GOllnod
BUSOIll and lIlallY others I dont think th1t llIYOIlC reading
could Iil to bc convinccd that there is a good deal 111 says but there are also so many exceptiolls that his vinvs
have hcen sharply criticized Moreover Cooke cxplicitly discussion to European art lIlllsic which IS
cl1lotiollal cft(xts of music arc morL dependcllt UpOIl
contcxt less upon pmcly musical devices than Cooke allowed Eduard Hanslick the famous Austrian critic
pilloried as Beckmcsscr in Dit JHlisfcrsil1glr pointcd out lIIelody of (tucks Chc faro sellza Eundicc might be
Jolly if we did not know tlut the aria is reAecting
The French carol Quelle cst cettc odeur agr0ablc lkrgcrs qui
as a bcautifuly tClIder llldod y wllLn sung as 1 carol but the S~llnl tllne serves as 1 rumbustious drinking song Fillcvery glass in The HIIurs Opera Therl is a poillt ill Offertorio of Verdis ReqlliclII at which the te1l0r plcadlllg to
grantcd eternal litl sings sOIlllthing sllspiciollsly like Au pres ilia blonde
expericllced listeners agree that Mozarts String Quilltet ill ( minor K 5 J6 is a predominantly trlgic IlListlrpllCl But sOllle
people flcl that the last lIlovemellt expresses JOY bCl311se alter its adagio introductio1l the key challges to G m~or and the time
signltllrl to 6R Howcver the Mozart scholar Alfrcd Einstein
to this last movelllent as beillg ill the (iIsconsolatl major that MOlart utilizes ill so mallY ofllis last works 1 thus ill~hcatillg that i)r hilll at allY rate the change to the major key continlles the tragedy than lightllIing it
72 73
MUSIC ANI) TIlE MIN)
I k-ryck Cooke dcfllHd l11uic a~ the suprelllc expressioll of
universal emotions in all c1tirdy persollal vay by the great
composersll However it is lot a direct eV()t~1tiOll of those
llllotions vithin llllllsclf which 1l1OVCS the listener but rather the
way in which a great composer transforms universal clll()tioll~
Il1to art So mallY musiCians and critics have wrestled with the problem of
the llleaning of music that some 11lve aballdoned allY attempt Jt
lillking absolute IlllISIC with human t~c1ings The formalists or
non-refcrentialists consider that musIC IS an entirely ll1tOl1omOllS
art that works of music bave no mcamng outside themselves l1Id
that the experienn induced by hearing 1 fork of lllusic is cntirely consequence of the listeners appreciation of irs structUflt
Hanslick attempted to maintain this position Hc wrote
so many bouks Oil III uSlcal acsthctlcs all of vvhich ddined the nature of music in tefms of the eelintis It arOllses and which ascribed to music a definite expnssive capability had long excited in lIle both doubt and oppositioll rlle 1lltUre uflllllsic is cvell harder to
tix withill philosophical categories than pallltll1g since ill lllllSIC the decisive conccpts offonn alld nmtenr are illlPossible of denec and separatioll If Dill wishcs to attrihut a definite nlIltCnt to
purely instrumcntal music ill voclllllusic content derives from the poem not from the lllusic - thell OllC Illllst discard thc
of the musical art in whICh no Oil( call lkmonsrrltl a content distillct from the form nor evell deduce it On the other hand I readily agree that it is idle to speak of absolute lack of content in instrLIIllentallllusi which my opponcnts accusc Ille llfhaving (Iolll
in my treatise How is onc to distinguish cielltitically in musIc
betweell inspired ClfIll and Clllpty form I had the former in
III y opponents accused llle of th latter
By admitting the notion of inspired fl)flll versus cmpty tltmll
Hanslick is 1 think partially retreating from the ~trictly formalist position especially with his Lise oftlw vonlelllpty l(form has to
contain something what it contains must surely have gt(lIlll
signiticance Stravinsky ftllll1d himsclfin rather the saml position when in IllS
conversations with Hohert Craft he was discussing his
74
()N(S WITHOUT WUHDS
relllark Music IS powerks- to lxprcss anything at all Stravinsky
strongly objected to the notion that a picce of 11111Sic is a trl11scendcntal idea expressed in terms of l1lllsic or that tlwrt was lIIY exact correspondence hctvcll1 the composers teelings and
he set down in notes Stravinsky did adlllit that 1 composers
work is the embodimLnt of his tl~e1illgs but emphasized that for the important fact about J composition was that it was
sOl1llthing Ill heyolld what can be called the composers
feclings He said that A Ilew pilcl of music is a new reality Jnd Il1USIC expresses itself Of the composer he claimed All hl
Knows or (ares about is the apprehension of the contour of the
form for the form is evcrythlllg He can say nothing whatever ~lbollt mcanings
It IS possible to appreciatc StravinsKYs point of view without
agrccment A great deal of gushing nonsense has been written about the mcaning of music but when Stravinsky expresses his dislike orth music of Richard Strauss by calling it tre1Cly he is not rd~rring to its form but to its expression of sentiment 17
Hindelllith agrees with Stravinsky in so far as he writes
Music callnot exprcss the composers feelings Here is what he docs he knows by expericnce that certain patterns of toncshy ~
setting correspond with certain emotional reactions on the listeners pJrt Writing the patterns frcquently ll1d tinding his obscrvations confirmed in anticipatlIlg the listcners reaction he believes himself to be in till saml l1lllltal situation ~
Hindemith docs not deny that music induces clllotion 111
audicllce but he regards the composer as a skilled manipubtor who
believls that he feds what he helieves the listener feels I)
Hc continues
l COlllposer call never be absolutely sure of the elllotionaleftcct of IllS IlltlSlC on the lis teller whell Ilsing complex lllJterial but by experience ami clcver distributioll of this material morcover with
fr(quem refercnces to those lllusical progressions that cvoke the lll1COlllplicarcd fedill(-images of sadness or gaiety ill an ullJmbigushy
75
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MUSIC AND TIll MINll
clothe their insIghts ill tecilmcallangllagl If they did not I claim that mllsic wuuld not continuc to be important to thclJ1 Appnshyeiating musical form and structure is not) techllicallll1ttcr which ()tilly the traJ11ed mllsician IS equipped to IlIldert~lke It is true that describing nlUsicJI form in words requires study and that the
lu do so implies a more complete appreciation of the work involved
-thlIl that available to the ordinary listcner But an ulltrained listener who loves music docs not simply immerse himself ill a sea of
velde although some nineteenth-century music comes clost to
~rovldillg that experience He is also acutely aware of repetition ehange of key and resolution to put it at its minimulIl The
leasures of the unexpected are not confined to musical theorists
for example the listener does not have to be a trained lllUSlCiJIl to fecognize that Haydn is a master of surprise
I think we do need a new type of JanguJge to describe music Although Tovey was unrivalled In his knowledge of the mUSK of
the classical tradition his language is old-fashioned and possibly Iot technic1 enough for todays listeners wl1Q are often wellshy
i)lformed But it is manifestly aosmd to restrict the way we talk and
write about music to language which deliberately excludes any reference to what makes a musical work expressive and capable of
Iausillg arousal To do so is reminiscent ofstructuralists who write ~out the text as if literature had nothing to do with hUI1lJn
Deings either as readers or as authors The f()rmalist analysts are trying to make the appreciation
lIIusic purely cerebral whereas music is rooted in bodily rhythms Alel movement The expressive aspect of music IS difficult to
~isclsS for the reasons outlined earlier but that should not prevent
tts from making the attempt I think it IS possible to do justice to the
Views of both formalists and expressionists without distorting
either When music was still directly tied to words and to underlining
Dr accompanying public ritual there could be little argument kind I )isplltcs between formalists and expreSSIOnists only begin to
be Important with the rise of absolute music Music was bound to
tAke on a life of its OWl when it became el1lJl1cipated from other -Orms ofex pressi011 The rise of romantic music inevitably follows ~e sepHation of music from verbal and other associations Music
711
gtONCS WITHOUT WOIU lS
itsclfillcrets11~ly illcorpllLlled wahin its uwn structure the hUlIlan (lllotion1 lIle~lllillgs which had pnviously belonged to the words ur public occlslons which the musIc accolllpanied 1I1d cnhannd To IILlllltlin tJat absolute music parted compallY with
CIlI()tioIlS beCillsc It began to eXIst ill Its own right is dearly llIItlIllblc The oppoltitc would be more accurate
Music is a temporal art Its patterns exist in time alld require ~ duratioll for their dlveloDIllCIlt and completion Although painting
statel1lents lbout relationships betweell space objects and colours these relatiollshlps are static
Music more aptly represents humall emotional processes because 1 IlIl1sic like lite appears to be in constant motion The fact that v Illusical movement is more apparent than real will be discllssed Lan
It em bc argucd that programmc musIc retains rderences to the cstcrllal world 1I1d cannot thercfilrc be the self-contained isolated Ild more or less perfect structure which formahsts admire But 1
grelt deal of programmc llIllsic is sllllply lllUSIC
evellt story sOllnd or picture has bet1l the trigger Beethovens
Sisth Symphony (Op Mi in r lIllJor) is the obvious example If BeethoveIl had not headed his movements with titles which incidentally he JclJptcd ti-om the titks givln to the movements of
1lI entirely difterellt symphony by Knecht we should accept the Pastoral Symphony as a piece of absolute mllSIC without worryshying whether Bcethoven is depicting By the brook side or Merry
gathering of country folk The same consideration applies to
Mendclssohn ovcrtllre lilt Helirides It is interesting to know that Mendelssohn Jotted down the malll theme whilst in the Hebndes
(Tovey allegcs problbly inaccurately tlLIt he was actually ill
ls cave) but the PICllt stands Oil its own as a magnificent work oJorchstrallllllsic which necds 110 title As Jacques Barzun points
arc lIsed something alien has illto the pure stream of sOllnd
1~llllsky-Korsakovs popular orchestral suite SdlcJ((Iadt is OVLTtly programmatic Every hstellcr recognizes that the sinllolls (llo fl)J Iolin wlllch links the lllllVLll1ents nprlSlllts the voice of SChCItCLIZJdl herself telling the stonlS of the thousand and OI1C
nights to the Sultan But how JIlany listellers Gill rccall the tities
7lJ
MUSIC AND THE MIND
illustrates how the Narrator gradually improves his appreciation of f()rIl1 each time a piece of music lew to him is repeatllL
Theil to tht course of III y thoughts rather than of cards or draughts vith Albltrtine I would ask her to glV(~ me l
little Illusic I relllained in bcd and she would go and sit down at poundIll end of the room before the pianola between the two bookcases She chosc pieces which were either quite new or which she had pia yed to
me only once or tvice for beginning to know lI1e better she was aware that J liked to fix my thoughts only upon what was still obscure to me and to be able in the cour~e of these sUcCt~ssive
thanks to the increasing but distorting and alien of my intellect to link one with another the fragmentary and
interrupted lines of the structure which at first had almost been hiddcll ill mist She knew and I think understood the joy that my mind derived at these first hearings from this task of modellinl a
still shapeless nebula
How refreshing to read that Proust experienced joy ill appreciating structure Formalists often write about music as if understanding
all intellectual III fact the form ofa musical
can balanced of unexpected structural irregularity or decorative detail WillCl1 serves to dispel monotony and reveals the individual hand of a III aster Ifa
listener comes to knc)v a work of music well he is responding to it as a whole Form and content in music and body and suu in human
beings are equally indivisible if either arc to live
CHAPTEI V
ESCAPE FROM REALITY
Musick the grcatc~t good that mortals know And all ofhcavll we have below
JOSEIH ADDISON
A removed from Ollr aside particular periods of time for it and we often go to special places like concert halls and art galleries to find what we arc looking for In pre-literate cultures the arts are more closely integrated with ordinary life 1n Western societies the arts tend to occupy a special
of their own as if they might be a luxury rather than a vital has made it possible for the unenlightened
to argue alat musIC anti the other arts arc some kind of substitute t()f or escape from real life It is a
prof(Hlndly disagree but since some influential psychoanalysts have put f()rward notions of this kind it is worth examining their ideas if only to refute them
freud himself was an extraordinarily well-read individual with a lively apprlciatioll of literature At school where he was top of
for SIX years running he became famihar with the Latill Greek classics He learned Hebrew taught
remained Dostocvsk y not far hdlind Shakespeare and believed The Brothers Karaml1zol the greatest novel ever written freud himself was recognized as a literary stylist and was given the Goethe prtze t()r literature He was also moved by sculpture and to a
extent by paintlllg It l~ true that in the introduction to Moses
H~
MUSIC AND THE MINIl
Noise can be threattmiddotnillg to llormal people If someOllC is hypersensitive to noise and unable to filter out what is Irrelevant
from all tilt dintrent noises which cOllstantly impinge upon him he Illay be speClaIly inclincd to deal with it by tryillg to impose a new order on it make sense Ollt of it and thus turn what was into something manageable Maconic puts it sllccinct y
Ifthere is allullderlying truth in the exclamatioll this nOIse is
Illt mad there may be all equivalent truth in its comic this I1lLlsic is driving me sane The form of words suggests 1
relationship between sensory input and pcrcepnJal flSPOIISl
I ha ve noticed that there are considerable diHcrences between
inlhviduals in response to auditory input Some people cannot bear trying to conduct a conversation through background music
others apparently do not notice it or can cut it out of
perccptual field Many people seem to have their television sets switched on all day irrespective of whether any conversation IS going Oll in the samc room or not A few jmllviduals becoT1w
acutely distressed if whilst listening to a talk on the radio someone
in the room addresses them with a comment Such people complain that they cannot listen to two tlungs at once and miss the sense of
what both the broadcaster and the interrupter are saying For a
moment they are threatened with chaos Auditory discrimination depends on being able to filter out
extraneous sOllnds and identify what is significant A mother will
often respond to the cry of her own infant when no Olle else ill room has heard it I remember sitting at breakfast with KOllfJd
Lorenz who suddenly rose from the tablt saying I hear the cry of a
~oosc-baby a sOllnd which no one else had noticed Sure lllough a
gosling was in trouble and had to be rescued
Pillchas Noy suggests that the child who is hypersll1sitiw to
auditory stimuli lllay find it particularly difficult to eliminate or
I~llorc more than a few of the incoming sOllnds to which hc is
and must therefore adopt a different strltcgy
The oilly way out of thiS dilemma is til ltffort toward OrillHtilll III
and lllastery ofrhc auditory DClCCDtllal t1c1d The lntlIlt vill hIVC to
102
~5 1( API I~OM HFAIXlY
develop an lbiJity tll (UlltClltrltc his lttcl1tloll to directing alld
tWllty different silllultallcously rccurrIng sOllnd stimuli
All CXtltJIll cxampk of sllch all accomplishment is presented in
the persoll of the prominent conductor of an orchlstra wilt) has the ofsimultallelllisly lIstening to the urchcstra as Ollt
and to each of the instruments slparncly discinlllishini each
as ifhc concentrated 011 it alonl
author admits tliat this hypotheSIS lacks experimental COIlshy
firmation but it chimes well with the idea that those who are especially threatened by disorder are those most strongly motivated
to discover order We know that sufferers from schizophrenia are hypersensitive ill
that they need protection from rdatives who are intrusive
smothering or critical They fed threatened by such negative input and arc more likely to relapse than if they find themselves surrounded by tolerant acceptance In Chapter Two rderence was made to experiments with dichotic listening which demonstrated
that in normal subjects language was better perceived by the left hemisphere music by the nght Researcb suggests that 111 people suffering from mental illness both schizophrenia and the various forms uf affective disorder the functions of the two hemispheres arc not so clearly differelltiated as they an in normal people Jgt
Since specialization ofhemispheric function has developed partly to flCilitate the effiCIent processing of incol1llllg auditory infonnashytiOll whether this be speech or music it is not surprising that some
melltally ill people arc hypersensitive to such information and may threatened by It Modern theories of information processing
postulate that in the nOrl1lJl person incoming information is rapidly scanned so that stimuli willch are unwanted inappropriate or irrelevant In excluded from conscioustless Schizophrenics
sornetimes complaill of heing overwhelmed bv stimuli as If tlltering process was absent or inefficient
A number of writers haw suggested that creative people JfC
hypersensitive in metaphorically lackillg a sufficiently thick protecshytive skin to shield them from the impact of the external vorld There is a link between lllental illness and creatiVity ill that the
to think Cflatively to make new links between cOllcept~ i~
103
MUSIC AND TIlE MINI)
more oftell (Hillel III fJlllilics winch indudl a member who is
as mcnrally ill I am llot sllgglsting that all crcativl people ar mentally ill although SOnIe of the greatest have been so but onl y that ullconventional thought processes of a similar kind can be delllonstrated in both the mentally ill and the creative From
has already been noted it appeus likely that the mentally ill and the creative may share a difficulty in ckaling with sensory input ti-om the external world whether this takes the f()rm of speech lIo11-verbal sounds or el11otional pressure The mentally ill are overwhelmed by the threat ofconfusion and disorder The creative meN the challellge by creating a new order in their works lI1d thus master the threat Robert Schumanll and I--lugo Wolf are examples of cOlllposers who suffered from manic-depressive illncss_ Alshythough ultimately ddiated by the severity of their mental disshyturbances there is no doubt that their creativity was partly a product of thcir instability Rachmaninov also experienced severe
depression This condition can be so extreme that it prevents
productioll altogether but liability to depression and the threat of its
ITcurrenn can act as a spur to creativity Berlioz whell suffering tormcllting deprcsstoll and anxiety told his flther that without music he could not go on living_ 13 Tchaikovsky who also endured severe bouts ofdcpression wrote Truly there would be reason to
go mad if it WlrC not f()r 1IIIISie His biographer John Warrack thinks tbat he was stating nothing but the sober truth 24
The crcati vc process depends on both conscious and unconscious melltal fUllctions W c are still so influcnccd by Freud that malJY pcople believe that anything emanating from the ullconsciolls must
cmotionaL irrational unacceptable and probably disreputable III reality this is llot the casco Unconscious processes are just as lllllch concerned with pattern and structure as they Ife with
EvelJ more apparcllt tllan rcal
Dreams certailll y impossibilities temporal confusion ami many features unacceptable to the rational Il1md But most are stories The scanning process
goes on 111 matches reccllt events -vith Dast evellts JlId lillks
wgcther mcntal COlltCllts which shan a similar fleling but which llll y not be related in an yother Va y Thc drea m attclll pts to 11uke
10
ESCAPF FHDM ItEALrIYshy
sense out of thlS hotchpotch by trymt to impose the order of a story-Jille
As I bave argued elsewhere the human specics IS compelled to
theorize and strive to make sense of both life and the ulliverse Because human behaviour is not principally governed by the inshy
instinctive patterns of response to stimuli which direct the behaviour of animals lower In the evolutionary order human beings arc forced to become inventive They arc compelled to try to understand the world and themselves and in so domg can reach new and better ltldaptations The processes by which this is achieved arc both unconscious and conscious We cannot avoid making some attcmpt to find cohercnce ill the world and within ourselvcs but the origmal1y unconscious impulse which makes us do this is reinforced refined and given rationality by conscious reasoning
I am sure that one of the reasons why music affects us deeply is its powcr to structure our auditory explrience and thus to make sense out of it Although I have been at pains to dispel the psychoanalytic view that music is an escape from reality or a regression to an mCll1tile state there is no doubt that music provides one path of temporary withdrawal from the hurly-burly of the external world_ This is refreshing because it permits the same kind of scanning sorting and rearrangement of mental contents which takes place ill reverie or ill sleep_ There arc many others ways of achieving this from going f()- a solitary walk in the country to practising trallScendental meditation When we take part in music or listen to an absorbing perfi)fmance we arc temporarily protected from the input of other external stimuli We enter a special sedudcd world 111 which order prevails and from which the incongruous is
This in itsdf is beneficial It is not a regressive manoeuvrc hut reoder pOll I licHX slmter a temporary retreat which promotes a fe-ordering process within the mind aud thus aids OHr
to the external world rather than providing an escape
from it If music and the other arts WCTe more closely interwovell with
activities we might not Ileed this temporary rtreat so Peopit of other cultures sometimes cannot understand why
Europeans secm so tense WhenJung visited Nevv Mexico he talked with all Indian chief who
10)
lHJS[( ANI) 1111 MIN)
Sec hov crud the whitts louk Their lips arc thill thllr lOStS
their faces furrowed and distorted by t~)lds Their eyes have a stanng lXpnSSHlll thcy arc always scckillg sOlllcrhlllg Vhat arc they
The hITes alwys want sOIlltthIII g tbey arc Ilways UllCS)
and rcstless We do not kIlOV what they Vlllt We do not understand thclll W l thillk that thev arc mad
If there appears to be an escapist elemcnt 111 musical participation it is because our culture is so concerned with achievcllllllt and the pursuit of conventional success that it makcs ordinary Iik into a tense and anxious business from which thl arts arc absent Music em and should be a lifi-enhancing part ofour day-to-da y existellcc
Music plays special role m aiding the scanning lI1d sorting process which goes on whcn we are asleep or simply day-dreaming Stravinsk y rekrs to the pleasure we gain from uIlorganized natural sOLlllds which may be considerable but which lacks the further dimension provided by IllllSIC
Hut over and above this passivt l1~ioymll1t we shall dis(ovt music Illllsic tbat will make U~ partlcipate activdy in the workm1 ofa lllllld that orders gives Iit( and CleHlS 0(
Psychomalysts rdtr to this participation as proJectivc idclltificashy
tion the process by which a persoll imagines himself to be inside SCHIll object external to himself Imitatioll is not only the sincerest form of flattery but a way of learning By identifying ourselves with those more gifted we can actually improve our own capacities Tlachers of music know that do it the way I do is a more effective way oftelchlllg than theonticli instruction
Music not only brillgs order to muscubr movelllellt but also prol1lotl~ order vitbill the mind This is wby John Blacking writing ill hi~ book A COllllllollsme I itll of All Mush ullCkr the hladlllg The Power of Music i~ able to say
of the SCllCS alld the ldUCltioll of the emotions
the lrtS are lot merely dcsirabk 0P(lUls Th) In essllHiai both 1)1 blimcni action md the dlltnivl liSt of the intllkcrshy
lOt)
1(1I1 HUHl HUI1 y~
IllstLd )( rhrcltlllld all overload of
IlHIIlS or ntllSIC tn impose our will upon this 11 the irrdevalll to pav JttlllilOl til what ilt
1l1d thus to nJte or discover SOJlle order ill tht world I It with the pklsure Vl get from thl explanatory h ufscilllcl
IkclnSl 1 scielltific thcnry makes thL w)rld more comprdHl1sshy W (d kss It thl )r1ds mercy alld lllore able to control
eVlllts ()( courSl iC cannot cOlltrol lverythillg Howevlr
geology we arc still vulmrablc lS We III I y becollle auditoril y sophisticatld but 1Il
loud noise will still darm liS IluWCVLT being able to
~OJllC sense out of the world gives us confidenn Music is l llumber of diffnllH W1yS This is Oi1e winch is
)
Music cm enable brln-dallllgcd people to accomplish tasb could not master VitiJollt ih aid It elll also llIake litt people wl1() arc emotionally disturbed or melltally ilL
BeClllSl 1l111SIC is lot so obviously necessary to 1110st OrllS we tend to ulldcrcsrilllllC its significance in the lives of normal people Yct it is difficult to imagine a world without it Evell if playing music
wcre f(lrbildll1 ll1d every device ilr reproducing music destroyed
we should still hl tulles fUllning ill our heads still be using music to order OLlr actlons and lllakl structured sense Ollt of the world lrollild (I
MUI( AN) TlfE MIND
Wagners plTionality was Chlriimatic andio is his music Both arc predominalltly I )ionysiall Apollollian serellity and cOlltrol afe not wlut one looks t()f III Wagller Nor arc mallY of the
with structure form and iymmetry although Wagners use ot tllL leitmotif is characteristic I du not mean to suggest that Vagllcr did Ilot understand such things I Ie was 011e of the most
lllllsicians to have ever lived lIld could employ any device which appealed to him
form But this is not what he was aiming at
Charisl1lltic individuals such as Wagner open the doors ot our perceptions transcend Ollr limitatil)ls and reveal mysteries unshy
to liS Evel1tllaliy they oftell disappoint us because their narClSSISlll tIld self-absorption preclude engagement with them as human beings of the same order as olleself Composers who are as
as Mozart and Haydn are of course far superior to til( ordinary person but they retain their humanity and we can rclate to
them as human beings Wagner IS ill a ditTerent category His contemporary admirers treated him as a god The modern listener
and becomes a disciple or else becomes disillusioned and escapes 11ow vlll he understands the soul He rules over liS
the arts of a demagogue Nietzsches ambivalence toward Wagner is flithfull y reflected in this remark from an imaginary cot1Versatiol1 in Daybreak
Wagners music either overvvhelms or repels because his style reflects his personality The immense length of his later
illustrates his disregard for the listeller He docs not wish to communicate only to convert It necd not prevent one
recognizing and being mtellsel y moved by his lllusic but it IS
understandable that some lis tellers resent the tceling of being takell over rathcr thall charmed or
I think that people who arc repelled by Wagners music well come to appreciate its power alld bellIty if they realized more
what vvas disturbing them I believe that listeners to Wagner to allow thcmselves to be temporarily overwhelmed if
arc fully to appreciate tbl music But many people arc letting to tillS extent and consequently shy away from the intense enwtiotlallxpcnenn which Wag ncr ofkrs liS
III lDDlvimr personal consideratiolls to mUSIC I want to
120
Till ULTARY LlSTENII~ (a ~) cmphasiZl dut the music always COlllCS first I call th1s chapter Solitary Listener because I am interested ill the 1I1crcase ll purdy
appreciation of lllllsic hilth bas ukell pbCl ill reClllt years people who are imensted m music listell to music more
uft(1l than was possible bct()re the advent of modern technology bur I am lJot arguing that listenillg to music IS or ever could be a
for personal relatiollships SOllie aspects OLl composers personality inevitably manifest themselves in his lllusic but the object ofiistcllillg is to get to kllov thc music not to get to know
the composer Great IllUSlC transcends the intii vidual who created it My
purpose in comparing getting to know a piece ofmusll with getting to know a person was to point out the inadequacy of approaching Illusic emly as if it were a matbematical construction not to delly that music has an impersonal dimension
The examples of Haydn and WagnCf are deliberately chosen as extremes Although music inevitably reflects the personality of the composer to some degree Stravinsky was surely right when referred to a composition as being beyond the composers feelings Listening to music docs bring us into indirect contact with the composer but this meeting ofminds IS not closely comparable with cllcountering another human being or listening to a person speaking Elements ofboth arc present but they do not account for the most important dlccts of music upon the Iistencr
As suggested in the last chapter urban civilization cuts us from our own inner lives We have to be watchful or we shall get nm over We are assailed by many varieties o111oi5e most of which
are unpleasant We cannot escape from other people from tdephonc from having demands made upon liS We easily lose tollch with the wellsprings of creative phantasy willch make lift
the ordinary man and woman must have been
very different when it was predofHmantly rural and agncultural w hell bird-song rather than the noise machinery filled the ears when the farmer could observe the changillg seasons and enjoy tht
of the clouds and when however exhausting the
solitude allowed the exercise illlwillati)J
Many sophisticated nquirc illtdkctual concentration
md detachment which would be contamillated if aesthetic COI1shy
121
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
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teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
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nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
middotMUSH NIl Till MIND ONes WITII( lUT w( lll IS
IlcISllkhC 11I1I]IOIC you rlltlo If Y lS but ] )Il cnlllIl cOllditiH)s
LTl1stcill thell IS~
But did lkthoVl1l kcl all that or lllythin[ like n I )Id IJust make lip thtse tldillgS out ufthl hlut ur In the to ome degree related to lkcthulns teelings tLlIlstt-rred to me through IllS lotes Wci1 IIlVlr know Wl cant phollc him up bur tIlt probability is that botiz arc trUl And If so Wt havc jllSt disc()end Illqur ambiguity - 1
hClUtltltllllW stllllIlnc lI11hiuitv to dd to our tIst-growing lis( t
lkrusteins proJcctions tcll llS more lbollt Bertlsteill tklll fTthovlll [f I had to put words to Becthovens phr1ses I should
UOOSl diflcrcnt olles But that is unimportant We certainly share
tllC pernptioll that the llIitial COlItTlsting phrases of this sonata are 1st ill terms ofqucstlOll and answer and recognize that
jASlS this pattcrn eiscwhlre For example Bcethoven
notatcs the opcning phrases of the tllllk of IllS last string quartet 3 III r major) by writing Muss es scin) Es muss sein Es
uss selll answer IS so J patterll in humall
we hlrdly recognize it lS snch In these two
is distillilH the essence and answer III
lWusic without words Although I disagree with some of
$chopcnilaller vritcs abollt IlILlsic I Clli appreciate his rdirclIcc to MuslC IS expresslIIg thc illner nature the ill-itsdC of every
fllclIonwnoll
[n The
ftaturcs of
tersollal l$eethovclI IS
P1l1 1IlSWLTlllg
(itlrprltatioll ill
repnscnts thc deepest essential
to know all
portLlycd [n similar Clshiol1
trolll till particular lilat lS
terms of l pkadlllg lIltlTchange between indishyVidlltS CH1SLS llIolllll1L1ry unease as he would have been the first to -lpreciltl IklthovclIs mastcrly gCllcralizJtion should not be
iltcrprcted ill tcrllls of pllnly p~rs)lld lIeeds We arc bOllnd to
brillg om prejudices Ild fcclinp with LIS whcn wc approach a 1
work hm it is the extcnt to which a work thV personII which makes it
Dcryck Cooke in Thl 4MIISi lttcmprcd to show that within the Western is ~1 COllsenSllS betwecn COl1lshyposers as to arc llscd to represellt partlnilar
of the llJljOr third COllllllOllly millllr third IS gcnerally associated with
called bv mediaeval theorists ilitlbolls llsed by co III posers to
or otl1cr Ilorrors Cookes cXl1llples of its llsC include works by Mozart Wagner Liszt Berlioz GOllnod
BUSOIll and lIlallY others I dont think th1t llIYOIlC reading
could Iil to bc convinccd that there is a good deal 111 says but there are also so many exceptiolls that his vinvs
have hcen sharply criticized Moreover Cooke cxplicitly discussion to European art lIlllsic which IS
cl1lotiollal cft(xts of music arc morL dependcllt UpOIl
contcxt less upon pmcly musical devices than Cooke allowed Eduard Hanslick the famous Austrian critic
pilloried as Beckmcsscr in Dit JHlisfcrsil1glr pointcd out lIIelody of (tucks Chc faro sellza Eundicc might be
Jolly if we did not know tlut the aria is reAecting
The French carol Quelle cst cettc odeur agr0ablc lkrgcrs qui
as a bcautifuly tClIder llldod y wllLn sung as 1 carol but the S~llnl tllne serves as 1 rumbustious drinking song Fillcvery glass in The HIIurs Opera Therl is a poillt ill Offertorio of Verdis ReqlliclII at which the te1l0r plcadlllg to
grantcd eternal litl sings sOIlllthing sllspiciollsly like Au pres ilia blonde
