The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 4 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Georg Hegel · en
(_γγ_) _Finally_, lyric poetry, to a far more considerable extent
than is possible with the unassisted aid of rhyme, avails itself of
_music_, by means of which the uttered word becomes veritable melody
and song. Such a leaning may, moreover, be completely justified. Or,
in other words, the less lyric subject-matter and content possess on
their own account independence and objective stability, but are rather,
above all, of an ideal character, rooted exclusively in the personal
life, while at the same time an external medium of articulate arrest
is essential, to that extent is the demand for a decisive medium of
communication more insistent. Precisely for the reason that it remains
of ideal intention, the means it employs as a stimulus to others must
be the more effective. Such an excitant of our emotional life can only
be music.
We find consequently, even in respect to external execution, that lyric
poetry is almost invariably associated with musical accompaniment. At
the same time we should note an essential gradation in this power of
combination. The romantic and above all the modern lyric, no doubt more
exceptionally so in such songs, in which the temper, the emotional mood
is predominant, and the function of music is to emphasize and expand
this inner beat of soul-life in actual melody--are no doubt most
readily adapted to such melodic fusion. The folk-song is an obvious
example which both delights in and demands a musical accompaniment. We
shall find in modern times more rarely a composer for the canzonet,
elegy, epistle, or even the sonnet. The reason of this is that in
cases where idea, reflection, nay, even emotion are made completely
explicit in the poetry, and increasingly liberated from the bare point
of spiritual selfconcentration, and, further, from the sensuous medium
of the art, the Lyric already secures, in its deliverance as speech,
a greater self-stability, and lends itself less simply to a free
association with the vague definition of music. On the other hand in
proportion as the inner life expressed is not made explicit to that
extent the aid of melody is required. How it came about, however, that
the ancients, despite the pellucid clarity of their diction, availed
themselves of music in its actual delivery, and the measure in which
they did thus make use of it, I shall have occasion to deal with
subsequently.
(_c_) _Types of the Genuine Lyric_