Page 95 - Glasbenopedagoški zbornik Akademije za glasbo v Ljubljani / The Journal of Music Education of the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, leto 13, zvezek 27 / Year 13, Issue 27, 2017
P. 95
l Crowther, MUSIC AS VIRTUAL EXPRESSION
Paul Crowther
National University of Ireland, Galway
MUSIC AS VIRTUAL EXPRESSION
Razprava / Discussion
Abstract
It is argued that, through the tonal system, music projects possibilities of experience created by
another person or persons. This virtual expression enables the audience to be, as it were, blended
with the expressive dimension of the work in a way that is not possible through other art media. The
education of feeling and imagination that this involves is constitutive of music’s uniqueness as a
form of experience.
Keywords: virtual expression, meaning, education, feeling, imagination, experience, tonality
Izvleèek
Glasba kot virtualna izraznost
Prispevek poudarja, da glasbena dela skozi tonski sistem omogoèajo izkustva, ki jih je ustvarila
druga oseba ali osebe. Ta navidezni izraz omogoèa, da se poslušalci pove ejo z izrazno dimenzijo na
naèin, ki ni mo en v drugih umetniških medijih. Vzgoja obèutljivosti in predstavljivosti je temeljni
del edinstvenosti glasbe kot oblike izkustva.
Kljuène besede: virtualna izraznost, pomen, vzgoja, obèutenje, predstavljivost, izkustvo, tonalnost
This paper develops the theory of music set out more fully in Chapter 7 of my book
Defining Art, Creating the Canon: Artistic Value in an Era of Doubt, Clarendon Press,
Oxford, 2007
I
It is important to explain the depth of music’s importance in human experience. This
involves clarifying its role in the education of imagination and feeling, and the
self-fulfilment that is consequent upon this. Pedagogically speaking, this educative role, in
itself, justifies music as a curriculum subject in schools. For music’s effects do not simply
happen. They require initiation into both performance and appreciation.
First, then, like literature, music is an art of temporal realization based on a successive
linear order of presentation. True, there are some avant-garde works where the order in
which one hears the parts of the work do not matter, but these are highly marginal. The
narrative content of music is much more ambiguous than that of literary works and I have
described it at great length elsewhere. Here is a summary of my position. Music has an
intimate connection with the emotions. Emotions are involuntary states but they can be
expressed through features – such as the voice – which are amenable to voluntary control.
The voice, in fact, provides an important clue as to the basis of meaning in music. When
listening to a conversation – even at a distance where we cannot actually hear what is
being said – as the conversation develops, the protagonists’ vocal tones will undergo
95
Paul Crowther
National University of Ireland, Galway
MUSIC AS VIRTUAL EXPRESSION
Razprava / Discussion
Abstract
It is argued that, through the tonal system, music projects possibilities of experience created by
another person or persons. This virtual expression enables the audience to be, as it were, blended
with the expressive dimension of the work in a way that is not possible through other art media. The
education of feeling and imagination that this involves is constitutive of music’s uniqueness as a
form of experience.
Keywords: virtual expression, meaning, education, feeling, imagination, experience, tonality
Izvleèek
Glasba kot virtualna izraznost
Prispevek poudarja, da glasbena dela skozi tonski sistem omogoèajo izkustva, ki jih je ustvarila
druga oseba ali osebe. Ta navidezni izraz omogoèa, da se poslušalci pove ejo z izrazno dimenzijo na
naèin, ki ni mo en v drugih umetniških medijih. Vzgoja obèutljivosti in predstavljivosti je temeljni
del edinstvenosti glasbe kot oblike izkustva.
Kljuène besede: virtualna izraznost, pomen, vzgoja, obèutenje, predstavljivost, izkustvo, tonalnost
This paper develops the theory of music set out more fully in Chapter 7 of my book
Defining Art, Creating the Canon: Artistic Value in an Era of Doubt, Clarendon Press,
Oxford, 2007
I
It is important to explain the depth of music’s importance in human experience. This
involves clarifying its role in the education of imagination and feeling, and the
self-fulfilment that is consequent upon this. Pedagogically speaking, this educative role, in
itself, justifies music as a curriculum subject in schools. For music’s effects do not simply
happen. They require initiation into both performance and appreciation.
First, then, like literature, music is an art of temporal realization based on a successive
linear order of presentation. True, there are some avant-garde works where the order in
which one hears the parts of the work do not matter, but these are highly marginal. The
narrative content of music is much more ambiguous than that of literary works and I have
described it at great length elsewhere. Here is a summary of my position. Music has an
intimate connection with the emotions. Emotions are involuntary states but they can be
expressed through features – such as the voice – which are amenable to voluntary control.
The voice, in fact, provides an important clue as to the basis of meaning in music. When
listening to a conversation – even at a distance where we cannot actually hear what is
being said – as the conversation develops, the protagonists’ vocal tones will undergo
95