expericllced listeners agree that Mozarts String Quilltet ill ( minor K 5 J6 is a predominantly trlgic IlListlrpllCl But sOllle
people flcl that the last lIlovemellt expresses JOY bCl311se alter its adagio introductio1l the key challges to G m~or and the time
signltllrl to 6R Howcver the Mozart scholar Alfrcd Einstein
to this last movelllent as beillg ill the (iIsconsolatl major that MOlart utilizes ill so mallY ofllis last works 1 thus ill~hcatillg that i)r hilll at allY rate the change to the major key continlles the tragedy than lightllIing it
72 73
MUSIC ANI) TIlE MIN)
I k-ryck Cooke dcfllHd l11uic a~ the suprelllc expressioll of
universal emotions in all c1tirdy persollal vay by the great
composersll However it is lot a direct eV()t~1tiOll of those
llllotions vithin llllllsclf which 1l1OVCS the listener but rather the
way in which a great composer transforms universal clll()tioll~
Il1to art So mallY musiCians and critics have wrestled with the problem of
the llleaning of music that some 11lve aballdoned allY attempt Jt
lillking absolute IlllISIC with human t~c1ings The formalists or
non-refcrentialists consider that musIC IS an entirely ll1tOl1omOllS
art that works of music bave no mcamng outside themselves l1Id
that the experienn induced by hearing 1 fork of lllusic is cntirely consequence of the listeners appreciation of irs structUflt
Hanslick attempted to maintain this position Hc wrote
so many bouks Oil III uSlcal acsthctlcs all of vvhich ddined the nature of music in tefms of the eelintis It arOllses and which ascribed to music a definite expnssive capability had long excited in lIle both doubt and oppositioll rlle 1lltUre uflllllsic is cvell harder to
tix withill philosophical categories than pallltll1g since ill lllllSIC the decisive conccpts offonn alld nmtenr are illlPossible of denec and separatioll If Dill wishcs to attrihut a definite nlIltCnt to
purely instrumcntal music ill voclllllusic content derives from the poem not from the lllusic - thell OllC Illllst discard thc
of the musical art in whICh no Oil( call lkmonsrrltl a content distillct from the form nor evell deduce it On the other hand I readily agree that it is idle to speak of absolute lack of content in instrLIIllentallllusi which my opponcnts accusc Ille llfhaving (Iolll
in my treatise How is onc to distinguish cielltitically in musIc
betweell inspired ClfIll and Clllpty form I had the former in
III y opponents accused llle of th latter
By admitting the notion of inspired fl)flll versus cmpty tltmll
Hanslick is 1 think partially retreating from the ~trictly formalist position especially with his Lise oftlw vonlelllpty l(form has to
contain something what it contains must surely have gt(lIlll
signiticance Stravinsky ftllll1d himsclfin rather the saml position when in IllS
conversations with Hohert Craft he was discussing his
74
()N(S WITHOUT WUHDS
relllark Music IS powerks- to lxprcss anything at all Stravinsky
strongly objected to the notion that a picce of 11111Sic is a trl11scendcntal idea expressed in terms of l1lllsic or that tlwrt was lIIY exact correspondence hctvcll1 the composers teelings and
he set down in notes Stravinsky did adlllit that 1 composers
work is the embodimLnt of his tl~e1illgs but emphasized that for the important fact about J composition was that it was
sOl1llthing Ill heyolld what can be called the composers
feclings He said that A Ilew pilcl of music is a new reality Jnd Il1USIC expresses itself Of the composer he claimed All hl
Knows or (ares about is the apprehension of the contour of the
form for the form is evcrythlllg He can say nothing whatever ~lbollt mcanings
It IS possible to appreciatc StravinsKYs point of view without
agrccment A great deal of gushing nonsense has been written about the mcaning of music but when Stravinsky expresses his dislike orth music of Richard Strauss by calling it tre1Cly he is not rd~rring to its form but to its expression of sentiment 17
Hindelllith agrees with Stravinsky in so far as he writes
Music callnot exprcss the composers feelings Here is what he docs he knows by expericnce that certain patterns of toncshy ~
setting correspond with certain emotional reactions on the listeners pJrt Writing the patterns frcquently ll1d tinding his obscrvations confirmed in anticipatlIlg the listcners reaction he believes himself to be in till saml l1lllltal situation ~
Hindemith docs not deny that music induces clllotion 111
audicllce but he regards the composer as a skilled manipubtor who
believls that he feds what he helieves the listener feels I)
Hc continues
l COlllposer call never be absolutely sure of the elllotionaleftcct of IllS IlltlSlC on the lis teller whell Ilsing complex lllJterial but by experience ami clcver distributioll of this material morcover with
fr(quem refercnces to those lllusical progressions that cvoke the lll1COlllplicarcd fedill(-images of sadness or gaiety ill an ullJmbigushy
75
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MUSIC AND TIll MINll
clothe their insIghts ill tecilmcallangllagl If they did not I claim that mllsic wuuld not continuc to be important to thclJ1 Appnshyeiating musical form and structure is not) techllicallll1ttcr which ()tilly the traJ11ed mllsician IS equipped to IlIldert~lke It is true that describing nlUsicJI form in words requires study and that the
lu do so implies a more complete appreciation of the work involved
-thlIl that available to the ordinary listcner But an ulltrained listener who loves music docs not simply immerse himself ill a sea of
velde although some nineteenth-century music comes clost to
~rovldillg that experience He is also acutely aware of repetition ehange of key and resolution to put it at its minimulIl The
leasures of the unexpected are not confined to musical theorists
for example the listener does not have to be a trained lllUSlCiJIl to fecognize that Haydn is a master of surprise
I think we do need a new type of JanguJge to describe music Although Tovey was unrivalled In his knowledge of the mUSK of
the classical tradition his language is old-fashioned and possibly Iot technic1 enough for todays listeners wl1Q are often wellshy
i)lformed But it is manifestly aosmd to restrict the way we talk and
write about music to language which deliberately excludes any reference to what makes a musical work expressive and capable of
Iausillg arousal To do so is reminiscent ofstructuralists who write ~out the text as if literature had nothing to do with hUI1lJn
Deings either as readers or as authors The f()rmalist analysts are trying to make the appreciation
lIIusic purely cerebral whereas music is rooted in bodily rhythms Alel movement The expressive aspect of music IS difficult to
~isclsS for the reasons outlined earlier but that should not prevent
tts from making the attempt I think it IS possible to do justice to the
Views of both formalists and expressionists without distorting
either When music was still directly tied to words and to underlining
Dr accompanying public ritual there could be little argument kind I )isplltcs between formalists and expreSSIOnists only begin to
be Important with the rise of absolute music Music was bound to
tAke on a life of its OWl when it became el1lJl1cipated from other -Orms ofex pressi011 The rise of romantic music inevitably follows ~e sepHation of music from verbal and other associations Music
711
gtONCS WITHOUT WOIU lS
itsclfillcrets11~ly illcorpllLlled wahin its uwn structure the hUlIlan (lllotion1 lIle~lllillgs which had pnviously belonged to the words ur public occlslons which the musIc accolllpanied 1I1d cnhannd To IILlllltlin tJat absolute music parted compallY with
CIlI()tioIlS beCillsc It began to eXIst ill Its own right is dearly llIItlIllblc The oppoltitc would be more accurate
Music is a temporal art Its patterns exist in time alld require ~ duratioll for their dlveloDIllCIlt and completion Although painting
statel1lents lbout relationships betweell space objects and colours these relatiollshlps are static
Music more aptly represents humall emotional processes because 1 IlIl1sic like lite appears to be in constant motion The fact that v Illusical movement is more apparent than real will be discllssed Lan
It em bc argucd that programmc musIc retains rderences to the cstcrllal world 1I1d cannot thercfilrc be the self-contained isolated Ild more or less perfect structure which formahsts admire But 1
grelt deal of programmc llIllsic is sllllply lllUSIC
evellt story sOllnd or picture has bet1l the trigger Beethovens
Sisth Symphony (Op Mi in r lIllJor) is the obvious example If BeethoveIl had not headed his movements with titles which incidentally he JclJptcd ti-om the titks givln to the movements of
1lI entirely difterellt symphony by Knecht we should accept the Pastoral Symphony as a piece of absolute mllSIC without worryshying whether Bcethoven is depicting By the brook side or Merry
gathering of country folk The same consideration applies to
Mendclssohn ovcrtllre lilt Helirides It is interesting to know that Mendelssohn Jotted down the malll theme whilst in the Hebndes
(Tovey allegcs problbly inaccurately tlLIt he was actually ill
ls cave) but the PICllt stands Oil its own as a magnificent work oJorchstrallllllsic which necds 110 title As Jacques Barzun points
arc lIsed something alien has illto the pure stream of sOllnd
1~llllsky-Korsakovs popular orchestral suite SdlcJ((Iadt is OVLTtly programmatic Every hstellcr recognizes that the sinllolls (llo fl)J Iolin wlllch links the lllllVLll1ents nprlSlllts the voice of SChCItCLIZJdl herself telling the stonlS of the thousand and OI1C
nights to the Sultan But how JIlany listellers Gill rccall the tities
7lJ
MUSIC AND THE MIND
illustrates how the Narrator gradually improves his appreciation of f()rIl1 each time a piece of music lew to him is repeatllL
Theil to tht course of III y thoughts rather than of cards or draughts vith Albltrtine I would ask her to glV(~ me l
little Illusic I relllained in bcd and she would go and sit down at poundIll end of the room before the pianola between the two bookcases She chosc pieces which were either quite new or which she had pia yed to
me only once or tvice for beginning to know lI1e better she was aware that J liked to fix my thoughts only upon what was still obscure to me and to be able in the cour~e of these sUcCt~ssive
thanks to the increasing but distorting and alien of my intellect to link one with another the fragmentary and
interrupted lines of the structure which at first had almost been hiddcll ill mist She knew and I think understood the joy that my mind derived at these first hearings from this task of modellinl a
still shapeless nebula
How refreshing to read that Proust experienced joy ill appreciating structure Formalists often write about music as if understanding
all intellectual III fact the form ofa musical
can balanced of unexpected structural irregularity or decorative detail WillCl1 serves to dispel monotony and reveals the individual hand of a III aster Ifa
listener comes to knc)v a work of music well he is responding to it as a whole Form and content in music and body and suu in human
beings are equally indivisible if either arc to live
CHAPTEI V
ESCAPE FROM REALITY
Musick the grcatc~t good that mortals know And all ofhcavll we have below
JOSEIH ADDISON
A removed from Ollr aside particular periods of time for it and we often go to special places like concert halls and art galleries to find what we arc looking for In pre-literate cultures the arts are more closely integrated with ordinary life 1n Western societies the arts tend to occupy a special
of their own as if they might be a luxury rather than a vital has made it possible for the unenlightened
to argue alat musIC anti the other arts arc some kind of substitute t()f or escape from real life It is a
prof(Hlndly disagree but since some influential psychoanalysts have put f()rward notions of this kind it is worth examining their ideas if only to refute them
freud himself was an extraordinarily well-read individual with a lively apprlciatioll of literature At school where he was top of
for SIX years running he became famihar with the Latill Greek classics He learned Hebrew taught
remained Dostocvsk y not far hdlind Shakespeare and believed The Brothers Karaml1zol the greatest novel ever written freud himself was recognized as a literary stylist and was given the Goethe prtze t()r literature He was also moved by sculpture and to a
extent by paintlllg It l~ true that in the introduction to Moses
H~
MUSIC AND THE MINIl
Noise can be threattmiddotnillg to llormal people If someOllC is hypersensitive to noise and unable to filter out what is Irrelevant
from all tilt dintrent noises which cOllstantly impinge upon him he Illay be speClaIly inclincd to deal with it by tryillg to impose a new order on it make sense Ollt of it and thus turn what was into something manageable Maconic puts it sllccinct y
Ifthere is allullderlying truth in the exclamatioll this nOIse is
Illt mad there may be all equivalent truth in its comic this I1lLlsic is driving me sane The form of words suggests 1
relationship between sensory input and pcrcepnJal flSPOIISl
I ha ve noticed that there are considerable diHcrences between
inlhviduals in response to auditory input Some people cannot bear trying to conduct a conversation through background music
others apparently do not notice it or can cut it out of
perccptual field Many people seem to have their television sets switched on all day irrespective of whether any conversation IS going Oll in the samc room or not A few jmllviduals becoT1w
acutely distressed if whilst listening to a talk on the radio someone
in the room addresses them with a comment Such people complain that they cannot listen to two tlungs at once and miss the sense of
what both the broadcaster and the interrupter are saying For a
moment they are threatened with chaos Auditory discrimination depends on being able to filter out
extraneous sOllnds and identify what is significant A mother will
often respond to the cry of her own infant when no Olle else ill room has heard it I remember sitting at breakfast with KOllfJd
Lorenz who suddenly rose from the tablt saying I hear the cry of a
~oosc-baby a sOllnd which no one else had noticed Sure lllough a
gosling was in trouble and had to be rescued
Pillchas Noy suggests that the child who is hypersll1sitiw to
auditory stimuli lllay find it particularly difficult to eliminate or
I~llorc more than a few of the incoming sOllnds to which hc is
and must therefore adopt a different strltcgy
The oilly way out of thiS dilemma is til ltffort toward OrillHtilll III
and lllastery ofrhc auditory DClCCDtllal t1c1d The lntlIlt vill hIVC to
102
~5 1( API I~OM HFAIXlY
develop an lbiJity tll (UlltClltrltc his lttcl1tloll to directing alld
tWllty different silllultallcously rccurrIng sOllnd stimuli
All CXtltJIll cxampk of sllch all accomplishment is presented in
the persoll of the prominent conductor of an orchlstra wilt) has the ofsimultallelllisly lIstening to the urchcstra as Ollt
and to each of the instruments slparncly discinlllishini each
as ifhc concentrated 011 it alonl
author admits tliat this hypotheSIS lacks experimental COIlshy
firmation but it chimes well with the idea that those who are especially threatened by disorder are those most strongly motivated
to discover order We know that sufferers from schizophrenia are hypersensitive ill
that they need protection from rdatives who are intrusive
smothering or critical They fed threatened by such negative input and arc more likely to relapse than if they find themselves surrounded by tolerant acceptance In Chapter Two rderence was made to experiments with dichotic listening which demonstrated
that in normal subjects language was better perceived by the left hemisphere music by the nght Researcb suggests that 111 people suffering from mental illness both schizophrenia and the various forms uf affective disorder the functions of the two hemispheres arc not so clearly differelltiated as they an in normal people Jgt
Since specialization ofhemispheric function has developed partly to flCilitate the effiCIent processing of incol1llllg auditory infonnashytiOll whether this be speech or music it is not surprising that some
melltally ill people arc hypersensitive to such information and may threatened by It Modern theories of information processing
postulate that in the nOrl1lJl person incoming information is rapidly scanned so that stimuli willch are unwanted inappropriate or irrelevant In excluded from conscioustless Schizophrenics
sornetimes complaill of heing overwhelmed bv stimuli as If tlltering process was absent or inefficient
A number of writers haw suggested that creative people JfC
hypersensitive in metaphorically lackillg a sufficiently thick protecshytive skin to shield them from the impact of the external vorld There is a link between lllental illness and creatiVity ill that the
to think Cflatively to make new links between cOllcept~ i~
103
MUSIC AND TIlE MINI)
more oftell (Hillel III fJlllilics winch indudl a member who is
as mcnrally ill I am llot sllgglsting that all crcativl people ar mentally ill although SOnIe of the greatest have been so but onl y that ullconventional thought processes of a similar kind can be delllonstrated in both the mentally ill and the creative From
has already been noted it appeus likely that the mentally ill and the creative may share a difficulty in ckaling with sensory input ti-om the external world whether this takes the f()rm of speech lIo11-verbal sounds or el11otional pressure The mentally ill are overwhelmed by the threat ofconfusion and disorder The creative meN the challellge by creating a new order in their works lI1d thus master the threat Robert Schumanll and I--lugo Wolf are examples of cOlllposers who suffered from manic-depressive illncss_ Alshythough ultimately ddiated by the severity of their mental disshyturbances there is no doubt that their creativity was partly a product of thcir instability Rachmaninov also experienced severe
depression This condition can be so extreme that it prevents
productioll altogether but liability to depression and the threat of its
ITcurrenn can act as a spur to creativity Berlioz whell suffering tormcllting deprcsstoll and anxiety told his flther that without music he could not go on living_ 13 Tchaikovsky who also endured severe bouts ofdcpression wrote Truly there would be reason to
go mad if it WlrC not f()r 1IIIISie His biographer John Warrack thinks tbat he was stating nothing but the sober truth 24
The crcati vc process depends on both conscious and unconscious melltal fUllctions W c are still so influcnccd by Freud that malJY pcople believe that anything emanating from the ullconsciolls must
cmotionaL irrational unacceptable and probably disreputable III reality this is llot the casco Unconscious processes are just as lllllch concerned with pattern and structure as they Ife with
EvelJ more apparcllt tllan rcal
Dreams certailll y impossibilities temporal confusion ami many features unacceptable to the rational Il1md But most are stories The scanning process
goes on 111 matches reccllt events -vith Dast evellts JlId lillks
wgcther mcntal COlltCllts which shan a similar fleling but which llll y not be related in an yother Va y Thc drea m attclll pts to 11uke
10
ESCAPF FHDM ItEALrIYshy
sense out of thlS hotchpotch by trymt to impose the order of a story-Jille
As I bave argued elsewhere the human specics IS compelled to
theorize and strive to make sense of both life and the ulliverse Because human behaviour is not principally governed by the inshy
instinctive patterns of response to stimuli which direct the behaviour of animals lower In the evolutionary order human beings arc forced to become inventive They arc compelled to try to understand the world and themselves and in so domg can reach new and better ltldaptations The processes by which this is achieved arc both unconscious and conscious We cannot avoid making some attcmpt to find cohercnce ill the world and within ourselvcs but the origmal1y unconscious impulse which makes us do this is reinforced refined and given rationality by conscious reasoning
I am sure that one of the reasons why music affects us deeply is its powcr to structure our auditory explrience and thus to make sense out of it Although I have been at pains to dispel the psychoanalytic view that music is an escape from reality or a regression to an mCll1tile state there is no doubt that music provides one path of temporary withdrawal from the hurly-burly of the external world_ This is refreshing because it permits the same kind of scanning sorting and rearrangement of mental contents which takes place ill reverie or ill sleep_ There arc many others ways of achieving this from going f()- a solitary walk in the country to practising trallScendental meditation When we take part in music or listen to an absorbing perfi)fmance we arc temporarily protected from the input of other external stimuli We enter a special sedudcd world 111 which order prevails and from which the incongruous is
This in itsdf is beneficial It is not a regressive manoeuvrc hut reoder pOll I licHX slmter a temporary retreat which promotes a fe-ordering process within the mind aud thus aids OHr
to the external world rather than providing an escape
from it If music and the other arts WCTe more closely interwovell with
activities we might not Ileed this temporary rtreat so Peopit of other cultures sometimes cannot understand why
Europeans secm so tense WhenJung visited Nevv Mexico he talked with all Indian chief who
10)
lHJS[( ANI) 1111 MIN)
Sec hov crud the whitts louk Their lips arc thill thllr lOStS
their faces furrowed and distorted by t~)lds Their eyes have a stanng lXpnSSHlll thcy arc always scckillg sOlllcrhlllg Vhat arc they
The hITes alwys want sOIlltthIII g tbey arc Ilways UllCS)
and rcstless We do not kIlOV what they Vlllt We do not understand thclll W l thillk that thev arc mad
If there appears to be an escapist elemcnt 111 musical participation it is because our culture is so concerned with achievcllllllt and the pursuit of conventional success that it makcs ordinary Iik into a tense and anxious business from which thl arts arc absent Music em and should be a lifi-enhancing part ofour day-to-da y existellcc
Music plays special role m aiding the scanning lI1d sorting process which goes on whcn we are asleep or simply day-dreaming Stravinsk y rekrs to the pleasure we gain from uIlorganized natural sOLlllds which may be considerable but which lacks the further dimension provided by IllllSIC
Hut over and above this passivt l1~ioymll1t we shall dis(ovt music Illllsic tbat will make U~ partlcipate activdy in the workm1 ofa lllllld that orders gives Iit( and CleHlS 0(
Psychomalysts rdtr to this participation as proJectivc idclltificashy
tion the process by which a persoll imagines himself to be inside SCHIll object external to himself Imitatioll is not only the sincerest form of flattery but a way of learning By identifying ourselves with those more gifted we can actually improve our own capacities Tlachers of music know that do it the way I do is a more effective way oftelchlllg than theonticli instruction
Music not only brillgs order to muscubr movelllellt but also prol1lotl~ order vitbill the mind This is wby John Blacking writing ill hi~ book A COllllllollsme I itll of All Mush ullCkr the hladlllg The Power of Music i~ able to say
of the SCllCS alld the ldUCltioll of the emotions
the lrtS are lot merely dcsirabk 0P(lUls Th) In essllHiai both 1)1 blimcni action md the dlltnivl liSt of the intllkcrshy
lOt)
1(1I1 HUHl HUI1 y~
IllstLd )( rhrcltlllld all overload of
IlHIIlS or ntllSIC tn impose our will upon this 11 the irrdevalll to pav JttlllilOl til what ilt
1l1d thus to nJte or discover SOJlle order ill tht world I It with the pklsure Vl get from thl explanatory h ufscilllcl
IkclnSl 1 scielltific thcnry makes thL w)rld more comprdHl1sshy W (d kss It thl )r1ds mercy alld lllore able to control
eVlllts ()( courSl iC cannot cOlltrol lverythillg Howevlr
geology we arc still vulmrablc lS We III I y becollle auditoril y sophisticatld but 1Il
loud noise will still darm liS IluWCVLT being able to
~OJllC sense out of the world gives us confidenn Music is l llumber of diffnllH W1yS This is Oi1e winch is
)
Music cm enable brln-dallllgcd people to accomplish tasb could not master VitiJollt ih aid It elll also llIake litt people wl1() arc emotionally disturbed or melltally ilL
BeClllSl 1l111SIC is lot so obviously necessary to 1110st OrllS we tend to ulldcrcsrilllllC its significance in the lives of normal people Yct it is difficult to imagine a world without it Evell if playing music
wcre f(lrbildll1 ll1d every device ilr reproducing music destroyed
we should still hl tulles fUllning ill our heads still be using music to order OLlr actlons and lllakl structured sense Ollt of the world lrollild (I
MUI( AN) TlfE MIND
Wagners plTionality was Chlriimatic andio is his music Both arc predominalltly I )ionysiall Apollollian serellity and cOlltrol afe not wlut one looks t()f III Wagller Nor arc mallY of the
with structure form and iymmetry although Wagners use ot tllL leitmotif is characteristic I du not mean to suggest that Vagllcr did Ilot understand such things I Ie was 011e of the most
lllllsicians to have ever lived lIld could employ any device which appealed to him
form But this is not what he was aiming at
Charisl1lltic individuals such as Wagner open the doors ot our perceptions transcend Ollr limitatil)ls and reveal mysteries unshy
to liS Evel1tllaliy they oftell disappoint us because their narClSSISlll tIld self-absorption preclude engagement with them as human beings of the same order as olleself Composers who are as
as Mozart and Haydn are of course far superior to til( ordinary person but they retain their humanity and we can rclate to
them as human beings Wagner IS ill a ditTerent category His contemporary admirers treated him as a god The modern listener
and becomes a disciple or else becomes disillusioned and escapes 11ow vlll he understands the soul He rules over liS
the arts of a demagogue Nietzsches ambivalence toward Wagner is flithfull y reflected in this remark from an imaginary cot1Versatiol1 in Daybreak
Wagners music either overvvhelms or repels because his style reflects his personality The immense length of his later
illustrates his disregard for the listeller He docs not wish to communicate only to convert It necd not prevent one
recognizing and being mtellsel y moved by his lllusic but it IS
understandable that some lis tellers resent the tceling of being takell over rathcr thall charmed or
I think that people who arc repelled by Wagners music well come to appreciate its power alld bellIty if they realized more
what vvas disturbing them I believe that listeners to Wagner to allow thcmselves to be temporarily overwhelmed if
arc fully to appreciate tbl music But many people arc letting to tillS extent and consequently shy away from the intense enwtiotlallxpcnenn which Wag ncr ofkrs liS
III lDDlvimr personal consideratiolls to mUSIC I want to
120
Till ULTARY LlSTENII~ (a ~) cmphasiZl dut the music always COlllCS first I call th1s chapter Solitary Listener because I am interested ill the 1I1crcase ll purdy
appreciation of lllllsic hilth bas ukell pbCl ill reClllt years people who are imensted m music listell to music more
uft(1l than was possible bct()re the advent of modern technology bur I am lJot arguing that listenillg to music IS or ever could be a
for personal relatiollships SOllie aspects OLl composers personality inevitably manifest themselves in his lllusic but the object ofiistcllillg is to get to kllov thc music not to get to know
the composer Great IllUSlC transcends the intii vidual who created it My
purpose in comparing getting to know a piece ofmusll with getting to know a person was to point out the inadequacy of approaching Illusic emly as if it were a matbematical construction not to delly that music has an impersonal dimension
The examples of Haydn and WagnCf are deliberately chosen as extremes Although music inevitably reflects the personality of the composer to some degree Stravinsky was surely right when referred to a composition as being beyond the composers feelings Listening to music docs bring us into indirect contact with the composer but this meeting ofminds IS not closely comparable with cllcountering another human being or listening to a person speaking Elements ofboth arc present but they do not account for the most important dlccts of music upon the Iistencr
As suggested in the last chapter urban civilization cuts us from our own inner lives We have to be watchful or we shall get nm over We are assailed by many varieties o111oi5e most of which
are unpleasant We cannot escape from other people from tdephonc from having demands made upon liS We easily lose tollch with the wellsprings of creative phantasy willch make lift
the ordinary man and woman must have been
very different when it was predofHmantly rural and agncultural w hell bird-song rather than the noise machinery filled the ears when the farmer could observe the changillg seasons and enjoy tht
of the clouds and when however exhausting the
solitude allowed the exercise illlwillati)J
Many sophisticated nquirc illtdkctual concentration
md detachment which would be contamillated if aesthetic COI1shy
121
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIC ANI) TIlE MIN)
I k-ryck Cooke dcfllHd l11uic a~ the suprelllc expressioll of
universal emotions in all c1tirdy persollal vay by the great
composersll However it is lot a direct eV()t~1tiOll of those
llllotions vithin llllllsclf which 1l1OVCS the listener but rather the
way in which a great composer transforms universal clll()tioll~
Il1to art So mallY musiCians and critics have wrestled with the problem of
the llleaning of music that some 11lve aballdoned allY attempt Jt
lillking absolute IlllISIC with human t~c1ings The formalists or
non-refcrentialists consider that musIC IS an entirely ll1tOl1omOllS
art that works of music bave no mcamng outside themselves l1Id
that the experienn induced by hearing 1 fork of lllusic is cntirely consequence of the listeners appreciation of irs structUflt
Hanslick attempted to maintain this position Hc wrote
so many bouks Oil III uSlcal acsthctlcs all of vvhich ddined the nature of music in tefms of the eelintis It arOllses and which ascribed to music a definite expnssive capability had long excited in lIle both doubt and oppositioll rlle 1lltUre uflllllsic is cvell harder to
tix withill philosophical categories than pallltll1g since ill lllllSIC the decisive conccpts offonn alld nmtenr are illlPossible of denec and separatioll If Dill wishcs to attrihut a definite nlIltCnt to
purely instrumcntal music ill voclllllusic content derives from the poem not from the lllusic - thell OllC Illllst discard thc
of the musical art in whICh no Oil( call lkmonsrrltl a content distillct from the form nor evell deduce it On the other hand I readily agree that it is idle to speak of absolute lack of content in instrLIIllentallllusi which my opponcnts accusc Ille llfhaving (Iolll
in my treatise How is onc to distinguish cielltitically in musIc
betweell inspired ClfIll and Clllpty form I had the former in
III y opponents accused llle of th latter
By admitting the notion of inspired fl)flll versus cmpty tltmll
Hanslick is 1 think partially retreating from the ~trictly formalist position especially with his Lise oftlw vonlelllpty l(form has to
contain something what it contains must surely have gt(lIlll
signiticance Stravinsky ftllll1d himsclfin rather the saml position when in IllS
conversations with Hohert Craft he was discussing his
74
()N(S WITHOUT WUHDS
relllark Music IS powerks- to lxprcss anything at all Stravinsky
strongly objected to the notion that a picce of 11111Sic is a trl11scendcntal idea expressed in terms of l1lllsic or that tlwrt was lIIY exact correspondence hctvcll1 the composers teelings and
he set down in notes Stravinsky did adlllit that 1 composers
work is the embodimLnt of his tl~e1illgs but emphasized that for the important fact about J composition was that it was
sOl1llthing Ill heyolld what can be called the composers
feclings He said that A Ilew pilcl of music is a new reality Jnd Il1USIC expresses itself Of the composer he claimed All hl
Knows or (ares about is the apprehension of the contour of the
form for the form is evcrythlllg He can say nothing whatever ~lbollt mcanings
It IS possible to appreciatc StravinsKYs point of view without
agrccment A great deal of gushing nonsense has been written about the mcaning of music but when Stravinsky expresses his dislike orth music of Richard Strauss by calling it tre1Cly he is not rd~rring to its form but to its expression of sentiment 17
Hindelllith agrees with Stravinsky in so far as he writes
Music callnot exprcss the composers feelings Here is what he docs he knows by expericnce that certain patterns of toncshy ~
setting correspond with certain emotional reactions on the listeners pJrt Writing the patterns frcquently ll1d tinding his obscrvations confirmed in anticipatlIlg the listcners reaction he believes himself to be in till saml l1lllltal situation ~
Hindemith docs not deny that music induces clllotion 111
audicllce but he regards the composer as a skilled manipubtor who
believls that he feds what he helieves the listener feels I)
Hc continues
l COlllposer call never be absolutely sure of the elllotionaleftcct of IllS IlltlSlC on the lis teller whell Ilsing complex lllJterial but by experience ami clcver distributioll of this material morcover with
fr(quem refercnces to those lllusical progressions that cvoke the lll1COlllplicarcd fedill(-images of sadness or gaiety ill an ullJmbigushy
75
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MUSIC AND TIll MINll
