The Principles of AestheticsParker, De Witt H. (De Witt Henry)
Philosophy
The Principles of Aesthetics
Parker, De Witt H. (De Witt Henry)
Aesthetics
Rhythm enters into melody to differentiate and emphasize. By means of
accent and time-value, the different tones are weighted and their
relative value fixed. The heavy tones assert their will with a more
insistent energy; the long tones upon which we linger make a deeper
and more lasting impression; while the light and short tones in contrast
become points of mere passing and transition. If, moreover, we include
the element of tempo, then all the temporal feelings are introduced
into melody--the excitement of rapid motion, the calmness of the slow;
the agony of delay, of waiting and postponement, with the triumph and
relief when the expected note arrives at last. Finally, the effects
of shading must be added, the contrasts between piano and
forte--loudness that brings the tones so near that they may seem
threatening in their insistence; softness that makes them seem far
away and dreamlike.
Following the large idea introduced by Schopenhauer, which was enriched
by the minuter studies of Lotze, Wundt, and Lipps, we may sum the
foregoing analysis in the statement that music expresses the abstract
aspects of action, its ease or difficulty, its advance or retrocession,
its home coming or its wandering, its hesitation or its surety, its
conflicts and its contrasts, its force or its weakness, its swiftness
or slowness, its abruptness or smoothness, its excitement or repose,
its success or failure, its seriousness or play. Then, in addition,
as we shall see, all modes of emotion that are congruous with this
abstract form may by association be poured into its mold, so that the
content of music becomes not a mere form of life, but life itself.
It is, of course, obvious that our analysis has confined itself to the
barest elements of the musical experience. Our music to-day, with its
many-voiced harmonies, with its procession of chords instead of single
tones, with its modulation into related keys, has an infinite wealth
and complexity defying description. A large part of the astonishing
effect of music is derived from the fact that in a brief space we seem
to hear and absorb so much: the careers of multitudinous lives
compressed into an instant. Yet the meaning of the complex whole can
be understood, I think, from such an analysis of the simple structure
as has been given.
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