Toward an Evaluation of Music

TOWARD AN EVALUATION OF MUSIC ~HERE is general acknowledgment that the music of _l the eighteenth century achieved a certain perfection.· Biographers, critics, theorists and, most significant of an, composers themselves have testified to the excellence of the music of that periodo It is worth investigating, therefore, why-so far it can be determined-the music of the eighteenth century achieved this perfection for, although the fact of this perfection is common knowledge, an explanation of it is not usually set forth in an analytic manner, Leo, in relation to sound principles of art and to principles of music specifically. Such an investigation is worth while, not merely as a matter of historical interest, but insofar as it may be instrumental in seeing how music of the present time can likewise achieve a different, but nevertheless related, excellenceo To do this, ever, we must examine, at least briefly, sound principles of art both generally and specifically. This is not an easy task, since it requires both philosophy of art and a concrete knowledge of music. Too often, in ventures of this kind, music suffers from non-musical philosophers or from non-philosophical musicians neither of which, alone, is adequate for a critical examination of music. vVe must try, then, to combine both approaches and see if something of a reasoned explanation can be given for the perfection of eighteenth century music and what light this may throw upon twentieth century music. Let us begin with a few things about art· in general. AH art arises from something very natural in us. It is based on the natural desire we have to imitate or to make representations . This begins in our earliest childhoodo We delight in the representations we make of things, actions, and people around us. It is also the first way we begin to learn things, for we grasp something in these representations which we did not 323 JOHN A. OESTERLE previously know. From this universal desire of imitation springs·our interest and delight in art, for art itself is simply the developed formation of this natural tendency in us to make or behold imitations of things around us. And so we say that art imitates nature. As with all statements which are fundamentally true, a superficial understanding of them makes them appear obviously false. The superficial understanding of" art imitates nature" is that:artcopiesnature. Now, the statement "art copies nature" is foreign to the whole notion of ·art and should be rejected. But, in rejecting a false meaning of " art imitates nature," the principle that art imitates nature is often rejected altogether. This, however, merely goes from one error to another. The correct meaning of "art imitates nature" consists in understanding1that art has two points of origin-not just one. One origin of the representation iµ art is in nature, understanding " nature " broadly to mean anything external to the mind of the artist. The other origin is in the imagination and mind of the ttrtist. To recognize only the origin in nature is to reduce imitation in art to copying-and this is false. But to recognize only an origin in the mind of the artist-as though he made something entirely new-is to attribute absolute creation to a human artist and to make him God. This is stupid as well as false. Moreover, all-the ideas and images in the human mind ultimately derive from reality outside the mind and this, basically, is why art must have a relation of imitation to nature~ Consequently, art imitates nature in the sense that the artist makes a representation of something which could exist in nature, but which actually does not. To imitate nature, then, does not mean to make a likeness of things precisely as they are in reality. Shakespeare's Hamlet, for example, is not just a person who existed historically; the play would fail as art if that were so. Hamlet is a type of man realized in the representation made by Shakespeare. In this way. we see how art, in imitating nature, also perfects nature; it adds an intelligibility TOWARD AN EVALUATION OF MUSIC 8!t5 and beauty not found in nature as such. This...