clothe their insIghts ill tecilmcallangllagl If they did not I claim that mllsic wuuld not continuc to be important to thclJ1 Appnshyeiating musical form and structure is not) techllicallll1ttcr which ()tilly the traJ11ed mllsician IS equipped to IlIldert~lke It is true that describing nlUsicJI form in words requires study and that the
lu do so implies a more complete appreciation of the work involved
-thlIl that available to the ordinary listcner But an ulltrained listener who loves music docs not simply immerse himself ill a sea of
velde although some nineteenth-century music comes clost to
~rovldillg that experience He is also acutely aware of repetition ehange of key and resolution to put it at its minimulIl The
leasures of the unexpected are not confined to musical theorists
for example the listener does not have to be a trained lllUSlCiJIl to fecognize that Haydn is a master of surprise
I think we do need a new type of JanguJge to describe music Although Tovey was unrivalled In his knowledge of the mUSK of
the classical tradition his language is old-fashioned and possibly Iot technic1 enough for todays listeners wl1Q are often wellshy
i)lformed But it is manifestly aosmd to restrict the way we talk and
write about music to language which deliberately excludes any reference to what makes a musical work expressive and capable of
Iausillg arousal To do so is reminiscent ofstructuralists who write ~out the text as if literature had nothing to do with hUI1lJn
Deings either as readers or as authors The f()rmalist analysts are trying to make the appreciation
lIIusic purely cerebral whereas music is rooted in bodily rhythms Alel movement The expressive aspect of music IS difficult to
~isclsS for the reasons outlined earlier but that should not prevent
tts from making the attempt I think it IS possible to do justice to the
Views of both formalists and expressionists without distorting
either When music was still directly tied to words and to underlining
Dr accompanying public ritual there could be little argument kind I )isplltcs between formalists and expreSSIOnists only begin to
be Important with the rise of absolute music Music was bound to
tAke on a life of its OWl when it became el1lJl1cipated from other -Orms ofex pressi011 The rise of romantic music inevitably follows ~e sepHation of music from verbal and other associations Music
711
gtONCS WITHOUT WOIU lS
itsclfillcrets11~ly illcorpllLlled wahin its uwn structure the hUlIlan (lllotion1 lIle~lllillgs which had pnviously belonged to the words ur public occlslons which the musIc accolllpanied 1I1d cnhannd To IILlllltlin tJat absolute music parted compallY with
CIlI()tioIlS beCillsc It began to eXIst ill Its own right is dearly llIItlIllblc The oppoltitc would be more accurate
Music is a temporal art Its patterns exist in time alld require ~ duratioll for their dlveloDIllCIlt and completion Although painting
statel1lents lbout relationships betweell space objects and colours these relatiollshlps are static
Music more aptly represents humall emotional processes because 1 IlIl1sic like lite appears to be in constant motion The fact that v Illusical movement is more apparent than real will be discllssed Lan
It em bc argucd that programmc musIc retains rderences to the cstcrllal world 1I1d cannot thercfilrc be the self-contained isolated Ild more or less perfect structure which formahsts admire But 1
grelt deal of programmc llIllsic is sllllply lllUSIC
evellt story sOllnd or picture has bet1l the trigger Beethovens
Sisth Symphony (Op Mi in r lIllJor) is the obvious example If BeethoveIl had not headed his movements with titles which incidentally he JclJptcd ti-om the titks givln to the movements of
1lI entirely difterellt symphony by Knecht we should accept the Pastoral Symphony as a piece of absolute mllSIC without worryshying whether Bcethoven is depicting By the brook side or Merry
gathering of country folk The same consideration applies to
Mendclssohn ovcrtllre lilt Helirides It is interesting to know that Mendelssohn Jotted down the malll theme whilst in the Hebndes
(Tovey allegcs problbly inaccurately tlLIt he was actually ill
ls cave) but the PICllt stands Oil its own as a magnificent work oJorchstrallllllsic which necds 110 title As Jacques Barzun points
arc lIsed something alien has illto the pure stream of sOllnd
1~llllsky-Korsakovs popular orchestral suite SdlcJ((Iadt is OVLTtly programmatic Every hstellcr recognizes that the sinllolls (llo fl)J Iolin wlllch links the lllllVLll1ents nprlSlllts the voice of SChCItCLIZJdl herself telling the stonlS of the thousand and OI1C
nights to the Sultan But how JIlany listellers Gill rccall the tities
7lJ
MUSIC AND THE MIND
illustrates how the Narrator gradually improves his appreciation of f()rIl1 each time a piece of music lew to him is repeatllL
Theil to tht course of III y thoughts rather than of cards or draughts vith Albltrtine I would ask her to glV(~ me l
little Illusic I relllained in bcd and she would go and sit down at poundIll end of the room before the pianola between the two bookcases She chosc pieces which were either quite new or which she had pia yed to
me only once or tvice for beginning to know lI1e better she was aware that J liked to fix my thoughts only upon what was still obscure to me and to be able in the cour~e of these sUcCt~ssive
thanks to the increasing but distorting and alien of my intellect to link one with another the fragmentary and
interrupted lines of the structure which at first had almost been hiddcll ill mist She knew and I think understood the joy that my mind derived at these first hearings from this task of modellinl a
still shapeless nebula
How refreshing to read that Proust experienced joy ill appreciating structure Formalists often write about music as if understanding
all intellectual III fact the form ofa musical
can balanced of unexpected structural irregularity or decorative detail WillCl1 serves to dispel monotony and reveals the individual hand of a III aster Ifa
listener comes to knc)v a work of music well he is responding to it as a whole Form and content in music and body and suu in human
beings are equally indivisible if either arc to live
CHAPTEI V
ESCAPE FROM REALITY
Musick the grcatc~t good that mortals know And all ofhcavll we have below
JOSEIH ADDISON
A removed from Ollr aside particular periods of time for it and we often go to special places like concert halls and art galleries to find what we arc looking for In pre-literate cultures the arts are more closely integrated with ordinary life 1n Western societies the arts tend to occupy a special
of their own as if they might be a luxury rather than a vital has made it possible for the unenlightened
to argue alat musIC anti the other arts arc some kind of substitute t()f or escape from real life It is a
prof(Hlndly disagree but since some influential psychoanalysts have put f()rward notions of this kind it is worth examining their ideas if only to refute them
freud himself was an extraordinarily well-read individual with a lively apprlciatioll of literature At school where he was top of
for SIX years running he became famihar with the Latill Greek classics He learned Hebrew taught
remained Dostocvsk y not far hdlind Shakespeare and believed The Brothers Karaml1zol the greatest novel ever written freud himself was recognized as a literary stylist and was given the Goethe prtze t()r literature He was also moved by sculpture and to a
extent by paintlllg It l~ true that in the introduction to Moses
H~
MUSIC AND THE MINIl
Noise can be threattmiddotnillg to llormal people If someOllC is hypersensitive to noise and unable to filter out what is Irrelevant
from all tilt dintrent noises which cOllstantly impinge upon him he Illay be speClaIly inclincd to deal with it by tryillg to impose a new order on it make sense Ollt of it and thus turn what was into something manageable Maconic puts it sllccinct y
Ifthere is allullderlying truth in the exclamatioll this nOIse is
Illt mad there may be all equivalent truth in its comic this I1lLlsic is driving me sane The form of words suggests 1
relationship between sensory input and pcrcepnJal flSPOIISl
I ha ve noticed that there are considerable diHcrences between
inlhviduals in response to auditory input Some people cannot bear trying to conduct a conversation through background music
others apparently do not notice it or can cut it out of
perccptual field Many people seem to have their television sets switched on all day irrespective of whether any conversation IS going Oll in the samc room or not A few jmllviduals becoT1w
acutely distressed if whilst listening to a talk on the radio someone
in the room addresses them with a comment Such people complain that they cannot listen to two tlungs at once and miss the sense of
what both the broadcaster and the interrupter are saying For a
moment they are threatened with chaos Auditory discrimination depends on being able to filter out
extraneous sOllnds and identify what is significant A mother will
often respond to the cry of her own infant when no Olle else ill room has heard it I remember sitting at breakfast with KOllfJd
Lorenz who suddenly rose from the tablt saying I hear the cry of a
~oosc-baby a sOllnd which no one else had noticed Sure lllough a
gosling was in trouble and had to be rescued
Pillchas Noy suggests that the child who is hypersll1sitiw to
auditory stimuli lllay find it particularly difficult to eliminate or
I~llorc more than a few of the incoming sOllnds to which hc is
and must therefore adopt a different strltcgy
The oilly way out of thiS dilemma is til ltffort toward OrillHtilll III
and lllastery ofrhc auditory DClCCDtllal t1c1d The lntlIlt vill hIVC to
102
~5 1( API I~OM HFAIXlY
develop an lbiJity tll (UlltClltrltc his lttcl1tloll to directing alld
tWllty different silllultallcously rccurrIng sOllnd stimuli
All CXtltJIll cxampk of sllch all accomplishment is presented in
the persoll of the prominent conductor of an orchlstra wilt) has the ofsimultallelllisly lIstening to the urchcstra as Ollt
and to each of the instruments slparncly discinlllishini each
as ifhc concentrated 011 it alonl
author admits tliat this hypotheSIS lacks experimental COIlshy
firmation but it chimes well with the idea that those who are especially threatened by disorder are those most strongly motivated
to discover order We know that sufferers from schizophrenia are hypersensitive ill
that they need protection from rdatives who are intrusive
smothering or critical They fed threatened by such negative input and arc more likely to relapse than if they find themselves surrounded by tolerant acceptance In Chapter Two rderence was made to experiments with dichotic listening which demonstrated
that in normal subjects language was better perceived by the left hemisphere music by the nght Researcb suggests that 111 people suffering from mental illness both schizophrenia and the various forms uf affective disorder the functions of the two hemispheres arc not so clearly differelltiated as they an in normal people Jgt
Since specialization ofhemispheric function has developed partly to flCilitate the effiCIent processing of incol1llllg auditory infonnashytiOll whether this be speech or music it is not surprising that some
melltally ill people arc hypersensitive to such information and may threatened by It Modern theories of information processing
postulate that in the nOrl1lJl person incoming information is rapidly scanned so that stimuli willch are unwanted inappropriate or irrelevant In excluded from conscioustless Schizophrenics
sornetimes complaill of heing overwhelmed bv stimuli as If tlltering process was absent or inefficient
A number of writers haw suggested that creative people JfC
hypersensitive in metaphorically lackillg a sufficiently thick protecshytive skin to shield them from the impact of the external vorld There is a link between lllental illness and creatiVity ill that the
to think Cflatively to make new links between cOllcept~ i~
103
MUSIC AND TIlE MINI)
more oftell (Hillel III fJlllilics winch indudl a member who is
as mcnrally ill I am llot sllgglsting that all crcativl people ar mentally ill although SOnIe of the greatest have been so but onl y that ullconventional thought processes of a similar kind can be delllonstrated in both the mentally ill and the creative From
has already been noted it appeus likely that the mentally ill and the creative may share a difficulty in ckaling with sensory input ti-om the external world whether this takes the f()rm of speech lIo11-verbal sounds or el11otional pressure The mentally ill are overwhelmed by the threat ofconfusion and disorder The creative meN the challellge by creating a new order in their works lI1d thus master the threat Robert Schumanll and I--lugo Wolf are examples of cOlllposers who suffered from manic-depressive illncss_ Alshythough ultimately ddiated by the severity of their mental disshyturbances there is no doubt that their creativity was partly a product of thcir instability Rachmaninov also experienced severe
depression This condition can be so extreme that it prevents
productioll altogether but liability to depression and the threat of its
ITcurrenn can act as a spur to creativity Berlioz whell suffering tormcllting deprcsstoll and anxiety told his flther that without music he could not go on living_ 13 Tchaikovsky who also endured severe bouts ofdcpression wrote Truly there would be reason to
go mad if it WlrC not f()r 1IIIISie His biographer John Warrack thinks tbat he was stating nothing but the sober truth 24
The crcati vc process depends on both conscious and unconscious melltal fUllctions W c are still so influcnccd by Freud that malJY pcople believe that anything emanating from the ullconsciolls must
cmotionaL irrational unacceptable and probably disreputable III reality this is llot the casco Unconscious processes are just as lllllch concerned with pattern and structure as they Ife with
EvelJ more apparcllt tllan rcal
Dreams certailll y impossibilities temporal confusion ami many features unacceptable to the rational Il1md But most are stories The scanning process
goes on 111 matches reccllt events -vith Dast evellts JlId lillks
wgcther mcntal COlltCllts which shan a similar fleling but which llll y not be related in an yother Va y Thc drea m attclll pts to 11uke
10
ESCAPF FHDM ItEALrIYshy
sense out of thlS hotchpotch by trymt to impose the order of a story-Jille
As I bave argued elsewhere the human specics IS compelled to
theorize and strive to make sense of both life and the ulliverse Because human behaviour is not principally governed by the inshy
instinctive patterns of response to stimuli which direct the behaviour of animals lower In the evolutionary order human beings arc forced to become inventive They arc compelled to try to understand the world and themselves and in so domg can reach new and better ltldaptations The processes by which this is achieved arc both unconscious and conscious We cannot avoid making some attcmpt to find cohercnce ill the world and within ourselvcs but the origmal1y unconscious impulse which makes us do this is reinforced refined and given rationality by conscious reasoning
I am sure that one of the reasons why music affects us deeply is its powcr to structure our auditory explrience and thus to make sense out of it Although I have been at pains to dispel the psychoanalytic view that music is an escape from reality or a regression to an mCll1tile state there is no doubt that music provides one path of temporary withdrawal from the hurly-burly of the external world_ This is refreshing because it permits the same kind of scanning sorting and rearrangement of mental contents which takes place ill reverie or ill sleep_ There arc many others ways of achieving this from going f()- a solitary walk in the country to practising trallScendental meditation When we take part in music or listen to an absorbing perfi)fmance we arc temporarily protected from the input of other external stimuli We enter a special sedudcd world 111 which order prevails and from which the incongruous is
This in itsdf is beneficial It is not a regressive manoeuvrc hut reoder pOll I licHX slmter a temporary retreat which promotes a fe-ordering process within the mind aud thus aids OHr
to the external world rather than providing an escape
from it If music and the other arts WCTe more closely interwovell with
activities we might not Ileed this temporary rtreat so Peopit of other cultures sometimes cannot understand why
Europeans secm so tense WhenJung visited Nevv Mexico he talked with all Indian chief who
10)
lHJS[( ANI) 1111 MIN)
Sec hov crud the whitts louk Their lips arc thill thllr lOStS
their faces furrowed and distorted by t~)lds Their eyes have a stanng lXpnSSHlll thcy arc always scckillg sOlllcrhlllg Vhat arc they
The hITes alwys want sOIlltthIII g tbey arc Ilways UllCS)
and rcstless We do not kIlOV what they Vlllt We do not understand thclll W l thillk that thev arc mad
If there appears to be an escapist elemcnt 111 musical participation it is because our culture is so concerned with achievcllllllt and the pursuit of conventional success that it makcs ordinary Iik into a tense and anxious business from which thl arts arc absent Music em and should be a lifi-enhancing part ofour day-to-da y existellcc
Music plays special role m aiding the scanning lI1d sorting process which goes on whcn we are asleep or simply day-dreaming Stravinsk y rekrs to the pleasure we gain from uIlorganized natural sOLlllds which may be considerable but which lacks the further dimension provided by IllllSIC
Hut over and above this passivt l1~ioymll1t we shall dis(ovt music Illllsic tbat will make U~ partlcipate activdy in the workm1 ofa lllllld that orders gives Iit( and CleHlS 0(
Psychomalysts rdtr to this participation as proJectivc idclltificashy
tion the process by which a persoll imagines himself to be inside SCHIll object external to himself Imitatioll is not only the sincerest form of flattery but a way of learning By identifying ourselves with those more gifted we can actually improve our own capacities Tlachers of music know that do it the way I do is a more effective way oftelchlllg than theonticli instruction
Music not only brillgs order to muscubr movelllellt but also prol1lotl~ order vitbill the mind This is wby John Blacking writing ill hi~ book A COllllllollsme I itll of All Mush ullCkr the hladlllg The Power of Music i~ able to say
of the SCllCS alld the ldUCltioll of the emotions
the lrtS are lot merely dcsirabk 0P(lUls Th) In essllHiai both 1)1 blimcni action md the dlltnivl liSt of the intllkcrshy
lOt)
1(1I1 HUHl HUI1 y~
IllstLd )( rhrcltlllld all overload of
IlHIIlS or ntllSIC tn impose our will upon this 11 the irrdevalll to pav JttlllilOl til what ilt
1l1d thus to nJte or discover SOJlle order ill tht world I It with the pklsure Vl get from thl explanatory h ufscilllcl
IkclnSl 1 scielltific thcnry makes thL w)rld more comprdHl1sshy W (d kss It thl )r1ds mercy alld lllore able to control
eVlllts ()( courSl iC cannot cOlltrol lverythillg Howevlr
geology we arc still vulmrablc lS We III I y becollle auditoril y sophisticatld but 1Il
loud noise will still darm liS IluWCVLT being able to
~OJllC sense out of the world gives us confidenn Music is l llumber of diffnllH W1yS This is Oi1e winch is
)
Music cm enable brln-dallllgcd people to accomplish tasb could not master VitiJollt ih aid It elll also llIake litt people wl1() arc emotionally disturbed or melltally ilL
BeClllSl 1l111SIC is lot so obviously necessary to 1110st OrllS we tend to ulldcrcsrilllllC its significance in the lives of normal people Yct it is difficult to imagine a world without it Evell if playing music
wcre f(lrbildll1 ll1d every device ilr reproducing music destroyed
we should still hl tulles fUllning ill our heads still be using music to order OLlr actlons and lllakl structured sense Ollt of the world lrollild (I
MUI( AN) TlfE MIND
Wagners plTionality was Chlriimatic andio is his music Both arc predominalltly I )ionysiall Apollollian serellity and cOlltrol afe not wlut one looks t()f III Wagller Nor arc mallY of the
with structure form and iymmetry although Wagners use ot tllL leitmotif is characteristic I du not mean to suggest that Vagllcr did Ilot understand such things I Ie was 011e of the most
lllllsicians to have ever lived lIld could employ any device which appealed to him
form But this is not what he was aiming at
Charisl1lltic individuals such as Wagner open the doors ot our perceptions transcend Ollr limitatil)ls and reveal mysteries unshy
to liS Evel1tllaliy they oftell disappoint us because their narClSSISlll tIld self-absorption preclude engagement with them as human beings of the same order as olleself Composers who are as
as Mozart and Haydn are of course far superior to til( ordinary person but they retain their humanity and we can rclate to
them as human beings Wagner IS ill a ditTerent category His contemporary admirers treated him as a god The modern listener
and becomes a disciple or else becomes disillusioned and escapes 11ow vlll he understands the soul He rules over liS
the arts of a demagogue Nietzsches ambivalence toward Wagner is flithfull y reflected in this remark from an imaginary cot1Versatiol1 in Daybreak
Wagners music either overvvhelms or repels because his style reflects his personality The immense length of his later
illustrates his disregard for the listeller He docs not wish to communicate only to convert It necd not prevent one
recognizing and being mtellsel y moved by his lllusic but it IS
understandable that some lis tellers resent the tceling of being takell over rathcr thall charmed or
I think that people who arc repelled by Wagners music well come to appreciate its power alld bellIty if they realized more
what vvas disturbing them I believe that listeners to Wagner to allow thcmselves to be temporarily overwhelmed if
arc fully to appreciate tbl music But many people arc letting to tillS extent and consequently shy away from the intense enwtiotlallxpcnenn which Wag ncr ofkrs liS
III lDDlvimr personal consideratiolls to mUSIC I want to
120
Till ULTARY LlSTENII~ (a ~) cmphasiZl dut the music always COlllCS first I call th1s chapter Solitary Listener because I am interested ill the 1I1crcase ll purdy
appreciation of lllllsic hilth bas ukell pbCl ill reClllt years people who are imensted m music listell to music more
uft(1l than was possible bct()re the advent of modern technology bur I am lJot arguing that listenillg to music IS or ever could be a
for personal relatiollships SOllie aspects OLl composers personality inevitably manifest themselves in his lllusic but the object ofiistcllillg is to get to kllov thc music not to get to know
the composer Great IllUSlC transcends the intii vidual who created it My
purpose in comparing getting to know a piece ofmusll with getting to know a person was to point out the inadequacy of approaching Illusic emly as if it were a matbematical construction not to delly that music has an impersonal dimension
The examples of Haydn and WagnCf are deliberately chosen as extremes Although music inevitably reflects the personality of the composer to some degree Stravinsky was surely right when referred to a composition as being beyond the composers feelings Listening to music docs bring us into indirect contact with the composer but this meeting ofminds IS not closely comparable with cllcountering another human being or listening to a person speaking Elements ofboth arc present but they do not account for the most important dlccts of music upon the Iistencr
As suggested in the last chapter urban civilization cuts us from our own inner lives We have to be watchful or we shall get nm over We are assailed by many varieties o111oi5e most of which
are unpleasant We cannot escape from other people from tdephonc from having demands made upon liS We easily lose tollch with the wellsprings of creative phantasy willch make lift
the ordinary man and woman must have been
very different when it was predofHmantly rural and agncultural w hell bird-song rather than the noise machinery filled the ears when the farmer could observe the changillg seasons and enjoy tht
of the clouds and when however exhausting the
solitude allowed the exercise illlwillati)J
Many sophisticated nquirc illtdkctual concentration
md detachment which would be contamillated if aesthetic COI1shy
121
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
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MUSIC AND TIll MINll
clothe their insIghts ill tecilmcallangllagl If they did not I claim that mllsic wuuld not continuc to be important to thclJ1 Appnshyeiating musical form and structure is not) techllicallll1ttcr which ()tilly the traJ11ed mllsician IS equipped to IlIldert~lke It is true that describing nlUsicJI form in words requires study and that the
lu do so implies a more complete appreciation of the work involved
-thlIl that available to the ordinary listcner But an ulltrained listener who loves music docs not simply immerse himself ill a sea of
velde although some nineteenth-century music comes clost to
~rovldillg that experience He is also acutely aware of repetition ehange of key and resolution to put it at its minimulIl The
leasures of the unexpected are not confined to musical theorists
for example the listener does not have to be a trained lllUSlCiJIl to fecognize that Haydn is a master of surprise
I think we do need a new type of JanguJge to describe music Although Tovey was unrivalled In his knowledge of the mUSK of
the classical tradition his language is old-fashioned and possibly Iot technic1 enough for todays listeners wl1Q are often wellshy
i)lformed But it is manifestly aosmd to restrict the way we talk and
write about music to language which deliberately excludes any reference to what makes a musical work expressive and capable of
Iausillg arousal To do so is reminiscent ofstructuralists who write ~out the text as if literature had nothing to do with hUI1lJn
Deings either as readers or as authors The f()rmalist analysts are trying to make the appreciation
lIIusic purely cerebral whereas music is rooted in bodily rhythms Alel movement The expressive aspect of music IS difficult to
~isclsS for the reasons outlined earlier but that should not prevent
tts from making the attempt I think it IS possible to do justice to the
Views of both formalists and expressionists without distorting
either When music was still directly tied to words and to underlining
Dr accompanying public ritual there could be little argument kind I )isplltcs between formalists and expreSSIOnists only begin to
be Important with the rise of absolute music Music was bound to
tAke on a life of its OWl when it became el1lJl1cipated from other -Orms ofex pressi011 The rise of romantic music inevitably follows ~e sepHation of music from verbal and other associations Music
711
gtONCS WITHOUT WOIU lS
itsclfillcrets11~ly illcorpllLlled wahin its uwn structure the hUlIlan (lllotion1 lIle~lllillgs which had pnviously belonged to the words ur public occlslons which the musIc accolllpanied 1I1d cnhannd To IILlllltlin tJat absolute music parted compallY with
CIlI()tioIlS beCillsc It began to eXIst ill Its own right is dearly llIItlIllblc The oppoltitc would be more accurate
Music is a temporal art Its patterns exist in time alld require ~ duratioll for their dlveloDIllCIlt and completion Although painting
statel1lents lbout relationships betweell space objects and colours these relatiollshlps are static
Music more aptly represents humall emotional processes because 1 IlIl1sic like lite appears to be in constant motion The fact that v Illusical movement is more apparent than real will be discllssed Lan
It em bc argucd that programmc musIc retains rderences to the cstcrllal world 1I1d cannot thercfilrc be the self-contained isolated Ild more or less perfect structure which formahsts admire But 1
grelt deal of programmc llIllsic is sllllply lllUSIC
evellt story sOllnd or picture has bet1l the trigger Beethovens
Sisth Symphony (Op Mi in r lIllJor) is the obvious example If BeethoveIl had not headed his movements with titles which incidentally he JclJptcd ti-om the titks givln to the movements of
1lI entirely difterellt symphony by Knecht we should accept the Pastoral Symphony as a piece of absolute mllSIC without worryshying whether Bcethoven is depicting By the brook side or Merry
gathering of country folk The same consideration applies to
Mendclssohn ovcrtllre lilt Helirides It is interesting to know that Mendelssohn Jotted down the malll theme whilst in the Hebndes
(Tovey allegcs problbly inaccurately tlLIt he was actually ill
ls cave) but the PICllt stands Oil its own as a magnificent work oJorchstrallllllsic which necds 110 title As Jacques Barzun points
arc lIsed something alien has illto the pure stream of sOllnd
1~llllsky-Korsakovs popular orchestral suite SdlcJ((Iadt is OVLTtly programmatic Every hstellcr recognizes that the sinllolls (llo fl)J Iolin wlllch links the lllllVLll1ents nprlSlllts the voice of SChCItCLIZJdl herself telling the stonlS of the thousand and OI1C
nights to the Sultan But how JIlany listellers Gill rccall the tities
7lJ
MUSIC AND THE MIND
illustrates how the Narrator gradually improves his appreciation of f()rIl1 each time a piece of music lew to him is repeatllL
Theil to tht course of III y thoughts rather than of cards or draughts vith Albltrtine I would ask her to glV(~ me l
little Illusic I relllained in bcd and she would go and sit down at poundIll end of the room before the pianola between the two bookcases She chosc pieces which were either quite new or which she had pia yed to
me only once or tvice for beginning to know lI1e better she was aware that J liked to fix my thoughts only upon what was still obscure to me and to be able in the cour~e of these sUcCt~ssive
thanks to the increasing but distorting and alien of my intellect to link one with another the fragmentary and
interrupted lines of the structure which at first had almost been hiddcll ill mist She knew and I think understood the joy that my mind derived at these first hearings from this task of modellinl a
still shapeless nebula
How refreshing to read that Proust experienced joy ill appreciating structure Formalists often write about music as if understanding
all intellectual III fact the form ofa musical
can balanced of unexpected structural irregularity or decorative detail WillCl1 serves to dispel monotony and reveals the individual hand of a III aster Ifa
listener comes to knc)v a work of music well he is responding to it as a whole Form and content in music and body and suu in human
beings are equally indivisible if either arc to live
CHAPTEI V
ESCAPE FROM REALITY
Musick the grcatc~t good that mortals know And all ofhcavll we have below
JOSEIH ADDISON
A removed from Ollr aside particular periods of time for it and we often go to special places like concert halls and art galleries to find what we arc looking for In pre-literate cultures the arts are more closely integrated with ordinary life 1n Western societies the arts tend to occupy a special
of their own as if they might be a luxury rather than a vital has made it possible for the unenlightened
to argue alat musIC anti the other arts arc some kind of substitute t()f or escape from real life It is a
prof(Hlndly disagree but since some influential psychoanalysts have put f()rward notions of this kind it is worth examining their ideas if only to refute them
freud himself was an extraordinarily well-read individual with a lively apprlciatioll of literature At school where he was top of
for SIX years running he became famihar with the Latill Greek classics He learned Hebrew taught
remained Dostocvsk y not far hdlind Shakespeare and believed The Brothers Karaml1zol the greatest novel ever written freud himself was recognized as a literary stylist and was given the Goethe prtze t()r literature He was also moved by sculpture and to a
extent by paintlllg It l~ true that in the introduction to Moses
H~
MUSIC AND THE MINIl
Noise can be threattmiddotnillg to llormal people If someOllC is hypersensitive to noise and unable to filter out what is Irrelevant
from all tilt dintrent noises which cOllstantly impinge upon him he Illay be speClaIly inclincd to deal with it by tryillg to impose a new order on it make sense Ollt of it and thus turn what was into something manageable Maconic puts it sllccinct y
Ifthere is allullderlying truth in the exclamatioll this nOIse is
Illt mad there may be all equivalent truth in its comic this I1lLlsic is driving me sane The form of words suggests 1
relationship between sensory input and pcrcepnJal flSPOIISl
I ha ve noticed that there are considerable diHcrences between
inlhviduals in response to auditory input Some people cannot bear trying to conduct a conversation through background music
others apparently do not notice it or can cut it out of
perccptual field Many people seem to have their television sets switched on all day irrespective of whether any conversation IS going Oll in the samc room or not A few jmllviduals becoT1w
acutely distressed if whilst listening to a talk on the radio someone
in the room addresses them with a comment Such people complain that they cannot listen to two tlungs at once and miss the sense of
what both the broadcaster and the interrupter are saying For a
moment they are threatened with chaos Auditory discrimination depends on being able to filter out
extraneous sOllnds and identify what is significant A mother will
often respond to the cry of her own infant when no Olle else ill room has heard it I remember sitting at breakfast with KOllfJd
Lorenz who suddenly rose from the tablt saying I hear the cry of a
~oosc-baby a sOllnd which no one else had noticed Sure lllough a
gosling was in trouble and had to be rescued
Pillchas Noy suggests that the child who is hypersll1sitiw to
auditory stimuli lllay find it particularly difficult to eliminate or
I~llorc more than a few of the incoming sOllnds to which hc is
and must therefore adopt a different strltcgy
The oilly way out of thiS dilemma is til ltffort toward OrillHtilll III
and lllastery ofrhc auditory DClCCDtllal t1c1d The lntlIlt vill hIVC to
102
~5 1( API I~OM HFAIXlY
develop an lbiJity tll (UlltClltrltc his lttcl1tloll to directing alld
tWllty different silllultallcously rccurrIng sOllnd stimuli
All CXtltJIll cxampk of sllch all accomplishment is presented in
the persoll of the prominent conductor of an orchlstra wilt) has the ofsimultallelllisly lIstening to the urchcstra as Ollt
and to each of the instruments slparncly discinlllishini each
as ifhc concentrated 011 it alonl
author admits tliat this hypotheSIS lacks experimental COIlshy
firmation but it chimes well with the idea that those who are especially threatened by disorder are those most strongly motivated
to discover order We know that sufferers from schizophrenia are hypersensitive ill
that they need protection from rdatives who are intrusive
smothering or critical They fed threatened by such negative input and arc more likely to relapse than if they find themselves surrounded by tolerant acceptance In Chapter Two rderence was made to experiments with dichotic listening which demonstrated
that in normal subjects language was better perceived by the left hemisphere music by the nght Researcb suggests that 111 people suffering from mental illness both schizophrenia and the various forms uf affective disorder the functions of the two hemispheres arc not so clearly differelltiated as they an in normal people Jgt
Since specialization ofhemispheric function has developed partly to flCilitate the effiCIent processing of incol1llllg auditory infonnashytiOll whether this be speech or music it is not surprising that some
melltally ill people arc hypersensitive to such information and may threatened by It Modern theories of information processing
postulate that in the nOrl1lJl person incoming information is rapidly scanned so that stimuli willch are unwanted inappropriate or irrelevant In excluded from conscioustless Schizophrenics
sornetimes complaill of heing overwhelmed bv stimuli as If tlltering process was absent or inefficient
A number of writers haw suggested that creative people JfC
hypersensitive in metaphorically lackillg a sufficiently thick protecshytive skin to shield them from the impact of the external vorld There is a link between lllental illness and creatiVity ill that the
to think Cflatively to make new links between cOllcept~ i~
103
MUSIC AND TIlE MINI)
more oftell (Hillel III fJlllilics winch indudl a member who is
as mcnrally ill I am llot sllgglsting that all crcativl people ar mentally ill although SOnIe of the greatest have been so but onl y that ullconventional thought processes of a similar kind can be delllonstrated in both the mentally ill and the creative From
has already been noted it appeus likely that the mentally ill and the creative may share a difficulty in ckaling with sensory input ti-om the external world whether this takes the f()rm of speech lIo11-verbal sounds or el11otional pressure The mentally ill are overwhelmed by the threat ofconfusion and disorder The creative meN the challellge by creating a new order in their works lI1d thus master the threat Robert Schumanll and I--lugo Wolf are examples of cOlllposers who suffered from manic-depressive illncss_ Alshythough ultimately ddiated by the severity of their mental disshyturbances there is no doubt that their creativity was partly a product of thcir instability Rachmaninov also experienced severe
depression This condition can be so extreme that it prevents
productioll altogether but liability to depression and the threat of its
ITcurrenn can act as a spur to creativity Berlioz whell suffering tormcllting deprcsstoll and anxiety told his flther that without music he could not go on living_ 13 Tchaikovsky who also endured severe bouts ofdcpression wrote Truly there would be reason to
go mad if it WlrC not f()r 1IIIISie His biographer John Warrack thinks tbat he was stating nothing but the sober truth 24
The crcati vc process depends on both conscious and unconscious melltal fUllctions W c are still so influcnccd by Freud that malJY pcople believe that anything emanating from the ullconsciolls must
cmotionaL irrational unacceptable and probably disreputable III reality this is llot the casco Unconscious processes are just as lllllch concerned with pattern and structure as they Ife with
EvelJ more apparcllt tllan rcal
Dreams certailll y impossibilities temporal confusion ami many features unacceptable to the rational Il1md But most are stories The scanning process
goes on 111 matches reccllt events -vith Dast evellts JlId lillks
wgcther mcntal COlltCllts which shan a similar fleling but which llll y not be related in an yother Va y Thc drea m attclll pts to 11uke
10
ESCAPF FHDM ItEALrIYshy
sense out of thlS hotchpotch by trymt to impose the order of a story-Jille
As I bave argued elsewhere the human specics IS compelled to
theorize and strive to make sense of both life and the ulliverse Because human behaviour is not principally governed by the inshy
instinctive patterns of response to stimuli which direct the behaviour of animals lower In the evolutionary order human beings arc forced to become inventive They arc compelled to try to understand the world and themselves and in so domg can reach new and better ltldaptations The processes by which this is achieved arc both unconscious and conscious We cannot avoid making some attcmpt to find cohercnce ill the world and within ourselvcs but the origmal1y unconscious impulse which makes us do this is reinforced refined and given rationality by conscious reasoning
I am sure that one of the reasons why music affects us deeply is its powcr to structure our auditory explrience and thus to make sense out of it Although I have been at pains to dispel the psychoanalytic view that music is an escape from reality or a regression to an mCll1tile state there is no doubt that music provides one path of temporary withdrawal from the hurly-burly of the external world_ This is refreshing because it permits the same kind of scanning sorting and rearrangement of mental contents which takes place ill reverie or ill sleep_ There arc many others ways of achieving this from going f()- a solitary walk in the country to practising trallScendental meditation When we take part in music or listen to an absorbing perfi)fmance we arc temporarily protected from the input of other external stimuli We enter a special sedudcd world 111 which order prevails and from which the incongruous is
This in itsdf is beneficial It is not a regressive manoeuvrc hut reoder pOll I licHX slmter a temporary retreat which promotes a fe-ordering process within the mind aud thus aids OHr
to the external world rather than providing an escape
from it If music and the other arts WCTe more closely interwovell with
activities we might not Ileed this temporary rtreat so Peopit of other cultures sometimes cannot understand why
Europeans secm so tense WhenJung visited Nevv Mexico he talked with all Indian chief who
10)
lHJS[( ANI) 1111 MIN)
Sec hov crud the whitts louk Their lips arc thill thllr lOStS
their faces furrowed and distorted by t~)lds Their eyes have a stanng lXpnSSHlll thcy arc always scckillg sOlllcrhlllg Vhat arc they
The hITes alwys want sOIlltthIII g tbey arc Ilways UllCS)
and rcstless We do not kIlOV what they Vlllt We do not understand thclll W l thillk that thev arc mad
If there appears to be an escapist elemcnt 111 musical participation it is because our culture is so concerned with achievcllllllt and the pursuit of conventional success that it makcs ordinary Iik into a tense and anxious business from which thl arts arc absent Music em and should be a lifi-enhancing part ofour day-to-da y existellcc
Music plays special role m aiding the scanning lI1d sorting process which goes on whcn we are asleep or simply day-dreaming Stravinsk y rekrs to the pleasure we gain from uIlorganized natural sOLlllds which may be considerable but which lacks the further dimension provided by IllllSIC
Hut over and above this passivt l1~ioymll1t we shall dis(ovt music Illllsic tbat will make U~ partlcipate activdy in the workm1 ofa lllllld that orders gives Iit( and CleHlS 0(
Psychomalysts rdtr to this participation as proJectivc idclltificashy
tion the process by which a persoll imagines himself to be inside SCHIll object external to himself Imitatioll is not only the sincerest form of flattery but a way of learning By identifying ourselves with those more gifted we can actually improve our own capacities Tlachers of music know that do it the way I do is a more effective way oftelchlllg than theonticli instruction
Music not only brillgs order to muscubr movelllellt but also prol1lotl~ order vitbill the mind This is wby John Blacking writing ill hi~ book A COllllllollsme I itll of All Mush ullCkr the hladlllg The Power of Music i~ able to say
of the SCllCS alld the ldUCltioll of the emotions
the lrtS are lot merely dcsirabk 0P(lUls Th) In essllHiai both 1)1 blimcni action md the dlltnivl liSt of the intllkcrshy
lOt)
1(1I1 HUHl HUI1 y~
IllstLd )( rhrcltlllld all overload of
IlHIIlS or ntllSIC tn impose our will upon this 11 the irrdevalll to pav JttlllilOl til what ilt
1l1d thus to nJte or discover SOJlle order ill tht world I It with the pklsure Vl get from thl explanatory h ufscilllcl
IkclnSl 1 scielltific thcnry makes thL w)rld more comprdHl1sshy W (d kss It thl )r1ds mercy alld lllore able to control
eVlllts ()( courSl iC cannot cOlltrol lverythillg Howevlr
geology we arc still vulmrablc lS We III I y becollle auditoril y sophisticatld but 1Il
loud noise will still darm liS IluWCVLT being able to
~OJllC sense out of the world gives us confidenn Music is l llumber of diffnllH W1yS This is Oi1e winch is
)
Music cm enable brln-dallllgcd people to accomplish tasb could not master VitiJollt ih aid It elll also llIake litt people wl1() arc emotionally disturbed or melltally ilL
BeClllSl 1l111SIC is lot so obviously necessary to 1110st OrllS we tend to ulldcrcsrilllllC its significance in the lives of normal people Yct it is difficult to imagine a world without it Evell if playing music
wcre f(lrbildll1 ll1d every device ilr reproducing music destroyed
we should still hl tulles fUllning ill our heads still be using music to order OLlr actlons and lllakl structured sense Ollt of the world lrollild (I
MUI( AN) TlfE MIND
Wagners plTionality was Chlriimatic andio is his music Both arc predominalltly I )ionysiall Apollollian serellity and cOlltrol afe not wlut one looks t()f III Wagller Nor arc mallY of the
with structure form and iymmetry although Wagners use ot tllL leitmotif is characteristic I du not mean to suggest that Vagllcr did Ilot understand such things I Ie was 011e of the most
lllllsicians to have ever lived lIld could employ any device which appealed to him
form But this is not what he was aiming at
Charisl1lltic individuals such as Wagner open the doors ot our perceptions transcend Ollr limitatil)ls and reveal mysteries unshy
to liS Evel1tllaliy they oftell disappoint us because their narClSSISlll tIld self-absorption preclude engagement with them as human beings of the same order as olleself Composers who are as
as Mozart and Haydn are of course far superior to til( ordinary person but they retain their humanity and we can rclate to
them as human beings Wagner IS ill a ditTerent category His contemporary admirers treated him as a god The modern listener
and becomes a disciple or else becomes disillusioned and escapes 11ow vlll he understands the soul He rules over liS
the arts of a demagogue Nietzsches ambivalence toward Wagner is flithfull y reflected in this remark from an imaginary cot1Versatiol1 in Daybreak
Wagners music either overvvhelms or repels because his style reflects his personality The immense length of his later
illustrates his disregard for the listeller He docs not wish to communicate only to convert It necd not prevent one
recognizing and being mtellsel y moved by his lllusic but it IS
understandable that some lis tellers resent the tceling of being takell over rathcr thall charmed or
I think that people who arc repelled by Wagners music well come to appreciate its power alld bellIty if they realized more
what vvas disturbing them I believe that listeners to Wagner to allow thcmselves to be temporarily overwhelmed if
arc fully to appreciate tbl music But many people arc letting to tillS extent and consequently shy away from the intense enwtiotlallxpcnenn which Wag ncr ofkrs liS
III lDDlvimr personal consideratiolls to mUSIC I want to
120
Till ULTARY LlSTENII~ (a ~) cmphasiZl dut the music always COlllCS first I call th1s chapter Solitary Listener because I am interested ill the 1I1crcase ll purdy
appreciation of lllllsic hilth bas ukell pbCl ill reClllt years people who are imensted m music listell to music more
uft(1l than was possible bct()re the advent of modern technology bur I am lJot arguing that listenillg to music IS or ever could be a
for personal relatiollships SOllie aspects OLl composers personality inevitably manifest themselves in his lllusic but the object ofiistcllillg is to get to kllov thc music not to get to know
the composer Great IllUSlC transcends the intii vidual who created it My
purpose in comparing getting to know a piece ofmusll with getting to know a person was to point out the inadequacy of approaching Illusic emly as if it were a matbematical construction not to delly that music has an impersonal dimension
The examples of Haydn and WagnCf are deliberately chosen as extremes Although music inevitably reflects the personality of the composer to some degree Stravinsky was surely right when referred to a composition as being beyond the composers feelings Listening to music docs bring us into indirect contact with the composer but this meeting ofminds IS not closely comparable with cllcountering another human being or listening to a person speaking Elements ofboth arc present but they do not account for the most important dlccts of music upon the Iistencr
As suggested in the last chapter urban civilization cuts us from our own inner lives We have to be watchful or we shall get nm over We are assailed by many varieties o111oi5e most of which
are unpleasant We cannot escape from other people from tdephonc from having demands made upon liS We easily lose tollch with the wellsprings of creative phantasy willch make lift
the ordinary man and woman must have been
very different when it was predofHmantly rural and agncultural w hell bird-song rather than the noise machinery filled the ears when the farmer could observe the changillg seasons and enjoy tht
of the clouds and when however exhausting the
solitude allowed the exercise illlwillati)J
Many sophisticated nquirc illtdkctual concentration
md detachment which would be contamillated if aesthetic COI1shy
121
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIC AND TIll MINll
clothe their insIghts ill tecilmcallangllagl If they did not I claim that mllsic wuuld not continuc to be important to thclJ1 Appnshyeiating musical form and structure is not) techllicallll1ttcr which ()tilly the traJ11ed mllsician IS equipped to IlIldert~lke It is true that describing nlUsicJI form in words requires study and that the
lu do so implies a more complete appreciation of the work involved
-thlIl that available to the ordinary listcner But an ulltrained listener who loves music docs not simply immerse himself ill a sea of
velde although some nineteenth-century music comes clost to
~rovldillg that experience He is also acutely aware of repetition ehange of key and resolution to put it at its minimulIl The
leasures of the unexpected are not confined to musical theorists
for example the listener does not have to be a trained lllUSlCiJIl to fecognize that Haydn is a master of surprise
I think we do need a new type of JanguJge to describe music Although Tovey was unrivalled In his knowledge of the mUSK of
the classical tradition his language is old-fashioned and possibly Iot technic1 enough for todays listeners wl1Q are often wellshy
i)lformed But it is manifestly aosmd to restrict the way we talk and
write about music to language which deliberately excludes any reference to what makes a musical work expressive and capable of
Iausillg arousal To do so is reminiscent ofstructuralists who write ~out the text as if literature had nothing to do with hUI1lJn
Deings either as readers or as authors The f()rmalist analysts are trying to make the appreciation
lIIusic purely cerebral whereas music is rooted in bodily rhythms Alel movement The expressive aspect of music IS difficult to
~isclsS for the reasons outlined earlier but that should not prevent
tts from making the attempt I think it IS possible to do justice to the
Views of both formalists and expressionists without distorting
either When music was still directly tied to words and to underlining
Dr accompanying public ritual there could be little argument kind I )isplltcs between formalists and expreSSIOnists only begin to
be Important with the rise of absolute music Music was bound to
tAke on a life of its OWl when it became el1lJl1cipated from other -Orms ofex pressi011 The rise of romantic music inevitably follows ~e sepHation of music from verbal and other associations Music
711
gtONCS WITHOUT WOIU lS
itsclfillcrets11~ly illcorpllLlled wahin its uwn structure the hUlIlan (lllotion1 lIle~lllillgs which had pnviously belonged to the words ur public occlslons which the musIc accolllpanied 1I1d cnhannd To IILlllltlin tJat absolute music parted compallY with
CIlI()tioIlS beCillsc It began to eXIst ill Its own right is dearly llIItlIllblc The oppoltitc would be more accurate
Music is a temporal art Its patterns exist in time alld require ~ duratioll for their dlveloDIllCIlt and completion Although painting
statel1lents lbout relationships betweell space objects and colours these relatiollshlps are static
Music more aptly represents humall emotional processes because 1 IlIl1sic like lite appears to be in constant motion The fact that v Illusical movement is more apparent than real will be discllssed Lan
It em bc argucd that programmc musIc retains rderences to the cstcrllal world 1I1d cannot thercfilrc be the self-contained isolated Ild more or less perfect structure which formahsts admire But 1
grelt deal of programmc llIllsic is sllllply lllUSIC
evellt story sOllnd or picture has bet1l the trigger Beethovens
Sisth Symphony (Op Mi in r lIllJor) is the obvious example If BeethoveIl had not headed his movements with titles which incidentally he JclJptcd ti-om the titks givln to the movements of
1lI entirely difterellt symphony by Knecht we should accept the Pastoral Symphony as a piece of absolute mllSIC without worryshying whether Bcethoven is depicting By the brook side or Merry
gathering of country folk The same consideration applies to
Mendclssohn ovcrtllre lilt Helirides It is interesting to know that Mendelssohn Jotted down the malll theme whilst in the Hebndes
(Tovey allegcs problbly inaccurately tlLIt he was actually ill
ls cave) but the PICllt stands Oil its own as a magnificent work oJorchstrallllllsic which necds 110 title As Jacques Barzun points
arc lIsed something alien has illto the pure stream of sOllnd
1~llllsky-Korsakovs popular orchestral suite SdlcJ((Iadt is OVLTtly programmatic Every hstellcr recognizes that the sinllolls (llo fl)J Iolin wlllch links the lllllVLll1ents nprlSlllts the voice of SChCItCLIZJdl herself telling the stonlS of the thousand and OI1C
nights to the Sultan But how JIlany listellers Gill rccall the tities
7lJ
MUSIC AND THE MIND
illustrates how the Narrator gradually improves his appreciation of f()rIl1 each time a piece of music lew to him is repeatllL
Theil to tht course of III y thoughts rather than of cards or draughts vith Albltrtine I would ask her to glV(~ me l
little Illusic I relllained in bcd and she would go and sit down at poundIll end of the room before the pianola between the two bookcases She chosc pieces which were either quite new or which she had pia yed to
me only once or tvice for beginning to know lI1e better she was aware that J liked to fix my thoughts only upon what was still obscure to me and to be able in the cour~e of these sUcCt~ssive
thanks to the increasing but distorting and alien of my intellect to link one with another the fragmentary and
interrupted lines of the structure which at first had almost been hiddcll ill mist She knew and I think understood the joy that my mind derived at these first hearings from this task of modellinl a
still shapeless nebula
How refreshing to read that Proust experienced joy ill appreciating structure Formalists often write about music as if understanding
all intellectual III fact the form ofa musical
can balanced of unexpected structural irregularity or decorative detail WillCl1 serves to dispel monotony and reveals the individual hand of a III aster Ifa
listener comes to knc)v a work of music well he is responding to it as a whole Form and content in music and body and suu in human
beings are equally indivisible if either arc to live
CHAPTEI V
ESCAPE FROM REALITY
Musick the grcatc~t good that mortals know And all ofhcavll we have below
JOSEIH ADDISON
A removed from Ollr aside particular periods of time for it and we often go to special places like concert halls and art galleries to find what we arc looking for In pre-literate cultures the arts are more closely integrated with ordinary life 1n Western societies the arts tend to occupy a special
of their own as if they might be a luxury rather than a vital has made it possible for the unenlightened
to argue alat musIC anti the other arts arc some kind of substitute t()f or escape from real life It is a
prof(Hlndly disagree but since some influential psychoanalysts have put f()rward notions of this kind it is worth examining their ideas if only to refute them
freud himself was an extraordinarily well-read individual with a lively apprlciatioll of literature At school where he was top of
for SIX years running he became famihar with the Latill Greek classics He learned Hebrew taught
remained Dostocvsk y not far hdlind Shakespeare and believed The Brothers Karaml1zol the greatest novel ever written freud himself was recognized as a literary stylist and was given the Goethe prtze t()r literature He was also moved by sculpture and to a
extent by paintlllg It l~ true that in the introduction to Moses
H~
MUSIC AND THE MINIl
Noise can be threattmiddotnillg to llormal people If someOllC is hypersensitive to noise and unable to filter out what is Irrelevant
from all tilt dintrent noises which cOllstantly impinge upon him he Illay be speClaIly inclincd to deal with it by tryillg to impose a new order on it make sense Ollt of it and thus turn what was into something manageable Maconic puts it sllccinct y
Ifthere is allullderlying truth in the exclamatioll this nOIse is
Illt mad there may be all equivalent truth in its comic this I1lLlsic is driving me sane The form of words suggests 1
relationship between sensory input and pcrcepnJal flSPOIISl
I ha ve noticed that there are considerable diHcrences between
inlhviduals in response to auditory input Some people cannot bear trying to conduct a conversation through background music
others apparently do not notice it or can cut it out of
perccptual field Many people seem to have their television sets switched on all day irrespective of whether any conversation IS going Oll in the samc room or not A few jmllviduals becoT1w
acutely distressed if whilst listening to a talk on the radio someone
in the room addresses them with a comment Such people complain that they cannot listen to two tlungs at once and miss the sense of
what both the broadcaster and the interrupter are saying For a
moment they are threatened with chaos Auditory discrimination depends on being able to filter out
extraneous sOllnds and identify what is significant A mother will
often respond to the cry of her own infant when no Olle else ill room has heard it I remember sitting at breakfast with KOllfJd
Lorenz who suddenly rose from the tablt saying I hear the cry of a
~oosc-baby a sOllnd which no one else had noticed Sure lllough a
gosling was in trouble and had to be rescued
Pillchas Noy suggests that the child who is hypersll1sitiw to
auditory stimuli lllay find it particularly difficult to eliminate or
I~llorc more than a few of the incoming sOllnds to which hc is
and must therefore adopt a different strltcgy
The oilly way out of thiS dilemma is til ltffort toward OrillHtilll III
and lllastery ofrhc auditory DClCCDtllal t1c1d The lntlIlt vill hIVC to
102
~5 1( API I~OM HFAIXlY
develop an lbiJity tll (UlltClltrltc his lttcl1tloll to directing alld
tWllty different silllultallcously rccurrIng sOllnd stimuli
All CXtltJIll cxampk of sllch all accomplishment is presented in
the persoll of the prominent conductor of an orchlstra wilt) has the ofsimultallelllisly lIstening to the urchcstra as Ollt
and to each of the instruments slparncly discinlllishini each
as ifhc concentrated 011 it alonl
author admits tliat this hypotheSIS lacks experimental COIlshy
firmation but it chimes well with the idea that those who are especially threatened by disorder are those most strongly motivated
to discover order We know that sufferers from schizophrenia are hypersensitive ill
that they need protection from rdatives who are intrusive
smothering or critical They fed threatened by such negative input and arc more likely to relapse than if they find themselves surrounded by tolerant acceptance In Chapter Two rderence was made to experiments with dichotic listening which demonstrated
that in normal subjects language was better perceived by the left hemisphere music by the nght Researcb suggests that 111 people suffering from mental illness both schizophrenia and the various forms uf affective disorder the functions of the two hemispheres arc not so clearly differelltiated as they an in normal people Jgt
Since specialization ofhemispheric function has developed partly to flCilitate the effiCIent processing of incol1llllg auditory infonnashytiOll whether this be speech or music it is not surprising that some
melltally ill people arc hypersensitive to such information and may threatened by It Modern theories of information processing
postulate that in the nOrl1lJl person incoming information is rapidly scanned so that stimuli willch are unwanted inappropriate or irrelevant In excluded from conscioustless Schizophrenics
sornetimes complaill of heing overwhelmed bv stimuli as If tlltering process was absent or inefficient
A number of writers haw suggested that creative people JfC
hypersensitive in metaphorically lackillg a sufficiently thick protecshytive skin to shield them from the impact of the external vorld There is a link between lllental illness and creatiVity ill that the
to think Cflatively to make new links between cOllcept~ i~
103
MUSIC AND TIlE MINI)
more oftell (Hillel III fJlllilics winch indudl a member who is
as mcnrally ill I am llot sllgglsting that all crcativl people ar mentally ill although SOnIe of the greatest have been so but onl y that ullconventional thought processes of a similar kind can be delllonstrated in both the mentally ill and the creative From
has already been noted it appeus likely that the mentally ill and the creative may share a difficulty in ckaling with sensory input ti-om the external world whether this takes the f()rm of speech lIo11-verbal sounds or el11otional pressure The mentally ill are overwhelmed by the threat ofconfusion and disorder The creative meN the challellge by creating a new order in their works lI1d thus master the threat Robert Schumanll and I--lugo Wolf are examples of cOlllposers who suffered from manic-depressive illncss_ Alshythough ultimately ddiated by the severity of their mental disshyturbances there is no doubt that their creativity was partly a product of thcir instability Rachmaninov also experienced severe
depression This condition can be so extreme that it prevents
productioll altogether but liability to depression and the threat of its
ITcurrenn can act as a spur to creativity Berlioz whell suffering tormcllting deprcsstoll and anxiety told his flther that without music he could not go on living_ 13 Tchaikovsky who also endured severe bouts ofdcpression wrote Truly there would be reason to
go mad if it WlrC not f()r 1IIIISie His biographer John Warrack thinks tbat he was stating nothing but the sober truth 24
The crcati vc process depends on both conscious and unconscious melltal fUllctions W c are still so influcnccd by Freud that malJY pcople believe that anything emanating from the ullconsciolls must
cmotionaL irrational unacceptable and probably disreputable III reality this is llot the casco Unconscious processes are just as lllllch concerned with pattern and structure as they Ife with
EvelJ more apparcllt tllan rcal
Dreams certailll y impossibilities temporal confusion ami many features unacceptable to the rational Il1md But most are stories The scanning process
goes on 111 matches reccllt events -vith Dast evellts JlId lillks
wgcther mcntal COlltCllts which shan a similar fleling but which llll y not be related in an yother Va y Thc drea m attclll pts to 11uke
10
ESCAPF FHDM ItEALrIYshy
sense out of thlS hotchpotch by trymt to impose the order of a story-Jille
As I bave argued elsewhere the human specics IS compelled to
theorize and strive to make sense of both life and the ulliverse Because human behaviour is not principally governed by the inshy
instinctive patterns of response to stimuli which direct the behaviour of animals lower In the evolutionary order human beings arc forced to become inventive They arc compelled to try to understand the world and themselves and in so domg can reach new and better ltldaptations The processes by which this is achieved arc both unconscious and conscious We cannot avoid making some attcmpt to find cohercnce ill the world and within ourselvcs but the origmal1y unconscious impulse which makes us do this is reinforced refined and given rationality by conscious reasoning
I am sure that one of the reasons why music affects us deeply is its powcr to structure our auditory explrience and thus to make sense out of it Although I have been at pains to dispel the psychoanalytic view that music is an escape from reality or a regression to an mCll1tile state there is no doubt that music provides one path of temporary withdrawal from the hurly-burly of the external world_ This is refreshing because it permits the same kind of scanning sorting and rearrangement of mental contents which takes place ill reverie or ill sleep_ There arc many others ways of achieving this from going f()- a solitary walk in the country to practising trallScendental meditation When we take part in music or listen to an absorbing perfi)fmance we arc temporarily protected from the input of other external stimuli We enter a special sedudcd world 111 which order prevails and from which the incongruous is
This in itsdf is beneficial It is not a regressive manoeuvrc hut reoder pOll I licHX slmter a temporary retreat which promotes a fe-ordering process within the mind aud thus aids OHr
to the external world rather than providing an escape
from it If music and the other arts WCTe more closely interwovell with
activities we might not Ileed this temporary rtreat so Peopit of other cultures sometimes cannot understand why
Europeans secm so tense WhenJung visited Nevv Mexico he talked with all Indian chief who
10)
lHJS[( ANI) 1111 MIN)
Sec hov crud the whitts louk Their lips arc thill thllr lOStS
their faces furrowed and distorted by t~)lds Their eyes have a stanng lXpnSSHlll thcy arc always scckillg sOlllcrhlllg Vhat arc they
The hITes alwys want sOIlltthIII g tbey arc Ilways UllCS)
and rcstless We do not kIlOV what they Vlllt We do not understand thclll W l thillk that thev arc mad
If there appears to be an escapist elemcnt 111 musical participation it is because our culture is so concerned with achievcllllllt and the pursuit of conventional success that it makcs ordinary Iik into a tense and anxious business from which thl arts arc absent Music em and should be a lifi-enhancing part ofour day-to-da y existellcc
Music plays special role m aiding the scanning lI1d sorting process which goes on whcn we are asleep or simply day-dreaming Stravinsk y rekrs to the pleasure we gain from uIlorganized natural sOLlllds which may be considerable but which lacks the further dimension provided by IllllSIC
Hut over and above this passivt l1~ioymll1t we shall dis(ovt music Illllsic tbat will make U~ partlcipate activdy in the workm1 ofa lllllld that orders gives Iit( and CleHlS 0(
Psychomalysts rdtr to this participation as proJectivc idclltificashy
tion the process by which a persoll imagines himself to be inside SCHIll object external to himself Imitatioll is not only the sincerest form of flattery but a way of learning By identifying ourselves with those more gifted we can actually improve our own capacities Tlachers of music know that do it the way I do is a more effective way oftelchlllg than theonticli instruction
Music not only brillgs order to muscubr movelllellt but also prol1lotl~ order vitbill the mind This is wby John Blacking writing ill hi~ book A COllllllollsme I itll of All Mush ullCkr the hladlllg The Power of Music i~ able to say
of the SCllCS alld the ldUCltioll of the emotions
the lrtS are lot merely dcsirabk 0P(lUls Th) In essllHiai both 1)1 blimcni action md the dlltnivl liSt of the intllkcrshy
lOt)
1(1I1 HUHl HUI1 y~
IllstLd )( rhrcltlllld all overload of
IlHIIlS or ntllSIC tn impose our will upon this 11 the irrdevalll to pav JttlllilOl til what ilt
1l1d thus to nJte or discover SOJlle order ill tht world I It with the pklsure Vl get from thl explanatory h ufscilllcl
IkclnSl 1 scielltific thcnry makes thL w)rld more comprdHl1sshy W (d kss It thl )r1ds mercy alld lllore able to control
eVlllts ()( courSl iC cannot cOlltrol lverythillg Howevlr
geology we arc still vulmrablc lS We III I y becollle auditoril y sophisticatld but 1Il
loud noise will still darm liS IluWCVLT being able to
~OJllC sense out of the world gives us confidenn Music is l llumber of diffnllH W1yS This is Oi1e winch is
)
Music cm enable brln-dallllgcd people to accomplish tasb could not master VitiJollt ih aid It elll also llIake litt people wl1() arc emotionally disturbed or melltally ilL
BeClllSl 1l111SIC is lot so obviously necessary to 1110st OrllS we tend to ulldcrcsrilllllC its significance in the lives of normal people Yct it is difficult to imagine a world without it Evell if playing music
wcre f(lrbildll1 ll1d every device ilr reproducing music destroyed
we should still hl tulles fUllning ill our heads still be using music to order OLlr actlons and lllakl structured sense Ollt of the world lrollild (I
MUI( AN) TlfE MIND
Wagners plTionality was Chlriimatic andio is his music Both arc predominalltly I )ionysiall Apollollian serellity and cOlltrol afe not wlut one looks t()f III Wagller Nor arc mallY of the
with structure form and iymmetry although Wagners use ot tllL leitmotif is characteristic I du not mean to suggest that Vagllcr did Ilot understand such things I Ie was 011e of the most
lllllsicians to have ever lived lIld could employ any device which appealed to him
form But this is not what he was aiming at
Charisl1lltic individuals such as Wagner open the doors ot our perceptions transcend Ollr limitatil)ls and reveal mysteries unshy
to liS Evel1tllaliy they oftell disappoint us because their narClSSISlll tIld self-absorption preclude engagement with them as human beings of the same order as olleself Composers who are as
as Mozart and Haydn are of course far superior to til( ordinary person but they retain their humanity and we can rclate to
them as human beings Wagner IS ill a ditTerent category His contemporary admirers treated him as a god The modern listener
and becomes a disciple or else becomes disillusioned and escapes 11ow vlll he understands the soul He rules over liS
the arts of a demagogue Nietzsches ambivalence toward Wagner is flithfull y reflected in this remark from an imaginary cot1Versatiol1 in Daybreak
Wagners music either overvvhelms or repels because his style reflects his personality The immense length of his later
illustrates his disregard for the listeller He docs not wish to communicate only to convert It necd not prevent one
recognizing and being mtellsel y moved by his lllusic but it IS
understandable that some lis tellers resent the tceling of being takell over rathcr thall charmed or
I think that people who arc repelled by Wagners music well come to appreciate its power alld bellIty if they realized more
what vvas disturbing them I believe that listeners to Wagner to allow thcmselves to be temporarily overwhelmed if
arc fully to appreciate tbl music But many people arc letting to tillS extent and consequently shy away from the intense enwtiotlallxpcnenn which Wag ncr ofkrs liS
III lDDlvimr personal consideratiolls to mUSIC I want to
120
Till ULTARY LlSTENII~ (a ~) cmphasiZl dut the music always COlllCS first I call th1s chapter Solitary Listener because I am interested ill the 1I1crcase ll purdy
appreciation of lllllsic hilth bas ukell pbCl ill reClllt years people who are imensted m music listell to music more
uft(1l than was possible bct()re the advent of modern technology bur I am lJot arguing that listenillg to music IS or ever could be a
for personal relatiollships SOllie aspects OLl composers personality inevitably manifest themselves in his lllusic but the object ofiistcllillg is to get to kllov thc music not to get to know
the composer Great IllUSlC transcends the intii vidual who created it My
purpose in comparing getting to know a piece ofmusll with getting to know a person was to point out the inadequacy of approaching Illusic emly as if it were a matbematical construction not to delly that music has an impersonal dimension
The examples of Haydn and WagnCf are deliberately chosen as extremes Although music inevitably reflects the personality of the composer to some degree Stravinsky was surely right when referred to a composition as being beyond the composers feelings Listening to music docs bring us into indirect contact with the composer but this meeting ofminds IS not closely comparable with cllcountering another human being or listening to a person speaking Elements ofboth arc present but they do not account for the most important dlccts of music upon the Iistencr
As suggested in the last chapter urban civilization cuts us from our own inner lives We have to be watchful or we shall get nm over We are assailed by many varieties o111oi5e most of which
are unpleasant We cannot escape from other people from tdephonc from having demands made upon liS We easily lose tollch with the wellsprings of creative phantasy willch make lift
the ordinary man and woman must have been
very different when it was predofHmantly rural and agncultural w hell bird-song rather than the noise machinery filled the ears when the farmer could observe the changillg seasons and enjoy tht
of the clouds and when however exhausting the
solitude allowed the exercise illlwillati)J
Many sophisticated nquirc illtdkctual concentration
md detachment which would be contamillated if aesthetic COI1shy
121
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIC AND THE MIND
illustrates how the Narrator gradually improves his appreciation of f()rIl1 each time a piece of music lew to him is repeatllL
Theil to tht course of III y thoughts rather than of cards or draughts vith Albltrtine I would ask her to glV(~ me l
little Illusic I relllained in bcd and she would go and sit down at poundIll end of the room before the pianola between the two bookcases She chosc pieces which were either quite new or which she had pia yed to
me only once or tvice for beginning to know lI1e better she was aware that J liked to fix my thoughts only upon what was still obscure to me and to be able in the cour~e of these sUcCt~ssive
thanks to the increasing but distorting and alien of my intellect to link one with another the fragmentary and
interrupted lines of the structure which at first had almost been hiddcll ill mist She knew and I think understood the joy that my mind derived at these first hearings from this task of modellinl a
still shapeless nebula
How refreshing to read that Proust experienced joy ill appreciating structure Formalists often write about music as if understanding
all intellectual III fact the form ofa musical
can balanced of unexpected structural irregularity or decorative detail WillCl1 serves to dispel monotony and reveals the individual hand of a III aster Ifa
listener comes to knc)v a work of music well he is responding to it as a whole Form and content in music and body and suu in human
beings are equally indivisible if either arc to live
CHAPTEI V
ESCAPE FROM REALITY
Musick the grcatc~t good that mortals know And all ofhcavll we have below
JOSEIH ADDISON
A removed from Ollr aside particular periods of time for it and we often go to special places like concert halls and art galleries to find what we arc looking for In pre-literate cultures the arts are more closely integrated with ordinary life 1n Western societies the arts tend to occupy a special
of their own as if they might be a luxury rather than a vital has made it possible for the unenlightened
to argue alat musIC anti the other arts arc some kind of substitute t()f or escape from real life It is a
prof(Hlndly disagree but since some influential psychoanalysts have put f()rward notions of this kind it is worth examining their ideas if only to refute them
freud himself was an extraordinarily well-read individual with a lively apprlciatioll of literature At school where he was top of
for SIX years running he became famihar with the Latill Greek classics He learned Hebrew taught
remained Dostocvsk y not far hdlind Shakespeare and believed The Brothers Karaml1zol the greatest novel ever written freud himself was recognized as a literary stylist and was given the Goethe prtze t()r literature He was also moved by sculpture and to a
extent by paintlllg It l~ true that in the introduction to Moses
H~
MUSIC AND THE MINIl
Noise can be threattmiddotnillg to llormal people If someOllC is hypersensitive to noise and unable to filter out what is Irrelevant
from all tilt dintrent noises which cOllstantly impinge upon him he Illay be speClaIly inclincd to deal with it by tryillg to impose a new order on it make sense Ollt of it and thus turn what was into something manageable Maconic puts it sllccinct y
Ifthere is allullderlying truth in the exclamatioll this nOIse is
Illt mad there may be all equivalent truth in its comic this I1lLlsic is driving me sane The form of words suggests 1
relationship between sensory input and pcrcepnJal flSPOIISl
I ha ve noticed that there are considerable diHcrences between
inlhviduals in response to auditory input Some people cannot bear trying to conduct a conversation through background music
others apparently do not notice it or can cut it out of
perccptual field Many people seem to have their television sets switched on all day irrespective of whether any conversation IS going Oll in the samc room or not A few jmllviduals becoT1w
acutely distressed if whilst listening to a talk on the radio someone
in the room addresses them with a comment Such people complain that they cannot listen to two tlungs at once and miss the sense of
what both the broadcaster and the interrupter are saying For a
moment they are threatened with chaos Auditory discrimination depends on being able to filter out
extraneous sOllnds and identify what is significant A mother will
often respond to the cry of her own infant when no Olle else ill room has heard it I remember sitting at breakfast with KOllfJd
Lorenz who suddenly rose from the tablt saying I hear the cry of a
~oosc-baby a sOllnd which no one else had noticed Sure lllough a
gosling was in trouble and had to be rescued
Pillchas Noy suggests that the child who is hypersll1sitiw to
auditory stimuli lllay find it particularly difficult to eliminate or
I~llorc more than a few of the incoming sOllnds to which hc is
and must therefore adopt a different strltcgy
The oilly way out of thiS dilemma is til ltffort toward OrillHtilll III
and lllastery ofrhc auditory DClCCDtllal t1c1d The lntlIlt vill hIVC to
102
~5 1( API I~OM HFAIXlY
develop an lbiJity tll (UlltClltrltc his lttcl1tloll to directing alld
tWllty different silllultallcously rccurrIng sOllnd stimuli
All CXtltJIll cxampk of sllch all accomplishment is presented in
the persoll of the prominent conductor of an orchlstra wilt) has the ofsimultallelllisly lIstening to the urchcstra as Ollt
and to each of the instruments slparncly discinlllishini each
as ifhc concentrated 011 it alonl
author admits tliat this hypotheSIS lacks experimental COIlshy
firmation but it chimes well with the idea that those who are especially threatened by disorder are those most strongly motivated
to discover order We know that sufferers from schizophrenia are hypersensitive ill
that they need protection from rdatives who are intrusive
smothering or critical They fed threatened by such negative input and arc more likely to relapse than if they find themselves surrounded by tolerant acceptance In Chapter Two rderence was made to experiments with dichotic listening which demonstrated
that in normal subjects language was better perceived by the left hemisphere music by the nght Researcb suggests that 111 people suffering from mental illness both schizophrenia and the various forms uf affective disorder the functions of the two hemispheres arc not so clearly differelltiated as they an in normal people Jgt
Since specialization ofhemispheric function has developed partly to flCilitate the effiCIent processing of incol1llllg auditory infonnashytiOll whether this be speech or music it is not surprising that some
melltally ill people arc hypersensitive to such information and may threatened by It Modern theories of information processing
postulate that in the nOrl1lJl person incoming information is rapidly scanned so that stimuli willch are unwanted inappropriate or irrelevant In excluded from conscioustless Schizophrenics
sornetimes complaill of heing overwhelmed bv stimuli as If tlltering process was absent or inefficient
A number of writers haw suggested that creative people JfC
hypersensitive in metaphorically lackillg a sufficiently thick protecshytive skin to shield them from the impact of the external vorld There is a link between lllental illness and creatiVity ill that the
to think Cflatively to make new links between cOllcept~ i~
103
MUSIC AND TIlE MINI)
more oftell (Hillel III fJlllilics winch indudl a member who is
as mcnrally ill I am llot sllgglsting that all crcativl people ar mentally ill although SOnIe of the greatest have been so but onl y that ullconventional thought processes of a similar kind can be delllonstrated in both the mentally ill and the creative From
has already been noted it appeus likely that the mentally ill and the creative may share a difficulty in ckaling with sensory input ti-om the external world whether this takes the f()rm of speech lIo11-verbal sounds or el11otional pressure The mentally ill are overwhelmed by the threat ofconfusion and disorder The creative meN the challellge by creating a new order in their works lI1d thus master the threat Robert Schumanll and I--lugo Wolf are examples of cOlllposers who suffered from manic-depressive illncss_ Alshythough ultimately ddiated by the severity of their mental disshyturbances there is no doubt that their creativity was partly a product of thcir instability Rachmaninov also experienced severe
depression This condition can be so extreme that it prevents
productioll altogether but liability to depression and the threat of its
ITcurrenn can act as a spur to creativity Berlioz whell suffering tormcllting deprcsstoll and anxiety told his flther that without music he could not go on living_ 13 Tchaikovsky who also endured severe bouts ofdcpression wrote Truly there would be reason to
go mad if it WlrC not f()r 1IIIISie His biographer John Warrack thinks tbat he was stating nothing but the sober truth 24
The crcati vc process depends on both conscious and unconscious melltal fUllctions W c are still so influcnccd by Freud that malJY pcople believe that anything emanating from the ullconsciolls must
cmotionaL irrational unacceptable and probably disreputable III reality this is llot the casco Unconscious processes are just as lllllch concerned with pattern and structure as they Ife with
EvelJ more apparcllt tllan rcal
Dreams certailll y impossibilities temporal confusion ami many features unacceptable to the rational Il1md But most are stories The scanning process
goes on 111 matches reccllt events -vith Dast evellts JlId lillks
wgcther mcntal COlltCllts which shan a similar fleling but which llll y not be related in an yother Va y Thc drea m attclll pts to 11uke
10
ESCAPF FHDM ItEALrIYshy
sense out of thlS hotchpotch by trymt to impose the order of a story-Jille
As I bave argued elsewhere the human specics IS compelled to
theorize and strive to make sense of both life and the ulliverse Because human behaviour is not principally governed by the inshy
instinctive patterns of response to stimuli which direct the behaviour of animals lower In the evolutionary order human beings arc forced to become inventive They arc compelled to try to understand the world and themselves and in so domg can reach new and better ltldaptations The processes by which this is achieved arc both unconscious and conscious We cannot avoid making some attcmpt to find cohercnce ill the world and within ourselvcs but the origmal1y unconscious impulse which makes us do this is reinforced refined and given rationality by conscious reasoning
I am sure that one of the reasons why music affects us deeply is its powcr to structure our auditory explrience and thus to make sense out of it Although I have been at pains to dispel the psychoanalytic view that music is an escape from reality or a regression to an mCll1tile state there is no doubt that music provides one path of temporary withdrawal from the hurly-burly of the external world_ This is refreshing because it permits the same kind of scanning sorting and rearrangement of mental contents which takes place ill reverie or ill sleep_ There arc many others ways of achieving this from going f()- a solitary walk in the country to practising trallScendental meditation When we take part in music or listen to an absorbing perfi)fmance we arc temporarily protected from the input of other external stimuli We enter a special sedudcd world 111 which order prevails and from which the incongruous is
This in itsdf is beneficial It is not a regressive manoeuvrc hut reoder pOll I licHX slmter a temporary retreat which promotes a fe-ordering process within the mind aud thus aids OHr
to the external world rather than providing an escape
from it If music and the other arts WCTe more closely interwovell with
activities we might not Ileed this temporary rtreat so Peopit of other cultures sometimes cannot understand why
Europeans secm so tense WhenJung visited Nevv Mexico he talked with all Indian chief who
10)
lHJS[( ANI) 1111 MIN)
Sec hov crud the whitts louk Their lips arc thill thllr lOStS
their faces furrowed and distorted by t~)lds Their eyes have a stanng lXpnSSHlll thcy arc always scckillg sOlllcrhlllg Vhat arc they
The hITes alwys want sOIlltthIII g tbey arc Ilways UllCS)
and rcstless We do not kIlOV what they Vlllt We do not understand thclll W l thillk that thev arc mad
If there appears to be an escapist elemcnt 111 musical participation it is because our culture is so concerned with achievcllllllt and the pursuit of conventional success that it makcs ordinary Iik into a tense and anxious business from which thl arts arc absent Music em and should be a lifi-enhancing part ofour day-to-da y existellcc
Music plays special role m aiding the scanning lI1d sorting process which goes on whcn we are asleep or simply day-dreaming Stravinsk y rekrs to the pleasure we gain from uIlorganized natural sOLlllds which may be considerable but which lacks the further dimension provided by IllllSIC
Hut over and above this passivt l1~ioymll1t we shall dis(ovt music Illllsic tbat will make U~ partlcipate activdy in the workm1 ofa lllllld that orders gives Iit( and CleHlS 0(
Psychomalysts rdtr to this participation as proJectivc idclltificashy
tion the process by which a persoll imagines himself to be inside SCHIll object external to himself Imitatioll is not only the sincerest form of flattery but a way of learning By identifying ourselves with those more gifted we can actually improve our own capacities Tlachers of music know that do it the way I do is a more effective way oftelchlllg than theonticli instruction
Music not only brillgs order to muscubr movelllellt but also prol1lotl~ order vitbill the mind This is wby John Blacking writing ill hi~ book A COllllllollsme I itll of All Mush ullCkr the hladlllg The Power of Music i~ able to say
of the SCllCS alld the ldUCltioll of the emotions
the lrtS are lot merely dcsirabk 0P(lUls Th) In essllHiai both 1)1 blimcni action md the dlltnivl liSt of the intllkcrshy
lOt)
1(1I1 HUHl HUI1 y~
IllstLd )( rhrcltlllld all overload of
IlHIIlS or ntllSIC tn impose our will upon this 11 the irrdevalll to pav JttlllilOl til what ilt
1l1d thus to nJte or discover SOJlle order ill tht world I It with the pklsure Vl get from thl explanatory h ufscilllcl
IkclnSl 1 scielltific thcnry makes thL w)rld more comprdHl1sshy W (d kss It thl )r1ds mercy alld lllore able to control
eVlllts ()( courSl iC cannot cOlltrol lverythillg Howevlr
geology we arc still vulmrablc lS We III I y becollle auditoril y sophisticatld but 1Il
loud noise will still darm liS IluWCVLT being able to
~OJllC sense out of the world gives us confidenn Music is l llumber of diffnllH W1yS This is Oi1e winch is
)
Music cm enable brln-dallllgcd people to accomplish tasb could not master VitiJollt ih aid It elll also llIake litt people wl1() arc emotionally disturbed or melltally ilL
BeClllSl 1l111SIC is lot so obviously necessary to 1110st OrllS we tend to ulldcrcsrilllllC its significance in the lives of normal people Yct it is difficult to imagine a world without it Evell if playing music
wcre f(lrbildll1 ll1d every device ilr reproducing music destroyed
we should still hl tulles fUllning ill our heads still be using music to order OLlr actlons and lllakl structured sense Ollt of the world lrollild (I
MUI( AN) TlfE MIND
Wagners plTionality was Chlriimatic andio is his music Both arc predominalltly I )ionysiall Apollollian serellity and cOlltrol afe not wlut one looks t()f III Wagller Nor arc mallY of the
with structure form and iymmetry although Wagners use ot tllL leitmotif is characteristic I du not mean to suggest that Vagllcr did Ilot understand such things I Ie was 011e of the most
lllllsicians to have ever lived lIld could employ any device which appealed to him
form But this is not what he was aiming at
Charisl1lltic individuals such as Wagner open the doors ot our perceptions transcend Ollr limitatil)ls and reveal mysteries unshy
to liS Evel1tllaliy they oftell disappoint us because their narClSSISlll tIld self-absorption preclude engagement with them as human beings of the same order as olleself Composers who are as
as Mozart and Haydn are of course far superior to til( ordinary person but they retain their humanity and we can rclate to
them as human beings Wagner IS ill a ditTerent category His contemporary admirers treated him as a god The modern listener
and becomes a disciple or else becomes disillusioned and escapes 11ow vlll he understands the soul He rules over liS
the arts of a demagogue Nietzsches ambivalence toward Wagner is flithfull y reflected in this remark from an imaginary cot1Versatiol1 in Daybreak
Wagners music either overvvhelms or repels because his style reflects his personality The immense length of his later
illustrates his disregard for the listeller He docs not wish to communicate only to convert It necd not prevent one
recognizing and being mtellsel y moved by his lllusic but it IS
understandable that some lis tellers resent the tceling of being takell over rathcr thall charmed or
I think that people who arc repelled by Wagners music well come to appreciate its power alld bellIty if they realized more
what vvas disturbing them I believe that listeners to Wagner to allow thcmselves to be temporarily overwhelmed if
arc fully to appreciate tbl music But many people arc letting to tillS extent and consequently shy away from the intense enwtiotlallxpcnenn which Wag ncr ofkrs liS
III lDDlvimr personal consideratiolls to mUSIC I want to
120
Till ULTARY LlSTENII~ (a ~) cmphasiZl dut the music always COlllCS first I call th1s chapter Solitary Listener because I am interested ill the 1I1crcase ll purdy
appreciation of lllllsic hilth bas ukell pbCl ill reClllt years people who are imensted m music listell to music more
uft(1l than was possible bct()re the advent of modern technology bur I am lJot arguing that listenillg to music IS or ever could be a
for personal relatiollships SOllie aspects OLl composers personality inevitably manifest themselves in his lllusic but the object ofiistcllillg is to get to kllov thc music not to get to know
the composer Great IllUSlC transcends the intii vidual who created it My
purpose in comparing getting to know a piece ofmusll with getting to know a person was to point out the inadequacy of approaching Illusic emly as if it were a matbematical construction not to delly that music has an impersonal dimension
The examples of Haydn and WagnCf are deliberately chosen as extremes Although music inevitably reflects the personality of the composer to some degree Stravinsky was surely right when referred to a composition as being beyond the composers feelings Listening to music docs bring us into indirect contact with the composer but this meeting ofminds IS not closely comparable with cllcountering another human being or listening to a person speaking Elements ofboth arc present but they do not account for the most important dlccts of music upon the Iistencr
As suggested in the last chapter urban civilization cuts us from our own inner lives We have to be watchful or we shall get nm over We are assailed by many varieties o111oi5e most of which
are unpleasant We cannot escape from other people from tdephonc from having demands made upon liS We easily lose tollch with the wellsprings of creative phantasy willch make lift
the ordinary man and woman must have been
very different when it was predofHmantly rural and agncultural w hell bird-song rather than the noise machinery filled the ears when the farmer could observe the changillg seasons and enjoy tht
of the clouds and when however exhausting the
solitude allowed the exercise illlwillati)J
Many sophisticated nquirc illtdkctual concentration
md detachment which would be contamillated if aesthetic COI1shy
121
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
gt
gt z
gt z z
gt
r ~
~
lt
r
C-
r
- -~
lt~
~
sr
1
Z
r ~ ~
~
~
r
c
r
gt z
shy
z shy
bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
IfJ
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nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIC AND THE MINIl
Noise can be threattmiddotnillg to llormal people If someOllC is hypersensitive to noise and unable to filter out what is Irrelevant
from all tilt dintrent noises which cOllstantly impinge upon him he Illay be speClaIly inclincd to deal with it by tryillg to impose a new order on it make sense Ollt of it and thus turn what was into something manageable Maconic puts it sllccinct y
Ifthere is allullderlying truth in the exclamatioll this nOIse is
Illt mad there may be all equivalent truth in its comic this I1lLlsic is driving me sane The form of words suggests 1
relationship between sensory input and pcrcepnJal flSPOIISl
I ha ve noticed that there are considerable diHcrences between
inlhviduals in response to auditory input Some people cannot bear trying to conduct a conversation through background music
others apparently do not notice it or can cut it out of
perccptual field Many people seem to have their television sets switched on all day irrespective of whether any conversation IS going Oll in the samc room or not A few jmllviduals becoT1w
acutely distressed if whilst listening to a talk on the radio someone
in the room addresses them with a comment Such people complain that they cannot listen to two tlungs at once and miss the sense of
what both the broadcaster and the interrupter are saying For a
moment they are threatened with chaos Auditory discrimination depends on being able to filter out
extraneous sOllnds and identify what is significant A mother will
often respond to the cry of her own infant when no Olle else ill room has heard it I remember sitting at breakfast with KOllfJd
Lorenz who suddenly rose from the tablt saying I hear the cry of a
~oosc-baby a sOllnd which no one else had noticed Sure lllough a
gosling was in trouble and had to be rescued
Pillchas Noy suggests that the child who is hypersll1sitiw to
auditory stimuli lllay find it particularly difficult to eliminate or
I~llorc more than a few of the incoming sOllnds to which hc is
and must therefore adopt a different strltcgy
The oilly way out of thiS dilemma is til ltffort toward OrillHtilll III
and lllastery ofrhc auditory DClCCDtllal t1c1d The lntlIlt vill hIVC to
102
~5 1( API I~OM HFAIXlY
develop an lbiJity tll (UlltClltrltc his lttcl1tloll to directing alld
tWllty different silllultallcously rccurrIng sOllnd stimuli
All CXtltJIll cxampk of sllch all accomplishment is presented in
the persoll of the prominent conductor of an orchlstra wilt) has the ofsimultallelllisly lIstening to the urchcstra as Ollt
and to each of the instruments slparncly discinlllishini each
as ifhc concentrated 011 it alonl
author admits tliat this hypotheSIS lacks experimental COIlshy
firmation but it chimes well with the idea that those who are especially threatened by disorder are those most strongly motivated
to discover order We know that sufferers from schizophrenia are hypersensitive ill
that they need protection from rdatives who are intrusive
smothering or critical They fed threatened by such negative input and arc more likely to relapse than if they find themselves surrounded by tolerant acceptance In Chapter Two rderence was made to experiments with dichotic listening which demonstrated
that in normal subjects language was better perceived by the left hemisphere music by the nght Researcb suggests that 111 people suffering from mental illness both schizophrenia and the various forms uf affective disorder the functions of the two hemispheres arc not so clearly differelltiated as they an in normal people Jgt
Since specialization ofhemispheric function has developed partly to flCilitate the effiCIent processing of incol1llllg auditory infonnashytiOll whether this be speech or music it is not surprising that some
melltally ill people arc hypersensitive to such information and may threatened by It Modern theories of information processing
postulate that in the nOrl1lJl person incoming information is rapidly scanned so that stimuli willch are unwanted inappropriate or irrelevant In excluded from conscioustless Schizophrenics
sornetimes complaill of heing overwhelmed bv stimuli as If tlltering process was absent or inefficient
A number of writers haw suggested that creative people JfC
hypersensitive in metaphorically lackillg a sufficiently thick protecshytive skin to shield them from the impact of the external vorld There is a link between lllental illness and creatiVity ill that the
to think Cflatively to make new links between cOllcept~ i~
103
MUSIC AND TIlE MINI)
more oftell (Hillel III fJlllilics winch indudl a member who is
as mcnrally ill I am llot sllgglsting that all crcativl people ar mentally ill although SOnIe of the greatest have been so but onl y that ullconventional thought processes of a similar kind can be delllonstrated in both the mentally ill and the creative From
has already been noted it appeus likely that the mentally ill and the creative may share a difficulty in ckaling with sensory input ti-om the external world whether this takes the f()rm of speech lIo11-verbal sounds or el11otional pressure The mentally ill are overwhelmed by the threat ofconfusion and disorder The creative meN the challellge by creating a new order in their works lI1d thus master the threat Robert Schumanll and I--lugo Wolf are examples of cOlllposers who suffered from manic-depressive illncss_ Alshythough ultimately ddiated by the severity of their mental disshyturbances there is no doubt that their creativity was partly a product of thcir instability Rachmaninov also experienced severe
depression This condition can be so extreme that it prevents
productioll altogether but liability to depression and the threat of its
ITcurrenn can act as a spur to creativity Berlioz whell suffering tormcllting deprcsstoll and anxiety told his flther that without music he could not go on living_ 13 Tchaikovsky who also endured severe bouts ofdcpression wrote Truly there would be reason to
go mad if it WlrC not f()r 1IIIISie His biographer John Warrack thinks tbat he was stating nothing but the sober truth 24
The crcati vc process depends on both conscious and unconscious melltal fUllctions W c are still so influcnccd by Freud that malJY pcople believe that anything emanating from the ullconsciolls must
cmotionaL irrational unacceptable and probably disreputable III reality this is llot the casco Unconscious processes are just as lllllch concerned with pattern and structure as they Ife with
EvelJ more apparcllt tllan rcal
Dreams certailll y impossibilities temporal confusion ami many features unacceptable to the rational Il1md But most are stories The scanning process
goes on 111 matches reccllt events -vith Dast evellts JlId lillks
wgcther mcntal COlltCllts which shan a similar fleling but which llll y not be related in an yother Va y Thc drea m attclll pts to 11uke
10
ESCAPF FHDM ItEALrIYshy
sense out of thlS hotchpotch by trymt to impose the order of a story-Jille
As I bave argued elsewhere the human specics IS compelled to
theorize and strive to make sense of both life and the ulliverse Because human behaviour is not principally governed by the inshy
instinctive patterns of response to stimuli which direct the behaviour of animals lower In the evolutionary order human beings arc forced to become inventive They arc compelled to try to understand the world and themselves and in so domg can reach new and better ltldaptations The processes by which this is achieved arc both unconscious and conscious We cannot avoid making some attcmpt to find cohercnce ill the world and within ourselvcs but the origmal1y unconscious impulse which makes us do this is reinforced refined and given rationality by conscious reasoning
I am sure that one of the reasons why music affects us deeply is its powcr to structure our auditory explrience and thus to make sense out of it Although I have been at pains to dispel the psychoanalytic view that music is an escape from reality or a regression to an mCll1tile state there is no doubt that music provides one path of temporary withdrawal from the hurly-burly of the external world_ This is refreshing because it permits the same kind of scanning sorting and rearrangement of mental contents which takes place ill reverie or ill sleep_ There arc many others ways of achieving this from going f()- a solitary walk in the country to practising trallScendental meditation When we take part in music or listen to an absorbing perfi)fmance we arc temporarily protected from the input of other external stimuli We enter a special sedudcd world 111 which order prevails and from which the incongruous is
This in itsdf is beneficial It is not a regressive manoeuvrc hut reoder pOll I licHX slmter a temporary retreat which promotes a fe-ordering process within the mind aud thus aids OHr
to the external world rather than providing an escape
from it If music and the other arts WCTe more closely interwovell with
activities we might not Ileed this temporary rtreat so Peopit of other cultures sometimes cannot understand why
Europeans secm so tense WhenJung visited Nevv Mexico he talked with all Indian chief who
10)
lHJS[( ANI) 1111 MIN)
Sec hov crud the whitts louk Their lips arc thill thllr lOStS
their faces furrowed and distorted by t~)lds Their eyes have a stanng lXpnSSHlll thcy arc always scckillg sOlllcrhlllg Vhat arc they
The hITes alwys want sOIlltthIII g tbey arc Ilways UllCS)
and rcstless We do not kIlOV what they Vlllt We do not understand thclll W l thillk that thev arc mad
If there appears to be an escapist elemcnt 111 musical participation it is because our culture is so concerned with achievcllllllt and the pursuit of conventional success that it makcs ordinary Iik into a tense and anxious business from which thl arts arc absent Music em and should be a lifi-enhancing part ofour day-to-da y existellcc
Music plays special role m aiding the scanning lI1d sorting process which goes on whcn we are asleep or simply day-dreaming Stravinsk y rekrs to the pleasure we gain from uIlorganized natural sOLlllds which may be considerable but which lacks the further dimension provided by IllllSIC
Hut over and above this passivt l1~ioymll1t we shall dis(ovt music Illllsic tbat will make U~ partlcipate activdy in the workm1 ofa lllllld that orders gives Iit( and CleHlS 0(
Psychomalysts rdtr to this participation as proJectivc idclltificashy
tion the process by which a persoll imagines himself to be inside SCHIll object external to himself Imitatioll is not only the sincerest form of flattery but a way of learning By identifying ourselves with those more gifted we can actually improve our own capacities Tlachers of music know that do it the way I do is a more effective way oftelchlllg than theonticli instruction
Music not only brillgs order to muscubr movelllellt but also prol1lotl~ order vitbill the mind This is wby John Blacking writing ill hi~ book A COllllllollsme I itll of All Mush ullCkr the hladlllg The Power of Music i~ able to say
of the SCllCS alld the ldUCltioll of the emotions
the lrtS are lot merely dcsirabk 0P(lUls Th) In essllHiai both 1)1 blimcni action md the dlltnivl liSt of the intllkcrshy
lOt)
1(1I1 HUHl HUI1 y~
IllstLd )( rhrcltlllld all overload of
IlHIIlS or ntllSIC tn impose our will upon this 11 the irrdevalll to pav JttlllilOl til what ilt
1l1d thus to nJte or discover SOJlle order ill tht world I It with the pklsure Vl get from thl explanatory h ufscilllcl
IkclnSl 1 scielltific thcnry makes thL w)rld more comprdHl1sshy W (d kss It thl )r1ds mercy alld lllore able to control
eVlllts ()( courSl iC cannot cOlltrol lverythillg Howevlr
geology we arc still vulmrablc lS We III I y becollle auditoril y sophisticatld but 1Il
loud noise will still darm liS IluWCVLT being able to
~OJllC sense out of the world gives us confidenn Music is l llumber of diffnllH W1yS This is Oi1e winch is
)
Music cm enable brln-dallllgcd people to accomplish tasb could not master VitiJollt ih aid It elll also llIake litt people wl1() arc emotionally disturbed or melltally ilL
BeClllSl 1l111SIC is lot so obviously necessary to 1110st OrllS we tend to ulldcrcsrilllllC its significance in the lives of normal people Yct it is difficult to imagine a world without it Evell if playing music
wcre f(lrbildll1 ll1d every device ilr reproducing music destroyed
we should still hl tulles fUllning ill our heads still be using music to order OLlr actlons and lllakl structured sense Ollt of the world lrollild (I
MUI( AN) TlfE MIND
Wagners plTionality was Chlriimatic andio is his music Both arc predominalltly I )ionysiall Apollollian serellity and cOlltrol afe not wlut one looks t()f III Wagller Nor arc mallY of the
with structure form and iymmetry although Wagners use ot tllL leitmotif is characteristic I du not mean to suggest that Vagllcr did Ilot understand such things I Ie was 011e of the most
lllllsicians to have ever lived lIld could employ any device which appealed to him
form But this is not what he was aiming at
Charisl1lltic individuals such as Wagner open the doors ot our perceptions transcend Ollr limitatil)ls and reveal mysteries unshy
to liS Evel1tllaliy they oftell disappoint us because their narClSSISlll tIld self-absorption preclude engagement with them as human beings of the same order as olleself Composers who are as
as Mozart and Haydn are of course far superior to til( ordinary person but they retain their humanity and we can rclate to
them as human beings Wagner IS ill a ditTerent category His contemporary admirers treated him as a god The modern listener
and becomes a disciple or else becomes disillusioned and escapes 11ow vlll he understands the soul He rules over liS
the arts of a demagogue Nietzsches ambivalence toward Wagner is flithfull y reflected in this remark from an imaginary cot1Versatiol1 in Daybreak
Wagners music either overvvhelms or repels because his style reflects his personality The immense length of his later
illustrates his disregard for the listeller He docs not wish to communicate only to convert It necd not prevent one
recognizing and being mtellsel y moved by his lllusic but it IS
understandable that some lis tellers resent the tceling of being takell over rathcr thall charmed or
I think that people who arc repelled by Wagners music well come to appreciate its power alld bellIty if they realized more
what vvas disturbing them I believe that listeners to Wagner to allow thcmselves to be temporarily overwhelmed if
arc fully to appreciate tbl music But many people arc letting to tillS extent and consequently shy away from the intense enwtiotlallxpcnenn which Wag ncr ofkrs liS
III lDDlvimr personal consideratiolls to mUSIC I want to
120
Till ULTARY LlSTENII~ (a ~) cmphasiZl dut the music always COlllCS first I call th1s chapter Solitary Listener because I am interested ill the 1I1crcase ll purdy
appreciation of lllllsic hilth bas ukell pbCl ill reClllt years people who are imensted m music listell to music more
uft(1l than was possible bct()re the advent of modern technology bur I am lJot arguing that listenillg to music IS or ever could be a
for personal relatiollships SOllie aspects OLl composers personality inevitably manifest themselves in his lllusic but the object ofiistcllillg is to get to kllov thc music not to get to know
the composer Great IllUSlC transcends the intii vidual who created it My
purpose in comparing getting to know a piece ofmusll with getting to know a person was to point out the inadequacy of approaching Illusic emly as if it were a matbematical construction not to delly that music has an impersonal dimension
The examples of Haydn and WagnCf are deliberately chosen as extremes Although music inevitably reflects the personality of the composer to some degree Stravinsky was surely right when referred to a composition as being beyond the composers feelings Listening to music docs bring us into indirect contact with the composer but this meeting ofminds IS not closely comparable with cllcountering another human being or listening to a person speaking Elements ofboth arc present but they do not account for the most important dlccts of music upon the Iistencr
As suggested in the last chapter urban civilization cuts us from our own inner lives We have to be watchful or we shall get nm over We are assailed by many varieties o111oi5e most of which
are unpleasant We cannot escape from other people from tdephonc from having demands made upon liS We easily lose tollch with the wellsprings of creative phantasy willch make lift
the ordinary man and woman must have been
very different when it was predofHmantly rural and agncultural w hell bird-song rather than the noise machinery filled the ears when the farmer could observe the changillg seasons and enjoy tht
of the clouds and when however exhausting the
solitude allowed the exercise illlwillati)J
Many sophisticated nquirc illtdkctual concentration
md detachment which would be contamillated if aesthetic COI1shy
121
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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I
J
(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIC AND TIlE MINI)
more oftell (Hillel III fJlllilics winch indudl a member who is
as mcnrally ill I am llot sllgglsting that all crcativl people ar mentally ill although SOnIe of the greatest have been so but onl y that ullconventional thought processes of a similar kind can be delllonstrated in both the mentally ill and the creative From
has already been noted it appeus likely that the mentally ill and the creative may share a difficulty in ckaling with sensory input ti-om the external world whether this takes the f()rm of speech lIo11-verbal sounds or el11otional pressure The mentally ill are overwhelmed by the threat ofconfusion and disorder The creative meN the challellge by creating a new order in their works lI1d thus master the threat Robert Schumanll and I--lugo Wolf are examples of cOlllposers who suffered from manic-depressive illncss_ Alshythough ultimately ddiated by the severity of their mental disshyturbances there is no doubt that their creativity was partly a product of thcir instability Rachmaninov also experienced severe
depression This condition can be so extreme that it prevents
productioll altogether but liability to depression and the threat of its
ITcurrenn can act as a spur to creativity Berlioz whell suffering tormcllting deprcsstoll and anxiety told his flther that without music he could not go on living_ 13 Tchaikovsky who also endured severe bouts ofdcpression wrote Truly there would be reason to
go mad if it WlrC not f()r 1IIIISie His biographer John Warrack thinks tbat he was stating nothing but the sober truth 24
The crcati vc process depends on both conscious and unconscious melltal fUllctions W c are still so influcnccd by Freud that malJY pcople believe that anything emanating from the ullconsciolls must
cmotionaL irrational unacceptable and probably disreputable III reality this is llot the casco Unconscious processes are just as lllllch concerned with pattern and structure as they Ife with
EvelJ more apparcllt tllan rcal
Dreams certailll y impossibilities temporal confusion ami many features unacceptable to the rational Il1md But most are stories The scanning process
goes on 111 matches reccllt events -vith Dast evellts JlId lillks
wgcther mcntal COlltCllts which shan a similar fleling but which llll y not be related in an yother Va y Thc drea m attclll pts to 11uke
10
ESCAPF FHDM ItEALrIYshy
sense out of thlS hotchpotch by trymt to impose the order of a story-Jille
As I bave argued elsewhere the human specics IS compelled to
theorize and strive to make sense of both life and the ulliverse Because human behaviour is not principally governed by the inshy
instinctive patterns of response to stimuli which direct the behaviour of animals lower In the evolutionary order human beings arc forced to become inventive They arc compelled to try to understand the world and themselves and in so domg can reach new and better ltldaptations The processes by which this is achieved arc both unconscious and conscious We cannot avoid making some attcmpt to find cohercnce ill the world and within ourselvcs but the origmal1y unconscious impulse which makes us do this is reinforced refined and given rationality by conscious reasoning
I am sure that one of the reasons why music affects us deeply is its powcr to structure our auditory explrience and thus to make sense out of it Although I have been at pains to dispel the psychoanalytic view that music is an escape from reality or a regression to an mCll1tile state there is no doubt that music provides one path of temporary withdrawal from the hurly-burly of the external world_ This is refreshing because it permits the same kind of scanning sorting and rearrangement of mental contents which takes place ill reverie or ill sleep_ There arc many others ways of achieving this from going f()- a solitary walk in the country to practising trallScendental meditation When we take part in music or listen to an absorbing perfi)fmance we arc temporarily protected from the input of other external stimuli We enter a special sedudcd world 111 which order prevails and from which the incongruous is
This in itsdf is beneficial It is not a regressive manoeuvrc hut reoder pOll I licHX slmter a temporary retreat which promotes a fe-ordering process within the mind aud thus aids OHr
to the external world rather than providing an escape
from it If music and the other arts WCTe more closely interwovell with
activities we might not Ileed this temporary rtreat so Peopit of other cultures sometimes cannot understand why
Europeans secm so tense WhenJung visited Nevv Mexico he talked with all Indian chief who
10)
lHJS[( ANI) 1111 MIN)
Sec hov crud the whitts louk Their lips arc thill thllr lOStS
their faces furrowed and distorted by t~)lds Their eyes have a stanng lXpnSSHlll thcy arc always scckillg sOlllcrhlllg Vhat arc they
The hITes alwys want sOIlltthIII g tbey arc Ilways UllCS)
and rcstless We do not kIlOV what they Vlllt We do not understand thclll W l thillk that thev arc mad
If there appears to be an escapist elemcnt 111 musical participation it is because our culture is so concerned with achievcllllllt and the pursuit of conventional success that it makcs ordinary Iik into a tense and anxious business from which thl arts arc absent Music em and should be a lifi-enhancing part ofour day-to-da y existellcc
Music plays special role m aiding the scanning lI1d sorting process which goes on whcn we are asleep or simply day-dreaming Stravinsk y rekrs to the pleasure we gain from uIlorganized natural sOLlllds which may be considerable but which lacks the further dimension provided by IllllSIC
Hut over and above this passivt l1~ioymll1t we shall dis(ovt music Illllsic tbat will make U~ partlcipate activdy in the workm1 ofa lllllld that orders gives Iit( and CleHlS 0(
Psychomalysts rdtr to this participation as proJectivc idclltificashy
tion the process by which a persoll imagines himself to be inside SCHIll object external to himself Imitatioll is not only the sincerest form of flattery but a way of learning By identifying ourselves with those more gifted we can actually improve our own capacities Tlachers of music know that do it the way I do is a more effective way oftelchlllg than theonticli instruction
Music not only brillgs order to muscubr movelllellt but also prol1lotl~ order vitbill the mind This is wby John Blacking writing ill hi~ book A COllllllollsme I itll of All Mush ullCkr the hladlllg The Power of Music i~ able to say
of the SCllCS alld the ldUCltioll of the emotions
the lrtS are lot merely dcsirabk 0P(lUls Th) In essllHiai both 1)1 blimcni action md the dlltnivl liSt of the intllkcrshy
lOt)
1(1I1 HUHl HUI1 y~
IllstLd )( rhrcltlllld all overload of
IlHIIlS or ntllSIC tn impose our will upon this 11 the irrdevalll to pav JttlllilOl til what ilt
1l1d thus to nJte or discover SOJlle order ill tht world I It with the pklsure Vl get from thl explanatory h ufscilllcl
IkclnSl 1 scielltific thcnry makes thL w)rld more comprdHl1sshy W (d kss It thl )r1ds mercy alld lllore able to control
eVlllts ()( courSl iC cannot cOlltrol lverythillg Howevlr
geology we arc still vulmrablc lS We III I y becollle auditoril y sophisticatld but 1Il
loud noise will still darm liS IluWCVLT being able to
~OJllC sense out of the world gives us confidenn Music is l llumber of diffnllH W1yS This is Oi1e winch is
)
Music cm enable brln-dallllgcd people to accomplish tasb could not master VitiJollt ih aid It elll also llIake litt people wl1() arc emotionally disturbed or melltally ilL
BeClllSl 1l111SIC is lot so obviously necessary to 1110st OrllS we tend to ulldcrcsrilllllC its significance in the lives of normal people Yct it is difficult to imagine a world without it Evell if playing music
wcre f(lrbildll1 ll1d every device ilr reproducing music destroyed
we should still hl tulles fUllning ill our heads still be using music to order OLlr actlons and lllakl structured sense Ollt of the world lrollild (I
MUI( AN) TlfE MIND
Wagners plTionality was Chlriimatic andio is his music Both arc predominalltly I )ionysiall Apollollian serellity and cOlltrol afe not wlut one looks t()f III Wagller Nor arc mallY of the
with structure form and iymmetry although Wagners use ot tllL leitmotif is characteristic I du not mean to suggest that Vagllcr did Ilot understand such things I Ie was 011e of the most
lllllsicians to have ever lived lIld could employ any device which appealed to him
form But this is not what he was aiming at
Charisl1lltic individuals such as Wagner open the doors ot our perceptions transcend Ollr limitatil)ls and reveal mysteries unshy
to liS Evel1tllaliy they oftell disappoint us because their narClSSISlll tIld self-absorption preclude engagement with them as human beings of the same order as olleself Composers who are as
as Mozart and Haydn are of course far superior to til( ordinary person but they retain their humanity and we can rclate to
them as human beings Wagner IS ill a ditTerent category His contemporary admirers treated him as a god The modern listener
and becomes a disciple or else becomes disillusioned and escapes 11ow vlll he understands the soul He rules over liS
the arts of a demagogue Nietzsches ambivalence toward Wagner is flithfull y reflected in this remark from an imaginary cot1Versatiol1 in Daybreak
Wagners music either overvvhelms or repels because his style reflects his personality The immense length of his later
illustrates his disregard for the listeller He docs not wish to communicate only to convert It necd not prevent one
recognizing and being mtellsel y moved by his lllusic but it IS
understandable that some lis tellers resent the tceling of being takell over rathcr thall charmed or
I think that people who arc repelled by Wagners music well come to appreciate its power alld bellIty if they realized more
what vvas disturbing them I believe that listeners to Wagner to allow thcmselves to be temporarily overwhelmed if
arc fully to appreciate tbl music But many people arc letting to tillS extent and consequently shy away from the intense enwtiotlallxpcnenn which Wag ncr ofkrs liS
III lDDlvimr personal consideratiolls to mUSIC I want to
120
Till ULTARY LlSTENII~ (a ~) cmphasiZl dut the music always COlllCS first I call th1s chapter Solitary Listener because I am interested ill the 1I1crcase ll purdy
appreciation of lllllsic hilth bas ukell pbCl ill reClllt years people who are imensted m music listell to music more
uft(1l than was possible bct()re the advent of modern technology bur I am lJot arguing that listenillg to music IS or ever could be a
for personal relatiollships SOllie aspects OLl composers personality inevitably manifest themselves in his lllusic but the object ofiistcllillg is to get to kllov thc music not to get to know
the composer Great IllUSlC transcends the intii vidual who created it My
purpose in comparing getting to know a piece ofmusll with getting to know a person was to point out the inadequacy of approaching Illusic emly as if it were a matbematical construction not to delly that music has an impersonal dimension
The examples of Haydn and WagnCf are deliberately chosen as extremes Although music inevitably reflects the personality of the composer to some degree Stravinsky was surely right when referred to a composition as being beyond the composers feelings Listening to music docs bring us into indirect contact with the composer but this meeting ofminds IS not closely comparable with cllcountering another human being or listening to a person speaking Elements ofboth arc present but they do not account for the most important dlccts of music upon the Iistencr
As suggested in the last chapter urban civilization cuts us from our own inner lives We have to be watchful or we shall get nm over We are assailed by many varieties o111oi5e most of which
are unpleasant We cannot escape from other people from tdephonc from having demands made upon liS We easily lose tollch with the wellsprings of creative phantasy willch make lift
the ordinary man and woman must have been
very different when it was predofHmantly rural and agncultural w hell bird-song rather than the noise machinery filled the ears when the farmer could observe the changillg seasons and enjoy tht
of the clouds and when however exhausting the
solitude allowed the exercise illlwillati)J
Many sophisticated nquirc illtdkctual concentration
md detachment which would be contamillated if aesthetic COI1shy
121
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
lHJS[( ANI) 1111 MIN)
Sec hov crud the whitts louk Their lips arc thill thllr lOStS
their faces furrowed and distorted by t~)lds Their eyes have a stanng lXpnSSHlll thcy arc always scckillg sOlllcrhlllg Vhat arc they
The hITes alwys want sOIlltthIII g tbey arc Ilways UllCS)
and rcstless We do not kIlOV what they Vlllt We do not understand thclll W l thillk that thev arc mad
If there appears to be an escapist elemcnt 111 musical participation it is because our culture is so concerned with achievcllllllt and the pursuit of conventional success that it makcs ordinary Iik into a tense and anxious business from which thl arts arc absent Music em and should be a lifi-enhancing part ofour day-to-da y existellcc
Music plays special role m aiding the scanning lI1d sorting process which goes on whcn we are asleep or simply day-dreaming Stravinsk y rekrs to the pleasure we gain from uIlorganized natural sOLlllds which may be considerable but which lacks the further dimension provided by IllllSIC
Hut over and above this passivt l1~ioymll1t we shall dis(ovt music Illllsic tbat will make U~ partlcipate activdy in the workm1 ofa lllllld that orders gives Iit( and CleHlS 0(
Psychomalysts rdtr to this participation as proJectivc idclltificashy
tion the process by which a persoll imagines himself to be inside SCHIll object external to himself Imitatioll is not only the sincerest form of flattery but a way of learning By identifying ourselves with those more gifted we can actually improve our own capacities Tlachers of music know that do it the way I do is a more effective way oftelchlllg than theonticli instruction
Music not only brillgs order to muscubr movelllellt but also prol1lotl~ order vitbill the mind This is wby John Blacking writing ill hi~ book A COllllllollsme I itll of All Mush ullCkr the hladlllg The Power of Music i~ able to say
of the SCllCS alld the ldUCltioll of the emotions
the lrtS are lot merely dcsirabk 0P(lUls Th) In essllHiai both 1)1 blimcni action md the dlltnivl liSt of the intllkcrshy
lOt)
1(1I1 HUHl HUI1 y~
IllstLd )( rhrcltlllld all overload of
IlHIIlS or ntllSIC tn impose our will upon this 11 the irrdevalll to pav JttlllilOl til what ilt
1l1d thus to nJte or discover SOJlle order ill tht world I It with the pklsure Vl get from thl explanatory h ufscilllcl
IkclnSl 1 scielltific thcnry makes thL w)rld more comprdHl1sshy W (d kss It thl )r1ds mercy alld lllore able to control
eVlllts ()( courSl iC cannot cOlltrol lverythillg Howevlr
geology we arc still vulmrablc lS We III I y becollle auditoril y sophisticatld but 1Il
loud noise will still darm liS IluWCVLT being able to
~OJllC sense out of the world gives us confidenn Music is l llumber of diffnllH W1yS This is Oi1e winch is
)
Music cm enable brln-dallllgcd people to accomplish tasb could not master VitiJollt ih aid It elll also llIake litt people wl1() arc emotionally disturbed or melltally ilL
BeClllSl 1l111SIC is lot so obviously necessary to 1110st OrllS we tend to ulldcrcsrilllllC its significance in the lives of normal people Yct it is difficult to imagine a world without it Evell if playing music
wcre f(lrbildll1 ll1d every device ilr reproducing music destroyed
we should still hl tulles fUllning ill our heads still be using music to order OLlr actlons and lllakl structured sense Ollt of the world lrollild (I
MUI( AN) TlfE MIND
Wagners plTionality was Chlriimatic andio is his music Both arc predominalltly I )ionysiall Apollollian serellity and cOlltrol afe not wlut one looks t()f III Wagller Nor arc mallY of the
with structure form and iymmetry although Wagners use ot tllL leitmotif is characteristic I du not mean to suggest that Vagllcr did Ilot understand such things I Ie was 011e of the most
lllllsicians to have ever lived lIld could employ any device which appealed to him
form But this is not what he was aiming at
Charisl1lltic individuals such as Wagner open the doors ot our perceptions transcend Ollr limitatil)ls and reveal mysteries unshy
to liS Evel1tllaliy they oftell disappoint us because their narClSSISlll tIld self-absorption preclude engagement with them as human beings of the same order as olleself Composers who are as
as Mozart and Haydn are of course far superior to til( ordinary person but they retain their humanity and we can rclate to
them as human beings Wagner IS ill a ditTerent category His contemporary admirers treated him as a god The modern listener
and becomes a disciple or else becomes disillusioned and escapes 11ow vlll he understands the soul He rules over liS
the arts of a demagogue Nietzsches ambivalence toward Wagner is flithfull y reflected in this remark from an imaginary cot1Versatiol1 in Daybreak
Wagners music either overvvhelms or repels because his style reflects his personality The immense length of his later
illustrates his disregard for the listeller He docs not wish to communicate only to convert It necd not prevent one
recognizing and being mtellsel y moved by his lllusic but it IS
understandable that some lis tellers resent the tceling of being takell over rathcr thall charmed or
I think that people who arc repelled by Wagners music well come to appreciate its power alld bellIty if they realized more
what vvas disturbing them I believe that listeners to Wagner to allow thcmselves to be temporarily overwhelmed if
arc fully to appreciate tbl music But many people arc letting to tillS extent and consequently shy away from the intense enwtiotlallxpcnenn which Wag ncr ofkrs liS
III lDDlvimr personal consideratiolls to mUSIC I want to
120
Till ULTARY LlSTENII~ (a ~) cmphasiZl dut the music always COlllCS first I call th1s chapter Solitary Listener because I am interested ill the 1I1crcase ll purdy
appreciation of lllllsic hilth bas ukell pbCl ill reClllt years people who are imensted m music listell to music more
uft(1l than was possible bct()re the advent of modern technology bur I am lJot arguing that listenillg to music IS or ever could be a
for personal relatiollships SOllie aspects OLl composers personality inevitably manifest themselves in his lllusic but the object ofiistcllillg is to get to kllov thc music not to get to know
the composer Great IllUSlC transcends the intii vidual who created it My
purpose in comparing getting to know a piece ofmusll with getting to know a person was to point out the inadequacy of approaching Illusic emly as if it were a matbematical construction not to delly that music has an impersonal dimension
The examples of Haydn and WagnCf are deliberately chosen as extremes Although music inevitably reflects the personality of the composer to some degree Stravinsky was surely right when referred to a composition as being beyond the composers feelings Listening to music docs bring us into indirect contact with the composer but this meeting ofminds IS not closely comparable with cllcountering another human being or listening to a person speaking Elements ofboth arc present but they do not account for the most important dlccts of music upon the Iistencr
As suggested in the last chapter urban civilization cuts us from our own inner lives We have to be watchful or we shall get nm over We are assailed by many varieties o111oi5e most of which
are unpleasant We cannot escape from other people from tdephonc from having demands made upon liS We easily lose tollch with the wellsprings of creative phantasy willch make lift
the ordinary man and woman must have been
very different when it was predofHmantly rural and agncultural w hell bird-song rather than the noise machinery filled the ears when the farmer could observe the changillg seasons and enjoy tht
of the clouds and when however exhausting the
solitude allowed the exercise illlwillati)J
Many sophisticated nquirc illtdkctual concentration
md detachment which would be contamillated if aesthetic COI1shy
121
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUI( AN) TlfE MIND
Wagners plTionality was Chlriimatic andio is his music Both arc predominalltly I )ionysiall Apollollian serellity and cOlltrol afe not wlut one looks t()f III Wagller Nor arc mallY of the
with structure form and iymmetry although Wagners use ot tllL leitmotif is characteristic I du not mean to suggest that Vagllcr did Ilot understand such things I Ie was 011e of the most
lllllsicians to have ever lived lIld could employ any device which appealed to him
form But this is not what he was aiming at
Charisl1lltic individuals such as Wagner open the doors ot our perceptions transcend Ollr limitatil)ls and reveal mysteries unshy
to liS Evel1tllaliy they oftell disappoint us because their narClSSISlll tIld self-absorption preclude engagement with them as human beings of the same order as olleself Composers who are as
as Mozart and Haydn are of course far superior to til( ordinary person but they retain their humanity and we can rclate to
them as human beings Wagner IS ill a ditTerent category His contemporary admirers treated him as a god The modern listener
and becomes a disciple or else becomes disillusioned and escapes 11ow vlll he understands the soul He rules over liS
the arts of a demagogue Nietzsches ambivalence toward Wagner is flithfull y reflected in this remark from an imaginary cot1Versatiol1 in Daybreak
Wagners music either overvvhelms or repels because his style reflects his personality The immense length of his later
illustrates his disregard for the listeller He docs not wish to communicate only to convert It necd not prevent one
recognizing and being mtellsel y moved by his lllusic but it IS
understandable that some lis tellers resent the tceling of being takell over rathcr thall charmed or
I think that people who arc repelled by Wagners music well come to appreciate its power alld bellIty if they realized more
what vvas disturbing them I believe that listeners to Wagner to allow thcmselves to be temporarily overwhelmed if
arc fully to appreciate tbl music But many people arc letting to tillS extent and consequently shy away from the intense enwtiotlallxpcnenn which Wag ncr ofkrs liS
III lDDlvimr personal consideratiolls to mUSIC I want to
120
Till ULTARY LlSTENII~ (a ~) cmphasiZl dut the music always COlllCS first I call th1s chapter Solitary Listener because I am interested ill the 1I1crcase ll purdy
appreciation of lllllsic hilth bas ukell pbCl ill reClllt years people who are imensted m music listell to music more
uft(1l than was possible bct()re the advent of modern technology bur I am lJot arguing that listenillg to music IS or ever could be a
for personal relatiollships SOllie aspects OLl composers personality inevitably manifest themselves in his lllusic but the object ofiistcllillg is to get to kllov thc music not to get to know
the composer Great IllUSlC transcends the intii vidual who created it My
purpose in comparing getting to know a piece ofmusll with getting to know a person was to point out the inadequacy of approaching Illusic emly as if it were a matbematical construction not to delly that music has an impersonal dimension
The examples of Haydn and WagnCf are deliberately chosen as extremes Although music inevitably reflects the personality of the composer to some degree Stravinsky was surely right when referred to a composition as being beyond the composers feelings Listening to music docs bring us into indirect contact with the composer but this meeting ofminds IS not closely comparable with cllcountering another human being or listening to a person speaking Elements ofboth arc present but they do not account for the most important dlccts of music upon the Iistencr
As suggested in the last chapter urban civilization cuts us from our own inner lives We have to be watchful or we shall get nm over We are assailed by many varieties o111oi5e most of which
are unpleasant We cannot escape from other people from tdephonc from having demands made upon liS We easily lose tollch with the wellsprings of creative phantasy willch make lift
the ordinary man and woman must have been
very different when it was predofHmantly rural and agncultural w hell bird-song rather than the noise machinery filled the ears when the farmer could observe the changillg seasons and enjoy tht
of the clouds and when however exhausting the
solitude allowed the exercise illlwillati)J
Many sophisticated nquirc illtdkctual concentration
md detachment which would be contamillated if aesthetic COI1shy
121
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
gt
gt z
gt z z
gt
r ~
~
lt
r
C-
r
- -~
lt~
~
sr
1
Z
r ~ ~
~
~
r
c
r
gt z
shy
z shy
bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
IfJ
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gt
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z ~
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t
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lt~
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r
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-
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z z
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-T-i~
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(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSrc AND Till MlND
sidcLltions intruded Conceptual thought requires the separation of thinking from feeling of object from subject of mind from Wl~ have already observed the divcn~ence between song and
ofratiol1al thinking as dlstlllct from emotionallxprcssion I-Iumal beings require this di vision if they are to fUllction efficiently as objective thlllkefS but
also Ileed to bridge the Cartesian gulfbcrwtel1 mind and body Jre to live life as creatures enjoying a full complement
human feelings A great deal of what is generally considered to
rcal life i~ woefully one-sided But listening to or participating III
lllllsic can restore a person to himself as the epigraph to tbis suggests People need to recapture what has been excluded during working hours their su~iectjvity
Music began as a way of enhancing and co-ordinatillg group Toda y it is often a means of recovering personal feelings
which we have become alienated William Styrons acconnt quoted ladier of how music sudden] y rea wakened his appreciation of hIS home and family applies lot only to sufferers from illness but to each and every individual who fc)r whatever reason
IS cut off from the life of the body and from the catJacitv to fecI which ultimately makes life colourful interesting
can certainly alter a persons mood as recurrent depression have realized We have noted some
ways in which music has been used therapeutically lt1 the treatment the physically disabled the mentally handicapped
mentall y ill Its therapeutic effects 011 the ordinary listener require further research but there IS no doubt that these effects occur whether or not the listener is alone Listening to music by oneself restores refnshes and heals
we gct to know a particular piece of music after repeated it is lI1corporated as a schema TIl( music becomes
11) tIll long-term memory as a whole - both form and content It is therefore subject to voluutary recall If I wallt to recapture the opening of Beethovens fIrst Razumovsky Quartet or the third movcment of Brahmss Fourth Symphony I can do so without
although I might not bl to remember the whole of cither mOVeTlllllt accurately This is eVidence that music can
part ofollr mental fllrnirure Because of tins I behevl
22
THF SOUTAHY LlSl LNEH
has a lJusitive fi1I1ction In orgallizillg ollr IllU5tubr
obviousl y ollr thoughts and the words ill mUSI not
are bull g 01 Music ill forms and structures day-tn-day actions
to a much greater extent than most people This statement is contirmed experImentally by all lIlteresnng
into thl~ capacities of ordinary people to create tunes confirmed the authors hypothesis that any person
musician or not is capable of composing music sllch as a
sOllg verse uSlllg the musical ald structures provided daily Illusical environment (radio TV singing etc) ~
rurthcrmore the authors found that they had attained a lHW llld
different understJllding ofthe part played by music in the daily lives of the people they studied who varied from peasants to university
III a part of our experilllellt lIot included in this study we dealt ill
greater tidl with inner musical activit y we foulld that most
prodUlC music by thcmselves for one or two hours a da y vtrying what thcy know or by combinillg the kllowll tunes
to their tastes In addition if we abo take into account
ntllsic we just hear each day as background it becomes tvidcnt music is practically a pcrrnallcilt part of lltost peoples everyday
melltal activity
findings confirm the suggestion that music plays a more ill adaptation to lite than is generally
eM] y exposure to all kinds
part III every childs education Indeed 1 study aged between two and six who had played in Akxmder
Orchestra claimed that all the children who hld
opportunity were well of their
school 2
It we do lot provide adequate opportunities f()r our and participate in IJ1llsic ve are deprIvillg them of
priceless It is important that such provision shuuld be IS )osibk I am ellllrciv in flvour of recent methods of tClchil
J 2_1
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIC ANI) TIlL MINI)
children to play strillged instrtllllLlltS from Ill early age Nut all them will tum into COlll~K~tllIt violinists viola pbycrs cellists or double-bass pLtyers hilt who do will ta~tl the ddiht of playing chamber music thall whICh
Let Il1 y own case ScrVl as an
my life sincL early childhood Altholl I ~tlll not giftcd as a
performcr pia ying the piano and the viob has been very rewarding
to Illl if lot to other~ I was lucky 111 being sent to a school where music was taken slriollsly Sill(l my voice declined tactfully
than breaking I had the pleasure ofsinging trcbk alto tenor and
bass succeSSl vel v both in the Chapel chOlr and in tilt choral socicty
choral works a year I
great my Lxistence was made tolerable Playing ill all and in a choir arc exhilarating eXIKrHIlCCS playing III a
quarter is better still find it has a good
but this is not generally appreciated
My guess is that future
luck y enough to recci Vl an adeq Ul tt m lIsleal cd lIea tion ill earl y lite are bet ter
integrated in everv vay when they reach maturity and likely to be both happier alld more dlicrive I agree
Platos statement that IlHISlC is [ heaven-sent ally in
order and harmony allY disharmollY in the revolutions
which I voluntary Sll11l1ll011 is not till only music which I intcrtLdly without external stimulus Xlhenever my attention
IS not tully engaged music runs ill Illy head
it is music which r have heard recently
not It call he annoying I do not understand why sotlle mllSIC IS so
persistellt that it is hard to rid ollcselfofir For 11 Ie one such piece IS
a thellle from Berliozs overture Le Frd II(i-II (llS the saJlle theme
music to Jc)hn Frecmalls series of
lllterVllWS OIl Fac( f[l Fa(l E Vl writilH ~ I
about it is
lllough to lllSUre that it Ill hOllr or two
rcason lor anll~)ylrlCC is unable to Idclltify the
IlHISIC Ol1ce spelH a n)JJsl(krabk scnrl~ of ILl
12f
liE ~(lLIIARY LlSITNII(
which VlS prcocnlpyil1f me vas the SltlV lHtWlll1Cl1t of olle of tllllll It turtlld out to from his SSth SymphollY which r Iud lot
til[ a long timl music running ill thl head 1l1lSlllll shyWhat
IS subjectivl spLcubshylllollcd and perha ps aIn cngagedtion but It is uIllikely
III ~lIly occupation not rcqll1ring intense concelltration the musIC
vhich comes unbiddell to my mind usuallv has and
effects of a Dositivc kind It
my movemcnts more rhythmic3l and reduces
trudge can be transt()rl1led mto cnjoyable Noll pill andraI frolll Thl Marriat (11 (l(IIO M llsic dravn from
memory has many of the same cffeers as real music coming from
external But I do not institute the process ofreeall Ido not determine at
shallthat particular moment I lllcd music or choosc
COllle to the surface It just happcns It is as if a determined to ellsnre that I should not be bored and that my rnOVCIlHts should be efficient y and pblsurably co-ordinated
that music in the head is biologically adapative Music running ill the head may abo have other functions I have
noticed and again I would like continnation from other sources that when I am puzzled by the (Jet that olle particular piecc ofl11t1sic
than another has spolltaneously come to Illmd prolonged
cOllsideration oftllJ though not invariably rlvlas the connection vvith other prcoccupations lung once said that if olle
long ellough about a dream something
comes of it The same applies to 1l1l1S1C which
tht hlue The associatiollgt may be trivial Ifl
Brahmss Ilirlt~CllIitd It may be On the other hand yillg a tune
Ille to chscnver that I am more which I have been
the supposition
is evidence that Illllgtic for many of our inner I1HntaJ life and
12)
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSI( INIgt THE MIN))
WCLlll let It hlve its way nr Wl ell) direct It to onr Ill We em
IltH(lt it into IllW paths Dr we em rehearse IIllliliar works we
CUi listen to It or we (til rclcgltc it to our sllbumscious bur we cm
llCVLT hlt rid 01 ie For Olle so endowed or so burdened -- to live IS to hye 11H1SIC c
If music becollles a permanent part of our mental it Illust exert all infucIlCl 011 our lives Educationalists expect that exposure to gn1t literature willmflucllce their Spanning the celHurics we may say that rcading MOIlLlIgnl Samuel Johnson and Tolstoy enriches our understanding
and therefc)ft enlarges our capacity to enjoy lift and cnhances our adaptation to it Shakespearc Keats and the great POlIS reveal the inner nature of the world and sharpen our slllsibilities because their perceptions and their gift for metaphor make it possible f()[ us to transcend our own limited vision by sharing theirs Wc take it f(H granted that encounters with minds of tbe past through literature arc a vitl1 part of education which lllay clUblc people to live lives which arc less trivial less circumscribed and more imbued with meaning
But Western society is so predominantly verbal that we flil to
that music has similar effects Participating ill l1HlS1C
whether as performer or listener brings liS into contact greatness and leaves traces of that greatness as permancnt impresshysions I share Platos convIction that musical training is a potellt instrulllent because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward pbcls of the soul I am subjectively certain that my illvolvell1ent with Bach Beethoven Mozart Haydn Sibelius Brahms Bart6k Stravinsky Wagner and many other COI11POSLTS has not only brought lIle pleasure bur appreciation of hit and I am not alone in feelillg
structure of autobIOgraphies is usually determined of places occupations and events which made up thl ro~ethlf vith accounts of the people who hlVt
illtlullHTd him or her whether 111 person or through thelf vritings ()1)ly in blOgraphics of musicians does one usually rcad or mllSIC ILlS illflucllced thclll - the first CIlCOUlltcr with Bach with MOZlrt wJth Schocnberg Yet such early experiellces em be nucial
2(l
TIll SOUTAHY I STENFR
1ll the emotional development of many people who do not become protlssiollJI lllllsicians they are often milestones on the journey tovvard maturity which can be as important lS the personal mflucl1cc of teachers
127
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
gt
gt z
gt z z
gt
r ~
~
lt
r
C-
r
- -~
lt~
~
sr
1
Z
r ~ ~
~
~
r
c
r
gt z
shy
z shy
bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
ell A fiT E R V II
THE INNERM()ST NATURE
OF THE WORLD
Elf from IWlllg II I lTl aid to poetry music is an llldllllIdnlt an III fin it is till most or til thl rIo Illd thenfilfc a(ains its
cnds lIltirdy frolll its own resources
AHTllUl SCIIOIFNJIUEU
Schopellhaulr is lll1tlsual atllongst philosophers not only 111 paymg great deal of attention to the arts in general but also ill according music a special place amongst the arts This is why it is important to consider his views on music in some detail It is worth recalling that two great composers [(corded their mdebtldlless to Schopellhaller Wagller first ellcolllltered The vVorldis Will alld J(cPYIscllfaliotJ at age of forty-one and hom thell Oil read alld re-read Schopellhauer continually The indexes to thl two llUSS1Vl volumes of Cosima Wagncrs diaries give HJ7 nferlllces to SChopCllhauLT Mahler according to his wife thought that SChopCllhaulTs account of music was the most proflHllld ever likely to be writtell He gave a compkte edition of SdWplllhalltrs works to Bruno Walter as a Christmls present
In order to understand what Schoplnhalllr had to say lllllsic a brid~ partial and JHcessarily inadequate outlilll O(SOIllL of
Following Kant Sci1opcnhatlLr thought that human beings arc pre-programmed in that they arc bound to perceivl o~ilcts in the external world as lxlsting ill spacL ll1d til1le alld IS being governed by call sal relations We arc compelled to experience the world in this way we ClI1110t lvoid
so But sinn these vays of experiellcing thL world art rooted III the c()nstruction of the human llLTClDtlIai lpplrltllS 1l1d
2S
TilE INNEHMUST NATURE nf Tillmiddot WOPII)
the humall bram till W3Y we ~ce ObjlCts and the relations betwecll them may not correspond to thl way those obJeers actually arc
We all know that thcre arc sounds which our Clrs cannot hC3f
and colours which our eyes C3nnot sec but which can be perceived by other SPlCIlS or by spLcial instruments I )ogs can rLspolld to tOlllS of very high freqwncy which the human ear cannot infra-red camlras can SlI objects which the human cyl cannot Thc limitations of our perceptual ap~nratlls restrict our appercepshytion of the world the limitations of our cerebral apparatus restrict the ways ill which we can think about it The world may not only
stranger than we think it is but stranger than we can possibly
1l1agll1t
But SchoplnhauCf goes further than this EVmiddot1 if our ingenuity lnlarges our perceptual grasp by inventing special techniquls which enable us to incorporate the sounds we cannot hear and the sights we cannot sec into our incomplete picture ofexternal reality we can never transcend the limitations imposed by our concepts of space time and causality Schopcnhaulr therefore concluded we could never perceive objects as Doumena or things-in-themmiddotmiddot sel as Kant called thell1 All we can do is register the ways J1l
which they appear to us that is tlwir represtntations as phenomshyena in the external world
But if this is true it must follow as a correlative concept things-in-themselves exist and that they have their bung in an underlying reality to which our categories of space time and causality do not apply For it makes IlO Sll1se to say that our perceptions arc subjfctivc- or partialunlcss there is a reality which is
objective and complete evell if WI have no access tf) it 11owevcr the limier yll1g reality postulated must be one ill
objects are Hot diftclIl1tiated in othll words a unitv For lbolishing the categones of space time and causality makes it impossible to distinguish one object from another Hence
vision is that ultimate reality is a unity tbt I11I1S
mldiaeval philosophy wlm) is both Cltegories of space tim and causality and (artesian eli vision 111(0 physical and mental
Both Kant and SchopcniJautr thought that this underlying reality was inaccessible Ilow(vn- ae-cordill to Schopenhaulf onL
12()
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
gt
gt z
gt z z
gt
r ~
~
lt
r
C-
r
- -~
lt~
~
sr
1
Z
r ~ ~
~
~
r
c
r
gt z
shy
z shy
bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
IfJ
r
(
J
-~
gt
~
z ~
-
gt
r
lt
-
--
~
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r
r
~
V
t
~
lt~
lt
r
r
-
To
z z
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f
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(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSt( ANI) lilF MiND
ofexpcrilllcl brings liS closer to the ullderlying nOlllllellon thall any other He suggcstnl that we have a direct knowledge from our own bodies WlllCh is unlike the perception we have ofanythillg else ()f course our bodies like other objects ill the are perceived by others and em be partly by ourselves in the same way as we perceiv( other objects all the limitations
this implies A lIlan elll look at his OVI1 hand exactly as looks at anyone elses right hand But in addition Schopenshy
claims that we have this private our own physical being and its movements The British philosopher David Pears vvrites
knowildge
At the basis ofSchoplllhallCfs system thne is a t1ltsis ill speculative
we do have J resource l1ich allows us to discern elK nature of the reality behind thl phlllOJllellal world we have Ollr
txpcrilllcl of Uti r OVll IflIlCY According to Schopcnhaucr when
we act our kllowkdge ofour own agency is llcither scientitic nor thl result of any other kind of discursive operation of thl intdlect It is
mtUltivc illside knowledge of our own strivings and he
bdiecd that it gives us our only dinwst of the true nature of
In Schoplnhauers scheIBe of things this inner knowledge IS the Ilearest ve get to perception ofthc Will the driving force or energy underlying everything of which individuals arc but manifestations for in his VICW bodily movements an the phcnomenal expression of that Irrational inexplicable underlying striving toward existellce which he called the Will but which he might equally well havc called Energy or force Nictzsches Will to Power is a
of Schoplnhallcrs notion It is important to realizc SdlOpcnhauers Will (and Nlc[zscles) include the impersonal as
to cosmic energy t()(T tkit Illoves the planets or forms the star- IS well as to the
enngy wlllch activates human beings referred to Will as endless striving alld also as propcr4 SchoplllhlUlI regarded thc Will with deep pessil1li~ll
whilst Nictzsche took Illcurral vicv of the Will to Povver
SdlOpenhlUel hi
In an interestillg passagl Schopcllhaucr SLltlS If WL
path of obJective kllowkdgL
13 0
TilE iNNFHMUST NAIlJlU )I THt WOIltlIJ
we shdl never get beyond the We hall therefore rellllilJ at (he outslde of
lbk to pelHtrate lIltu thLlr IIl1ler naturc alld arc in thel11slivls ll l)ther words wh1t they Illay be by thclllsliVCS
So tlI agrel with Kant But now as the counterpoise tn (hi~
havc strl~ed that other truth that we 1ft lot mcrely till
bur that we illl)scilCS arc 11so among thosc realities Of entities
we rlquire to kIlOW that IIII (lUrieFrs IIII tiIl thillQ-il1-iI5el Conse-
J wa yFolli wihill stands 0PCIl to tiS to that rcal inner nature
llfthings to which we cannot pCllttfatctrolllllitlu1rlL It is so to spGlk
1 slIbttrranean pasage a secret alliance which as if by treachery tI~ all at once in the fortress that conld not be takLl1 bv atrack
tiOI11 Vvirhout
It is filr to say that Schoplnhauef qualifies this statelllent by lftirmmg that even this inner knowledge and JPproach to the thing-Ill-itself is lIecessarily incomplete Schopenhaulr is not saying that the splcial knowledge which comes to us from nvarlness ofour bodies frol11 inside is direct knowledge of the Will itself for all knowledge must itself exist ill the phenomenal world The very concept ofknowlcdgc requires a dichotomy between the thing which is known and the knower and stich dichotomies as we
seen cannot eXist in the underlying unity in which all
oppositlS have disappeared But he is daimmg that this special inside knowledge of the inner
strivings which manifest themselves in our physical movements together with our vaguer intuitions of the unconscious drives which motivate liS give us poillters or hints abollt the naturl of t11l
ying reality to vhich we have no direct access This is
point at vhich the pl1t1lo IIIellon is closest to the nOUIlll1101l
III his exposition SchopcnhH1ers doctrine Patrick C
writes
Whlf I am lwarc orin self-consciousness IS not it is true
lpaLltC iUlll h1[ I am aW~lre or whCIl I look Jt III Y body and observe Its ll1()lIllLllb ifby this it i implied tllt ( havl to do with
tWO diftlTcllt luries or With two dinlflllt scb ()(onUnllllC~ The PPlIlt is howlvcr thl( whell I 1l11 cOllsciolls tlf III yself as will I 1111
Dut tllIlSCIUUS of lllVgtllf IS 11 Mea I am ulllv tllllsciUllS 01
131
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
gt
gt z
gt z z
gt
r ~
~
lt
r
C-
r
- -~
lt~
~
sr
1
Z
r ~ ~
~
~
r
c
r
gt z
shy
z shy
bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
IfJ
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(
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-
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lt~
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z z
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(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIC ANI) Till MINI)
under the Litter ISpcd whell I lllv~lIl It the ~lIllC time IS a for III Y 1 the ()fIllY wIlL
For example I SC( but Illy eye canllot ~cc itself unless I Jill
ill a lIlirror This is Will ill actiOIl SChopCllhaulr ~Llte dut the action or the body is llothing but the act of will objectified Every trut gClluine immediate act of the will is also at OIHT and directly a manifestlet of the bOIl
Xe are Ilot llSllJlv (()fS((ltS as movements
stances whcll we pLm somc action ve are learuing to nde a tJlcycle or
ordinary way we just move III accordance with some pnor intention which mayor may not be consciously perceived and then
evaluate the move we have executed according to its results If this
was lot the case we might find ourselves ill rather the same
omipede who fillllld himsclfimmobilizcd because
as
bodys operation we arc regarding it in me same way mat we
regard other ohjeCts However it is certainly true that my own
body occupies a splcialnichc III lI1y experience urthe world even if I am ollly intermittently aware of its operatiolls
Schopenhaucr thought that mens actions Were ell-less governed
premeditation and ddihcrJte nlanninrr than they bclievld Vcry
that wt arc trequently Ulldware ofollr true mutives
become cOllsciollS of what we Wefe a1l11l11g at (or what the Will was
liming at) after we hlVC acted alld Ilotld the rl~ults ofour actiOlls
lung who read SchopcnhauCf ill adolesnllct and who admitted blillg decply IlIflucnccd by him his lutobiography by
of III
all
13
lIlE INNFHM)ST NATUHI OF THE Wonl J)
world of phenomena but whICh i llltlcedent to all phenomena Oil a rose trte I1ld y be slightly different but each is an
nukes rose trelS grow flourish term
lungs term
think of any was only om timclalllental Stnvlllg me stflvmg after on( sown being
In his vislOnary ScptCI1 SeYII10llfS ad lVorrlOS written in [lt) 16
tbrough a period of personal turmoil lung
reality as the plcrmtlltl a term
It has no qualltJes 111 tile plltOma Were arc no
like good md (vii time and space or these opposites arc created by human thought
lung also believed that we have partial occasional access to this underlying reality outside space and time but his subterranean
passage vas not by way of bodily action but through synchroshy
that is meaningful coincidence 111 time which is outside
of snare and
same time as all
commellts
W l must assume that there was a lowering of the threshold of consciousness hich gave him access to absolute knowledge Thl tire in Stockholm was in a sense burning in him too For the unconsciolls psyche space and timc sccm to be rddtive that is to say kllowkdle finds itself in a space-time continuulll Il1 which space is
spacc nor tim( lime
Those who are inclined to dismiss such Ideas as Ilonsense IlUY that David Peats book SYlldmJllicity persuades thcm otherwise PC1( understands modern physics and is prepared to ddtlld the
idea that there IS all underlying order ill the 11I1lVCrSe ill which alld the division between mind alld matter do llot apply
different in
lleither it It
J 33
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIC AND TilE MIND
docs not put forward theories or inform lIS about the worll1 lor
except III fare Il1stances like Ddiuss 01 IIclfill the rirsf CIICl(J
III Sorill11bull or Haydns The Crllltioll doe~ it represent the soullds
Schopcnhaucr explicitly rliecrs imitative music as mauthentic including Haydns Tit Smsolls Fhl CfnlfiHi
battk pieccs because such music is no longer fulfilling its true function of expressing the inner lIature of the Will itsdf
Schopenhauer considered that the other arts Wlrl not merely Imitations of external reality or that if particular works of art wefe so they vcre also being false to thcif high calling In his VIew the function of the arts is not to dcpict particular instances of reality but to represent the ulliversals which lie behind tbe particular For example a painting portrays a particular woman and child as a representation of the Madonna and Christ but in
to qualify as high art the pictlln~ must convey sotnething essence of Inatcrnal love itself Innumerable paintings of
Madonna and Child exist but only the greatest artists create an image which transcends the personal and which seems to portray the divine element in maternal tenderness What a great painting IS concerned with is an archetype an Idea which can only be mmitcsted in a particular but which itself transcends particulars
rhe word Idea in the last sentence IS given a because Schopenhauer took over Platos theory that Ideas as ideal examples of say Justice Goodness Love and existed as definable entities in some realm of generalitIes winch could only be entered when men detached themselves from nlI1shy
sidning particulars 1Il the mundane hcrc-and-now
And thefc is an absolute all absolute good and of other things ro vhich the tCfm thne IS all absoshy
lute for the) may be brought under a which is ctlbl the essence of e~lch 12
thought tlut to understand what it is to nt a good man one must have an appreciation of Goodncss as an absolute In like
if Olle wished to know whether a particular actiol or decision was just one mnst have knowledge of Justice as III
134
Till INNEHM(ST NATUIU or TlF WOUIl
said of Ideas These are bull I ~
thert arc present III every psycht t(JrlllS VillCh lfe ullconsciolls but nonetheless aett Vt - IiviIlg dispositions ilk in the Platllnic s(nse that pretorm and Ik HI)(- nllr thOlwhts and f(dingts and
actioIlS 14
tbat r~ality waslung came to
on 111 IS yet unknown substrate possessing material and at
the same tillle psychic qualities In view of the trend of modern theoretical physics this 155111110tion should ~rOlISe fewer resistances
than befofe
Although at first glance one might equate an Idea with a
concept Schopenhauer repudiated thIS In his view concepts the tools of thought and of human communication are cerebral constructs whereas the eternal Ideas arc antecedtnt to hurnan thinking The Idea manifests itself in variolls forms The concept may bnng toglthcr a variety of sllch manifestations under one heading but it is not anteccdellt to thought but a product
thought
The ItCd is thl unity that ius t~dkn into plurality virtue of the form ofour intuitive apprehension The
on the other i tile unity OllCt more produced out of of naS)ll th( latter canby means of absrractJull tl1rotlll our
be described as Ill ita )(11 fCIII and the f()rIlHr as lIlila (lllll rtIIL II
Concepts 111 -cllOpel11Ullel s VICW arc csselluall y ab-tract
cerebratIons which are somewhat lifdlss Artists who plall every detail of a work before embarking 011 it arc using conceptual
thought only and hcnce produce dull boring works becausc tlwy luve ClIt thclllselves off fro 111 the deeper sources ofJllspiratiol1- the
11
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIC AN) TilE MINIl
Ideas SdWPllliulIlr thought that it was thl functioll of lrt to
Idcas An hL wrote
rcpats the ctlTILd Idc1S
the lssclltial lnd of the world According to the material in vlhieh it repeats it is sculpture pa jnting poetry Of IlIllsic Its Oil Iy source IS kllow ledge of the IdllS Its sole aim is COlllllllllllCltioll of this 1 11 7
To appreciate art thL observer mllst adopt a special attitudL of mind the same attitude required by Plato of detachment from plrsonal concerns so that the work of art can be appreciated in cOlltemplative tlshion uncontaminated by personal lleeds or
PIlOCClipations
ror example a mall cUllook at J btalltiful panning ofa nude like
the (ochy VCIItIi ill two ways He can see her as an object of desire
perhaps experience some degree ofsexual arousaL Or he can see
as an uchetype of Woman the essence of the fiminine The
laun way of looking in which personal mterests and aims are temporarily discarded is according to Schopenhauer the ollly
way to appreciate art and the only way thlrdc)re of obtaining a
glimpse of the inner nature ofthe world Schopenhauer calls this the
aesthetic way ofknowillg It is an exercise in emparly Worringer
expresses it thus We lrt delivered from our individual being as
long as we arc ~)bsorbt(1 mto an external object an externll wah Olli inner urge to lxpericllCc I x
When we employ the Hsthetic way of knowing we an
tlmporanly rClllovcd frolll the tyranny of hopcs and fears of
desire of personal striving Ami we arc also ~lbandoning the
scielltific way of knowlIlg wlIlch enquIres into the nature of tht
as existillg in the external world and il1to its relations with
Dther objects 1 hus in the case ofthc iltokcily I (litIS we might want
III know whelJ VcLizqulz pailwd the picture hov he obtall1cd
effeds vho was his Illodd who commissiollcd it and so OIl ThIS
is a perfectly legitimate way of approaching the p1111ting but ll1IploYlllg it must necessarily prevent Ollr appreciatioll of its inller
ll1d slgnitlclIlcc during the time we an PUSllJllg ollr
Illqlliril~ As noted earlier the contrast betweell aesthetic and
13 f1
III F INN U~M()T NATUH E t n Till W )HL[)
SCiLlltific knovll1g bcrWCll1 empathy md abstraction is a partiCllshyapt dichotomy when we consider thl lppreoatinl1 of lllusic
Olle which has gIVen rise to controversy It is a pity that
Schopcnhaucr referred to vhlt we now call clllpathy as the way of knowing I(J[ abstraction is equally aesthetic
pnhaps more so since it is mOTe cOl1cemed with appreciation of
proportion and structure Art was important to the peSSImistic Schopenhaucr because rhl
lesthctic mode of knowing the pure contemplation of beauty the
tranquil appreClation of the Ideas enabled the individual to escape
for the time belllg from the never-ending misery of unsatisfled
deSlfl illto a Nirvana of spiritual peacl
There always lits so Ilcar to liS a realm in which we have escaped entirely from all our affliction but who has the strlngth to remain in it for lltmg As soon as any rdation to our will to our persoll even of
t hose objects of pure contcill platiOIl agaill enters cOllsciousness the magic is at all emL We fall back into kllowledge governed by the prilHjpk of sufticiellt reason we now no IOl1t~er know the Idea but the illdivldual thing the link ofa chain to whirh we also lXlong and
to all our woe Ii)we arc agam
Whatever we may think of Schopenhauers philosophical
explanation we Gill apprcClate as accuratc and illuminating this
description of aesthetic expericnce temporarily taking ourselves
out of ourselves before we return to the everyday world of getting
~llId spending But SdHJpenhauers portrayal of the usthetic mode
of kllOWil1g does not include arousal Reading hi~ account leaves Olll with the impression that being taken out ofol1lself forgetting
as an individual as he puts it invariably leads to a state from which all pas~ion is absent In bet he
describes the aesthetic attitude as an objective frame of mind as if stepping into another world where everything that moves our
will and thus violently agitates us 110 longer exists But music call cause intense lXcitlmel1t For lxampk bearing
Finak of Beethovens Razumovsky Quarter in C major
()p W NO3 is an exhilarating expericllce which is as far
removed from the PC1(T ofNirvma as olle can
137
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
gt
gt z
gt z z
gt
r ~
~
lt
r
C-
r
- -~
lt~
~
sr
1
Z
r ~ ~
~
~
r
c
r
gt z
shy
z shy
bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
IfJ
r
(
J
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gt
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z ~
-
gt
r
lt
-
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~
~
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r
r
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t
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lt~
lt
r
r
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z z
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(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIL ANn Ill MINI)
is listenlll to ILtydns ()xliHd or to MozHts overture to Fe T VvO the rclation
was discllssed Physiological l
lot alvays mtIlltlst itself 111 exhilaration
that most obviously incompatible with the
We Irl abo dlq)l y moved and thcrcf()rc PIlYSlOlog lCllI y by rracdy Arousal also enters into our appreciation of
lrts although less obviollsly I 1111 sure
had a wide knowlcdgl and appnxiation of the arts was oftcll
moved by them but he (lid not make it ckar that belllg
dccply moved was compatible vith the aesthetic way ofklH)ving
Schopcnhaucrs lesrhttic mode of knowing is a Illental set ill
which Dersonai desires and strivings arc abolished because the
1Il the contemplation of beauty FrLuds the satis[lctioll of personal desires through
regression to a condition resemblillg
III LJ1 the ideal is a tenslOnless state rather
one ot arousal or excitement Emotions are not pleasures to
sought but intruders to be banished
A prottHllld pessimism underlies these The wish to abolish
willing and striving to avoid arousal to purgt of deslrl is lite-denying rathLr than IIfe-cnhancing Most beings that arousal in on( form or another IS W makes life worth
livillg We crave cxcitement ill The Nirvana sought by Schopellhaucr
in Swinburnes The C Proserpine where even
scariest n vcr winds sa ie to sea It is not surpnsinA that
poswLltcd a toward return to
If we lrl to uk it IS I truth tlllt knovs no
dies fur merlIl rlStlIlS -- hecomeS
we sh11 he compelled to sav that back wlrds thn 1IIltlIIIIIlHe lilllII (llO
Freud papers I Ltd he lived to Ippreciatl rrlllds
sure tblt he would Ilvl lmbrlCld it with thl
13 X
ll~ lvl()1 Nt IlilU (lIIIII W()IU I)
Ille lll hUcLlll widl illCh Ill or IS tilt bliSS of
lllq Tris1II IIId
dCI 11 Illl t LIlL lilly lind its
tul til lllllll tIlL ChlrlcttTS 01
Votall and ILllUIlCll1 illl) of till will
) pos~ibk to believe that jove tinds its fidtlllllllIt m more
lhillrlll rrlIldchildrell mel Iatcr dtsCllldams But
of the im of that their oWll of
matter
It UIlC till ultimate
ll( hu llll illS Il I I k hliIcls ollly ill hilllsdf IllS own
lli H 1 Ihl t Ii Ill~
ct1tlltliltl1 r Ylrllttlg so hern em be appeased 0 the tllllihll(IIIU(loVl is dllth 2
lInwshi ill the
Ji IS Itdrllu lrL
nr11LlIliI(b llll th plrticllLtr 0
drlllLltlst hl W IS tlllllllnlltlll the
ill t lT) ihd ill
ik 11 [he tiJe IdL It)( LI[ ~t J II E t ill f illl
j jll tldthll [u 1 Ufj L I-PI (himiddot Ilh l ith)n
~ )
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIC Nll TilL MIN)
V()rk~ of art art thlIllSdt~ SlICit) is the Illll of all the other arts (and is possibk vith 1
I knee all (fthem ()t~ilctiCy till will only ll1l1l1~ of thL Ideas 0
III Sch~)pll1hallns view music is differellt from all the Otl1lT nts
it speaks to us direct it bVlllSSCS the Ideas
ThLretltm lllusic is by IlO means like the other arts lLll11c1y I copy of tlw Ideas bur a UlJ1Y tll rhe liII irtgtf the objectivity of which arc the Idels For thiS rcaSUll the effen of musIc is so very much more
and pCllctrlting thall is that of the other arts t(lf these
others ollly of thl shadov but mosic of the eSSlIltT
Because music Heither represents the phenomenal world nor
it it bypasscs both the pictorial and
at a picture the tan of the pictures existence
as a tallpwle oi)Ject 111 the external world acts as an intermediary
bltvectl oursdvls aBd the underlying Idea which the artist is
(xprlssinp When we read a poem the vvords 111 which the poem is
written act similarly Since the pallltcr must by definition exprcss
what he has to lxprcss in a picture and the poct must express what
he has to express ill words it may seem stupid to writl of pictures and words as intcnncdiarics Bur if we consider that paintinps arc
represelltations of something which the painter vishcs to convey to
us and ifwe also accept that Lmpuagl is intrinsically metaphorical
ve em appreciate that the medium is not identical with the
lllcssage and may ill Sl)JllC sellse distort it or prcsent it
incompletely ThIS ofcollrse is wby artists arc llever
they have produCtd but arc compelled to po on striving to
Va y of cxnrcssilw whatever it is that
va n t to con Vl)
Music according to SChOplllhalllr is understood imlllldiltely
withollt lIly lIlcd to give allY accollnt it or form any conceptioll of it Hll1cc he is excluding XoTTlIlpcr abstraction
the objcctive mode of perception by Wll1Ch w( J the structure and coherellce of musical vvurk Whlt nlllS1C lXprlSses is the illlltT
spirit
qo
Ill INN FHMOS I NATUIU lll TilE WUIU)
This dose nbtloll chlt music has to the trill llature uLdl tlllllgS call lIso cxpllin the Lid till( when music suiubk to any ~lmiddotllll actllll1
event or cllvirOlllllcnt is played it ~ll11S to disclose to us Its most sccret IlHllllllg lilt appears to be the most accurate and lhstind cOllllllellLlry 011 it A(cordill~ly we could JlIst well call the world embodied music as embodied wIll this is the reasoll why JllUSIC makes every pKtllfe illdeld every SCllll frOlll real lik and
from thc world at OllCC appear in tllhlIlccd uf coursc 111 the grcater the more llulogous its melodv is to the inllcr spirit of the givcn pilellOlllCIlOfL 2
Bllsoni had dosdy views about IllUS1C exprcssing the
JllllCr sqnificancc humalJ fcelings
The greater part ofmodern theatre music $utTns from the mistake of to rcpeat the SCClllS passlIlg on the stage instead of fulfilling
ltS proper missiull of interpretillg the soul-states of thc persons
represented When the scene pnscilts the illusion of a tlHllHkrstorm
this is exhaustively apprehcnded tbe eye Nevertheless nearly all composers strive to depict the storm in WIllS - which is not only a nccdless and feebler repetition but likewisc a failure to their true ttlilction The person on the stage is either psychically inshyflucllced the thunderstorm or his mood heing absorbed ill a train of thought of stronger influellce remains unaffected The storm is visible llld alldibk withollt aid from music it is the ill visible and
the sDiritllt1 processes of the personages portrayed which 2(
ScbopellhautT claims that music expresscs the Xlill direct as it itself Jll the clllotional life of man that it closdy
to the fluctuations ill cmotional state which we all
xperllncL
Now till nature of man consists ill the bct that IllS will trivLs 1S
satisfied strives lllC ~lIld Sll Oll llld 011 in fact his happiness am cOllSist in the trallsition from desire to satisflrtlon
lllc from this to 1 fresh desirc such trallsitioll For the Ilt)l-lppCarIllCl of satlstactloll is
for a new desire lS languor hornlnm Thus to this the llltun of llldndy is a eOllst-mt dignssHn
ql
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
IfJ
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(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
Il i I ( I) I I I I 11 I I
ilhl dLltlll (rOlll tlil ktlllt ll t1ltllhlld I IHlI Ulll In thl
ILirlll()lIJ()lI~ illllivdlt till third lilt dOlllilliil)l htl[ [lVll [ll( ttl
the dlcS()IlIlt l(I](I 11ld til rill CtrIlll 1I1Il Ib [ tilT
iollus I tJlld ItWIll ttl till
txpnSlS thl hut d Ih
Iqllll ) 11I1t1Hllll()lIS llltcld lild
srill tllore
uf desire and portra ys cven
bllilftilt lldd all yo Ill Wlllt to
SChOPClllUlltT
tu cOllnrn
example vith rlw heauties ScllOPl11lllllTs
()ISlsts ni
fllllt Uril IllS
lllUSIC which predominantly portraygt peace amI stillness It therel()rc SICUh stlrprismg
Hossilli w host mllsic is so
dcscrilwd it as voluble heile and 1
dlseriptiollS ll to IOSSllll It IS true that 1I1USIC IS
lively t ha11 IKItl fu L
IlltlSIC CPITSSlS unly the quillttsscnltt )1 11k alld Its
events never till tilUllSdvlS lIld theni() riwir tllIkllIKt do Ilot
illtlllCllll it It lsjllst tim illdilidudity thitt
to 11ll1SIl with the most precise dist1lctlH~S tlut gilTS it
thlt high vlUllS rhe palllCC1 oLdl our SllTOS Thlfl~)( If lllusic
(rits tu stick tou clusrly to the words md to tllould ihdl to (veil ts it is l1lkavunrillg to speak 1 bngluge lIut it OWlI I~(l-Olll hilS kcpt so Ii lt-l (rull this misclke lIS R()ltSllli hellc his Illusi
so distillctly lld purdv th( it rCljuins 11 llnb at
all mel rJnci(lrt prudllCls HS full dktt nllI Ilhil Illdncd llstllllllCIHS dulll s
Since 10-1111 S prcdolll I (egtmpulI o( Uplll ill
Innds mel Illtlsi( F 1lILHll clH)il
sems at hrst sight llHpliclhly c(celltric Hut ill ilhd tiLll
dtbollgh the 1Il1isic o(lIl UfClt vas composed itll rlknlll il rl1lt JrlIl1l it Wh so concerned ith rhe illII sirn 1II (gtllll h
I ~~
lIil~ INNFHM()~T Nil IlIHI () 1L WOHII)
pOnLtycL1 thlt It burl little dlfct rcLitiul1 to rhose lvellts as
partindar illSLlllClS 1Ie poil1t~ out that thl Sllll lllllSic
lccompanyillg the passiolls of AIal1lelllllOIl and Achilles ur tht disslllsiolls of an ordillary hIllily
Till IIHISlC of an operJl I~ presclltld ill rhl score hasl
separate and as it wefe absrralt lXIstCllCC
which the illOdltltS lnd charactns of tbe picce arc
hieh foll)vs its own unchangeable rules it em tlllrctC)fe be lft~nive evell without the texL olt
Schopenhauef anticipates the kind of criticisms vhich
beel made I kryck Cookes Tht LIIlIIIlipound (~r AlI1Si( some which we ha ve already encollntered Music underlines alld
the emotions which drama arouses in the spectator but
and arouse specific emotions in the absellce presellted 011 stage or in real ltf( ceremonials - is
rather limited For example mllsic alone canllot specifically
Jealousy although the music used to 11l1derlllle a dramatic
scene ofJealousy Imght deserve to be described as both passionate
and agitated fhere IS a flscinating discllssion of these problems in Edward
Cones book Tht COIllPOSYS Voite Com~ points out that we arc
oilly P~lft1y aware of the prosodic clemellts of our OWIl
tltteranclS We em raise our voices without knowing thu -le arc
doing so we can splak ill toiles which display an lIndcrlying gloom
the least awarCIllSS ofour sdfrevclatioll Bv addinu music
meal1ll1g
illslght of the
So wh11 as in song a tllusKallil1c lS L(lmbinld with 1 [(xt It is
latural for liS to accept the mllsic a rd~Trlllg to a subconsciuus level
ltllld lying untln - whltlVCr thoughts ltld clllotiolls an
by the words
gl ven alJovl dllllOllstra tl
Illusic of an oper was or could be entire y
LB
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIC ANI) TilL MINI)
indepClHkllt otthc tcxt whnlas Conc is cmphasizing the close link bctwcen the to BUl the philosopher and the I1lllsicologist join hll1ds in thinking that music IS concerned with the innn life rather than with external reality
It is worth relllarking that Schopenllluer W1S writing lhout the Western tonal system based upon the major triad as if it was the only lllusical systelll He even refers to music as an exccedingly universal Ianguage]1 which as already notcd it certainly is not Schopenhauer could not of course anticipate the atonality of Schocnberg or the twelvc-tonc system But he docs not consider music based primarily 011 rhythmic variatioll rather than upon melody or music using a pentatonic scale or music using intervals smaller than the semitone On the other hand Schopenhaucrs account of melody does formulate one feature of musical experishyence which sOl1le later authorities say is common to all varieties of music that musical compositions are structured by setting a norm then by deviating from that norm and finally by returning to it This closely resembles thc theory of music 3dvanced by Leonard B Meyer which was disclissed earlier
Schopenhauer also anticipates the theories ofSusanne K Langer although he is given only passing mention ill her books jgtZilosophy ill 1 NeH Kcy and FccillX and Form SchopenhauCf specifically stated that music does not express particular emotions directly
But we IIlllst JJever forget when referring to all these analogies I have brought t()rward that IIlUSIC has no direct relation to them but only
an illdirect olle for it never expresses the phenomenoll but only the inner nature the Ill-itself of evcry phenomenon the will itself
Therd()fe music docs not express this or that particular and definite plcasun this or that affliction pain sorrow horror gaiety ll1errimlmiddotnt or peace of tllind hut joy paill sorruw horror gaiety ll1errimellt peace of tllind rhltlllscilCi to a lTrtalll lxtellt ill the abstract thlmiddotir lssllltial nature vithollt any accessories and so also without the motives for them Nevertheless wt undnstalld thcm perfectly ill this extracted ljuilltlSSlIlU 2
Illstead of ljuoting thiS passage frum Schopcllhaun Langer quotes from Wagner who wrote what follows years before he llCOllntnld Sch()pelh~lller III vitw of the close similarity of the
144
Till INNLHM()ST fgtJATUIU ()( Till WOIUIl
two passJgcs it is lot surpriSing that Wagller btn becal1le all
cnthusiastic adhnent of SchopellhaulTs philosophy WlgnLT
J tYi rms
Whlt Illusic expresses is cternal intlliite ald idetl it docs lot
express the passion lovc or longll1g of such-and-such an individutl Oil uell-and-such In o(cbion but passion lol ur IOllglllg in itself lIld this it presents in thlt unlimited variny ofllllltivations which is the exclusivc and particular characteristic of 11iUSIC tlHcign and
inexpressible to my other LlI1guagemiddotL1
This passage states in different words what Schopellhaucr wlote in the extract given immediately above Langer hnsdf commellts
on what Wagner has to say
Dcspite the romantic phraseology this passage statcs quite clearly that music is not self-expression bUtj(JYlllllilltioll IIlld rcpnSCIlIjfiOI of e1l1otions moods melltal tensions and resolutions - a logical picture of sentient responsive life a source of insight not a plea tl)r
sympathy 14
What is not clear from Schopenhauers account is how music differs froIll say poetry in furnishing a more direct expression of the illnermost nature of man For are not the tones which music employs comparable with the words which poetry employs And is it not true that both poetry alld music arc flpresentations of the
inner life not the inner life itself Schopenhauer chimed that music more directly expresses the
inner life than the other arts because it does not make Llse of the Ideas Music goes deeper than pictures dceper than words But music employs tones and toncs as indicated ill thc first chapter are seldom ()Und ill nature Western music wi th which Schopenhauer was concerned consists of tones arranged in a variety of melodic rhythmic and harmonic patterns These patterns may luve little cOllnection with the external world but because their construction requires considerable artifice music can hardly be regarded as the immediate objectification and copy of the illner Iik or Will which SChopcllhaucr claimed it to be Music by employing sounds which
145
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
IfJ
r
(
J
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gt
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-
gt
r
lt
-
--
~
~
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r~
~
N
r
r
~
V
t
~
lt~
lt
r
r
-
To
z z
~
~
lt
C
-T-i~
~
r
-
r
l
r- ~
]2
t
r
~E
f
I
J
(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSH ANlll HE MINI)
Hl not t(HllJd in nature md which are arranged III
compllx ways Jllay nTtailllv bt expressing the illller lik III
11lltlphorical tlshioll but its composition requires as mllch (011shy
uptual thought as
Schoptnhauer did nut reall y takt this Il1to aCCtHlIlt as eVll1tllced
by his vritillg
Thl invention ofmelody the disclusure in it orall the dcqwst senets
nrbuman wlll111g and feeling is the vork of genius whose cftlct IS
more apparent here thall ll1yvvherc elsc is far removed trom all reflectioll and conscious ll1ttlltilIl and might b called all
tion llert as everywhere ill art the concept is ullproductive The composer nveals the innermost nature of thc world lml cxpresses the prot(ll1ldl~St wisdom in a language that his rcasowllg taculty does Ilot understand 1)
No one can deny that melodies can be the result of inspiration but
lllaIlY reqUJre much revisIOn and amendment as Beethovens
repeatedly demollstratc It is also trllc as we kno from accounts by poets of their own creative processts thLlt S0111e
IiIlLS of poetry come unlmidt11 to the poets mind and are therefore equally tJr removed from all reflection and consciolls
intention Schopenhauns attempt to put music III a special category for the reasons which he advanccs is unconvillcing
I Iowever thae art other observations which support his intuitioll
Michael Tippttt the composer echoes some of what Schopenhauer writes lbout mllsic portraying the inner flow oflife
bur adds a commcnt which goes some way to lxpbining why we
Vlant to rLproduce and expai~Jlce this flow which is exactly what Schoplllhauer fiils to do Tippett writes
llIusic III the hands of tlw grelt masters truly llld
el1lboLil the utherwise unperccived unsavourtd Inller flow ufhk In listcning to slch lIlUSIC we ltfl 1S though entire agaill despite all
the inilCllritv in(ohcrcllcc inconmktLllCSS and relativity ll Ollr
w the power of dow I slIbmisiull which LIS a special pleasure lIld
cnrIches liS The pklsllrc alld the lnrIchlllent Jrisc from the Llet that the How IS not lllllc1y thc now Ilf tiltmiddot musH ltsdf but J
lllt imtgc (It till inller How or hfe Artitill nf all kinds is
LiJl
TilE INNERMOST NATUHE UF THE WORLD
neccssary to till l1luicsl compOSition in order that it sh11 beCOll1l
uch 1Il illllgc YLt whcll the pcrfict pcrfurmlncc allli occasioll
allow us a truly Immediate apprehensioll of the innG flow behind
the lllllsic the artifice is mOlllentarily of IlO CDlIStqucl1ce Wl arc flO
awarcoflc
context the most important sentence from this
i~ the second one Tippett is suggesting that listenillg to
music lllakes us aware of important aspects of ourselves which we
may not ordinarily pltrceivc and that by putting LIS into touch
these aspects music makes us whole again This function of music
Vas disclissed in Chapter Five
Malcolm Budd in his compelling assault on Schopenhautr
lklllolishes practically everything which the philosopher has to say
about music He ends his chapter on Schopenhauer by writing
SchopenhaulT is tht IlHlslCians philosopher But Schopcnhaucrs of mllsic is not a fitting monulllent to tht art l7
I agrec with some of the criticisms which Budd makes of Schopcnhauers philosophy indeed after writing this chapter I IlHlIld that I had echoed mallY ofthe same criticisms from a diffcnnt
of view And although I accept and owe a good deal to sOl1Je lckas I part company withJung at precisely those points at
he is closest to Schopenhauef That is I find it hard to believe
III the pllrolhl or to accept tht notion that archetypes or Phtonic
Ideas exist as definable items in a kind oflimbo beyond time aud
space If there is an underlying reality consisting of thillgs-inshythemselves I am lllclinld to bdieve that we have no access to it
pnl1lordial images which constitute are powerfully compelling because they
aspects ofexperiellce which arc COlllmon to
observer who detects the Idea of Love as being
lJ1 Rembrandts The Jcwlsh Bride is acknowkdgmg in demollstrating the deepest essential features of
human experience A wedding portrait
Mr md Mrs Jones however skilfully posed and lit is ullhkcly to
exhibit thl essentials oflove because it cannot be as sdective as call t
1 great master It is generally acknuwledged [hat tlll
147
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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gt z z
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r
- -~
lt~
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sr
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Z
r ~ ~
~
~
r
c
r
gt z
shy
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bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
IfJ
r
(
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-
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lt
-
--
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r
r
~
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t
~
lt~
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r
r
-
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z z
~
~
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-T-i~
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~E
f
I
J
(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MUSIC AN) TllE MIND
grcatest works urart ill 111) Ilcld arc great because they arc nmnfllld
with ullivLTslis It does not follo that these universals have some
killd ofghostly existll1Ct olltside space and time This is not to
that therc arc COilcepts and ideas which cannot be placed in space Numbns are real but lot tangible the rdation betweell tone~ vhirh constitutes ~llusic exists but cannot be portrayed
Schopenhauns distinctioll th~~
is V]101Iy convincing the sense of dilfenncc he seeks to explain by 111lanS IS
would agree there are musical scnn and lifeless because of the
ingenuity of their construction they do llO[ touch the Although l1Jny would not agree with him COlIStlIlt Lambert
this ofsome ofStra vinsky s neo-classical works He is even Illon critical of Himkmirh whose l1lusic seems to Lambert to
rcHect nothing but stcrile workman-like proficiency JK
But we can surdy agree with Schopcnhaucr 111 that
some lorks of art arc cCfebrli lJolIlH and mSplratlOn
without accLpting his philosophical The
artists arc able to plumb and bring to
of those common to all man-and even
greatest sometlllles is dearly superficial
SdlOpcllhaucr of course realizes It is his interpretation of the
difference which alienates his critic~ Nevertheless I vould be inclined to salvage more what
SchopenhauCr writes ahollt music than Malcolm Budd is prepared
to do SdlOpenhauCr postulates two way~ in some kind of limited subterranean access to the trut nature of
olle bLing our experience of Ollr own physical being and its IllOVll1lellts tbe other being by way of music Although I do lot agrce that gives privileged partial access or proximity to the kind of tmderlvil1 realitv which Schopenhauer bSllll1LS I am
subjective physical awareness as
concerned with txpcricncc in depth I earlier observltioll that Many If not aU of lllusics
processes em be fl)lJlld in the constitution lf the human of illteractioll ofbodies in society 3
14X
Till INNImiddotHMl)1 NlllHL lH Till Wllnll
S IllCJ tiIu Ollr npcriLllcc )fOlll OVI1 bodies gives liS d p )itHer to m underlying nahty which we em ollly ()[1uiIJ through lllUSIC is surel connected vith his viL mUSIC IS
Ull till othlr lrts ill that it is il (tlp) lttiC 1I 1i
rOt~d ill the y and closely (Olllllctld lllovcmellt ill the conCtr hall may have to inhibit
10 Vlllllll t tlWll Srhopcll hmer s view t ha t both Uti r experience thc bod 111d our lxpcnencl of music possess a depth an
11111 cannot be obtained in ways and persuasive
iJl ItVl dllldy discllsscd the emergence of absolute mllSIC
tlllCOlllllCfnl with words or collective (enmollies
about Ros-ini show that lltlwugh he appreciated Undl()11 or music in cnhallcing the significance of vords hL rated
Wets il(l( lssociated with vords stillmore
I more dircct profound and immcdiate etTect on us thall the other Ins as Schopclliulier claims we can fiunish a more cOllvillcing explanation f()r hy this should be so than he does We
music is a nOll-verbal art which is directly linked with
measured some people find that
picture SlllSet ex perIence urge toward
1l10tlOll increase 1ll muscle tone and the respunses to rhythm Pictures make Olll Wallt to dallel
l lspeciaJi y (0 the body because
listcning to music puts II ways unmatched
Neither (11 IlH1Sll
dl)l~ the rclation music with phVSICd 11lOVCl11elit although he pnccivcd nom as i11ull directly CllllllLctcd wirh the IHlllLlll lctiitics Ii hL had made
dIed llS 1)lSlIllistir
lhl llistTil~ oflifi
ql)
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
gt
gt z
gt z z
gt
r ~
~
lt
r
C-
r
- -~
lt~
~
sr
1
Z
r ~ ~
~
~
r
c
r
gt z
shy
z shy
bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
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lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
MU~I( ANI) I MINI)
hlS lllhk hl~ pllce with (ud he IIIS slnliccd Ill )11 til lt submItted hilllsdf to till will of( nd
lung sf)Lciahzed in thl treatlllent of pCI)pk t()I whom had helollle as ill his OWIl lISC he
beding as
Nietzsche too rctainld I religious attitude ill spitl ofhIs ll]ectloll
of (ImstiJllity and his procbmation of the death of (od Accodshying to Walter K N ietzsehe
loss (
claimed
Nictzschl was no thcist but his Cud W1S dclLl The tragnly of
fafllllsfl is thar beCHlSl his Cod dicd Nietzsche hilllsclfbccallll a god lIId this happened because he was IlO ltheist I k VIS uf tOll
a nature to tolLrate the urban Illllrnsis ufathlisIlL-i
allli
delusions arc a general paresis and (lils to llltO account in his
fll]orati ve mind
III religious
of aesthetics to
N iltzsche
ego perllaps Oil all lJ111lr
unconsciollsly Niltzschc was not
III a ul passgl II Htl(Jlld ( (lOt tlll1
to the artists need d calls
oigtetiitI1(( ill (Jill dirntiol frolll (lut of that thn lt1[1
llIlcrgls llld bas alvly~ emcrged ill thl long rUll SUllllmiddotdullg 1~11 tbt lkc of Whlh I[ is wlrtllvhdc to Ii( ()Il (lrril (or nllllpk irlllc
art lllllSil dallce ICIOll spiritu1iitv sOllllmiddotthing tr rdillld Ilud 1Ild dilllc
Iq
A JLJSTIIIlt ATI()N UF FX~TENCFeAmiddot r shared this notioll of obediencc which he described in
religious terms hut for h1l1l it was to an inner VOIce which emanated from the ullconscious Alluding to dreams he once said to me Every night one has the chaltn~ ofthe Eucharist He actually
referred to religions as psychotherapeutic systems For religious expcricl1o was something sui Iweris somcthing
from the experiences provided by the arts Jungs concepshytion of obedlnce and transfiguration IS much narrower than Nietzsches lack of appreciation is a
~-reuds One of the few _ to
appreciate music The only reference to lTIusic in Jungs autobio-IS to the singing of a kettle he wrote was just like
polyphonic music which in reality I cannot abide ) Had he been a poet a painter or even a better writer I think his
which contains so much of interest and value would have been more securely based and would also have won wider acceptance Bur hlt could not relinquish the idea that it was possible to have some kind ofespecial direct line to God God never died for Jung as He did for Nietzsche As a consequence Jung (liled to see that his advocacy obedience to the wisdom of the unconscious was only one instance the much wider obedience which
Nietzsche perceived ~ III contrast Nietzsche like Schopenhauer considered the arts to
be supremely important and music particularly so For IU111 it was not merely a transient pleasure but one of the things which made
possible Nietzsches words quoted above clearly dernonsshyrealization that f()r many people the concert hall and the
art gallery have replaced the church as places where the divine can encountered Nietzsche despite his am bivalent attitude to
hence to Phu) ~h1rfrI the btttrs conviction that
IllllSIC exert powerful effects on human beings both good In attribming such slgllificance to mllsic Nietzsche was
closer to mciel1t Greeks than to most modem thinkers
Music important to Nietzsche quite early in hIS life Ol1e
of his school friends vIas a buy called Gustav Krug lh05e father and had been an lI11intancc of
Krug was a centre of
155
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bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
IfJ
r
(
J
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gt
~
z ~
-
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r
lt
-
--
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r
r
~
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~
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lt
r
r
-
To
z z
~
~
lt
C
-T-i~
~
r
-
r
l
r- ~
]2
t
r
~E
f
I
J
(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
gt
gt z
gt z z
gt
r ~
~
lt
r
C-
r
- -~
lt~
~
sr
1
Z
r ~ ~
~
~
r
c
r
gt z
shy
z shy
bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
IfJ
r
(
J
-~
gt
~
z ~
-
gt
r
lt
-
--
~
~
-
r~
~
N
r
r
~
V
t
~
lt~
lt
r
r
-
To
z z
~
~
lt
C
-T-i~
~
r
-
r
l
r- ~
]2
t
r
~E
f
I
J
(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
bullbullbull
MUSIC ANI) Tllf MIN)
teach nsign~lti()n To represellt terrible and things IS in itsclflIl111stillct for pOWlr lnd llugniticlJlCt
111 an ~Irtist he docs not fear thelll There IS no such thing as
art - Art affirms For a philosopher to say the good alld the beautiful arc Oill IS infamy ifhe g()(s on to add also the trtle Olle ought to thrash him Truth is
W t possess lrt lest we Icrish oftlu tmth J
Nictzsclws vicw oflifc ill spite of his awareness of its hOfwrs is esscntially affirmative whereas Schopenhauer sees 110 hope but
denial and detachmcnt As Waltcr Kaufmann puts it
Nietzsche envisages the sublime as the artistic conquest of the horrible and he celebrates the Greek who has looked with bold eyes illto the dreadful destructive turmoil ofso-called as well as into the to
or to a Buddhist reaffirms lIft with the creation of works ofart u
So the ([cation of traged y is both a nsponsc to the horrors oflife Jnd a way of mastering them From tragedy it is possible to learn to
appreciate life as sublime in spite of the suffering which living Nietzsche makes llS understand why it is that cven tragic
the slow movement of theEroica
111ere
ill which we are saying Y lS to life as it actually IS tragic
ecstatic painful and joyful The essential theme of The Birth Tagcdy is Nietzsches perception that art makes sense of the world and justifies existence
Nietzsche realized - no one more vividly - that the only life wt
know is constituted by oppmites Pleasure is inconceivable without without darkncss lovt without hate good without evil
In
111
become includes tragedy wLy it must embrace trage(ly as
triumph vby the dcnial of suffering is the llCgltioll oflifi itself
t5~
IUlt1 II ( IIUN Of IXIS IINCI
Niltl~chl bdjl~d t1ut thl~ tTlH1Vt prOll was
tdv~Tsiry more pccidlv by ill-hLalth vhlthn l1llltal tit wlluld hlC apprcciatid 1ll00lem views which 11I1k
hlbillty to IlLlllic-deprlssive illness with crcativity t Nietzsche
1S1 chalkllgc vhich ought to stren~~thell a persons
by overcomillg adversity that a hllll11l1 being can
hlS true potllltitl I kille puts thesl words into the l110mh
last sLll1Za
Disease w- dll most basic (f Illy crItl uli-e and tiTS
Creating I could Creating I agalll grew sound -I
those varietIes of philosophy which solutions to the prohkms of
Tht llunmscious disguise of phYSlOloglcllllleds IIllder the cloaks of
the ubjlniv( ilka purdy goes to often I ha vt Ikld III ysclf vgthethr taking a large vinv 111S 1)( hCln merely all interpretation of the hody alld a misrlllticrshy
otiy tmiddot
indigestion insomma and hun
up
pmtcssorship It the Ul11vcrslty ot Base at till age of thirty-four bCllllSC ot ill-health III spite of thIS he wrote to (Lorg BrandlS
My illlllsS ILlS becll my grcatest boon 1t unblocked 1I1l it gave llll the COULlg to be lllYSlIf II Illness also had the c(lcct of partidl)
N ict7schc called IllS TilliS Spo]gt
I y)
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
IfJ
r
(
J
-~
gt
~
z ~
-
gt
r
lt
-
--
~
~
-
r~
~
N
r
r
~
V
t
~
lt~
lt
r
r
-
To
z z
~
~
lt
C
-T-i~
~
r
-
r
l
r- ~
]2
t
r
~E
f
I
J
(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
~1USI( INI) IIII M[NI)
Ni(tlschcs (meLTll to l1lCrgc A Dioll)sim SChoptllhaucrs obslrvJtioll that
In tht course of litt head and helrt grow mort ami more qun more lIld lllOrtmiddot their
I
Nietzsche inslstcllce Oil txpenIIlCl IS
eXistence is ttcpendlllt on
tive more cspcClally 011 linking mind wrlttln my works with my whole
Will to IgtOllfI Nlctzsche claims that art has a direct dtlct Oll bodily experience alld that this is why it is life-affirming even when its subject-matter IS tragic
In The Gal S((II(( Nietzsche wrote
Alld so I a~k myself What is it that Illy whole body really expects of
music I believe its OVIl (SC as if Ill allimal fUl1niom should he
casy bold cltLlbcrall t self-assured rh ychms as ifiron kadtn lit should be gilded by gout golden and llndcr harmonics
mdallchol y wants to rest in the hiding places and abvsslS of that is why I need music
Glvell tillS vi(w of art It is lot slirpnsillg that Nietzsche repudiated Christimity Nothlllg could be furtiHr from hi VISi011 than the
Chnstiall picture of a he Vtll in vvith harp and song alld from
bCClllntircly
s I ib insistence 011 the or soul over
label sexuality as nilL I Ie 1)lhevLd SllplrlOr
to cOlllroL III aster Illltltt their instillctlld dnves
did not think to ablj ish thllll or reg rd
like freud thollght that it W15 d~ll1grolls to dClly that repression of the plssion~ kads to crime 111lt1
III Thlls Spoke lIa(1IIsll Nietzsche has1 StltiOll
lksplsn-
if
A JUSTlrH ATION Of EX1STFNCI
I un body and SOIlI so till dllid And why should one not like childnn)
But [he awakened the cnlightelled man says 1 am body entirely and nothing besIde Jnd sonl IS Ollly a word for S011~tlllng in the
body
The body is 1 great mtelligence a multipliCIty with olle SlllSe J
wu and J peace a hnd and a herdsman
Your little intelligellce my hrOlhn hich you 011 spirit is abo an Instrument ofyour hody a little instrument and toy of your great
intelligence Ynu sa y T and you arc proud of this word But greJttr thall this
YOlL will not believe in it - is yom body and its great illtliligellce which dolS not say T hut performs T 04
Nietzsche would have agreed with John Blackings observation musics essential proccsses arc found in the constitution of
body and in patterns of interaction of bodies in society N letz5chcs description of the effects of music in The Will to POlVer
ccilolts Blackings account of the commu11ally litt-cnhancing effect Venda national dance
All art exercises the power of suggestion over the muscles and s(1lses vhich in the artistic t~rnptTamcnt arc originally active it 31ways speaks only to artists - it speaks to thIS kind ofl subtle
l1exibility of the body All 3rt works tonicallv increases
inflames dcirc (ie the of enhancement of lifi enhances mans pOWlf of COml1H1I11catlOl1 as
well as his powtr of understanding Empathy with the souls of
others IS originally nothing mural but l physiological (() suggestion Compared with music all cOllllllunicatio1l by
words is shallldcsi words dtlute and brutalize words
words make the 1IllCUmmOll common
In The Hirth Tralcdy N inzsche llllphasized the illabili ty of the pOlt to express the mllcr spirit of mllsic and at the same time
attributed to music a special significallce rather simibr to that givell
It
reJlder tlll COSlllH symbolism o[
music bnllls~ mll~lt s(lnd ill sVlllbolIc rlltiol1 ttl the
IfJ
r
(
J
-~
gt
~
z ~
-
gt
r
lt
-
--
~
~
-
r~
~
N
r
r
~
V
t
~
lt~
lt
r
r
-
To
z z
~
~
lt
C
-T-i~
~
r
-
r
l
r- ~
]2
t
r
~E
f
I
J
(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
r
(
J
-~
gt
~
z ~
-
gt
r
lt
-
--
~
~
-
r~
~
N
r
r
~
V
t
~
lt~
lt
r
r
-
To
z z
~
~
lt
C
-T-i~
~
r
-
r
l
r- ~
]2
t
r
~E
f
I
J
(
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts
lVII) 1 Iff I It IIIII j l (
nor without means of order1llg and exprlSSlllg Niltzsches lIlH1j1lsis upon the DiollYSshyIan elemcnts in Illllsic nced to
Impose on1er upon IllS musical matter that N thought that Wagners robbed mUSlC of its wmld-transfigurmg afttfllutive What docs matter is that Nietzsche believed that the music ofother composers could have ~l vorld-transfiguring afttrlllativc character
It seems to me that what is unusual and particularly worth noting in Nietzsches thol1ht ~lbout music first that he rccognized
one to life but could
a means by which thc passions enjoy themselves not as escapist or other-worldly but as an art which by cX~lltillg life as it is
transcends its essential rraged y Second he recognizcd that lllUSIC was physically and emotionshy
ally based it was rooted in the body and Dionysian however
this essay Dionysian future of music n
Third he understood that lllllSic linked the two principles of Apollo and Diollysus in the same way as tragedy Christianity Iud attempted to blJlish I )ionysus from art but 111 music Dionysus
be born again ill
ofthlgt Ikxt generation get vhat I get out
of all utterly lIew ndtllrl There arc times whell everything that is left over and CJnllot be gLlsrKd ill tnms of musical relatiolJs ctlll11y fills Ille with disgust and horror 3
perception of music lS so ~iglliticllt that it CIIJ
ins
I ()()
lt J 1 I ) t i I ~
right that they should be concerned with raising standards uf literacy with increasing expertisL in both SClLnces llld crafts with
mcn and Olllell with the skills llLCe~slfy to carll I lIving increaslIlgly dominated by technology But 1 hight
not make life itself worth lIving The arts