The aesthetics of music or musical aesthetics is the quality and study of the beauty and enjoyment (plaisir and jouissance), the aesthetics, of music. Jouissance is a French term which translated means enjoyment and contrasted with plaisir. ... Jouissance is a French term which translated means enjoyment and contrasted with plaisir. ... The Parthenons facade showing an interpretation of golden rectangles in its proportions. ... Music is a form of art that involves organized and audible sounds and silence. ...

Music has the ability to affect our emotions, intellect, and our psychology; lyrics can assuage our loneliness or incite our passions. As such, music is a powerful art form whose aesthetic appeal is highly dependent upon the culture in which it is practiced. Music is a form of art that involves organized and audible sounds and silence. ... In psychology and common terminology, emotion is the language of a persons internal state of being, normally based in or tied to their internal (physical) and external (social) sensory feeling. ... Intelligence is a general mental capability that involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. ... Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. ... Lyrics are the words in songs. ...

Some of the aesthetic elements expressed in music include lyricism, harmony, hypnotism, emotiveness, temporal dynamics, resonance, playfulness, and colour (see musical development). Lyrics are the words in songs. ... Harmony, Greek ἁρμονία harmonía meaning a fastening or join. The concept of harmony dates as far back as Pythagoras. ... Hypnosis, as defined by the American Psychological Association Division of Psychological Hypnosis, is a procedure during which a health professional or researcher suggests that a client, patient, or experimental participant experience changes in sensations, perceptions, thoughts, or behavior. ... Emotion, in its most general definition, is an intense neural mental state that arises subjectively rather than through conscious effort and evokes either a positive or negative psychological response . ... // In physics, resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate with high amplitude when excited by energy at a certain frequency. ... Musical development is the transformation and restatement of initial material, often contrasted with musical variation, with which it may be difficult to distinguish as a general process. ...

History

1700s

In the 1700s, music was considered to be so far outside the realm of aesthetic theory (then conceived of in visual terms) that music was barely mentioned in William Hogarth's treatise, The Analysis of Beauty. He considered dance beautiful (closing the treatise with a discussion of the minuet), but treated of music only insofar as it could provide the proper accompaniment for the dancers. William Hogarth (November 10, 1697 – October 26, 1764) was a major English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited as a pioneer in western sequential art. ... The Analysis of Beauty, a book written by William Hogarth (18th century English painter, satyrist, and writer) and published in 1753 describes Hogarths attempt at formulating theories of visual beauty and grace in a manner accessible to the common man of his day. ... Dance (from Old French dancier, perhaps from Frankish) generally refers to human movement either used as a form of expression or presented in a social, spiritual or performance setting. ...

1800s

In the 1800s, the era of romanticism in music, some composers and music critics argued that music should and could express ideas, images, emotions, or even a whole literary plot. In 1832, composer Robert Schumann stated that his piano work Papillons was "intended as a musical representation" of the final scene of a novel by Jean Paul, Flegeljahre. They were vigorously countered by the formalism of Eduard Hanslick, setting off the "War of the Romantics." Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ... 1832 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Robert Schumann (June 8, 1810 – July 29, 1856) was a German composer and pianist. ... Papillons, Op. ... Jean Paul Jean Paul (March 21, 1763 – November 14, 1825), born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, was a famous German humorist. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

By the end of the 1800s, psychologist William James gave the auditory and optical sensations equal billing in his discussion of aesthetics. But he also took a detached view of the classical/romanticist disputes. James wrote that "Complex suggestiveness, the awakening of vistas of memory and association, and the stirring of our flesh with picturesque mystery and gloom, make a work of art romantic." He stated that the "classic taste brands these effects as coarse and tawdry, and prefers the naked beauty of the optical and auditory sensations, unadorned with frippery or foliage." For other people named William James see William James (disambiguation) William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher. ...

1900s

A group of modernist writers in the early twentieth century including (Walter Pater and Ezra Pound) believed that music was essentially pure because it didn't represent anything, or make reference to anything beyond itself. In a sense, they wanted to bring poetry closer to this characteristic of music. (Bucknell 2002) Dissenters from this view, notably Albert Schweitzer, argued against the alleged 'purity' of music in a classic work on Bach. Modernism is a trend of thought which affirms the power of human beings to make, improve and reshape their built and designed environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic. ... Walter Horatio Pater (August 4, 1839 - July 30, 1894) was an English essayist and literary critic. ... Ezra Pound in 1913. ... Albert Schweitzer, M.D., OM, (January 14, 1875 – September 4, 1965) was a German Alsatian theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician. ... Bach redirects here. ...

Theodor Adorno suggested that culture industries churn out a debased mass of unsophisticated, sentimental products which have replaced the more 'difficult' and critical art forms which might lead people to actually question social life. False needs are cultivated in people by the culture industries. These are needs which can be both created and satisfied by the capitalist system, and which replace people's 'true' needs - freedom, full expression of human potential and creativity, genuine creative happiness. Thus, those who are trapped in the false notions of beauty according to a capitalist mode of thinking, are only capable of hearing beauty in dishonest terms. Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg. ... False consciousness is the Engelsist hypothesis that material and institutional processes in capitalist society mislead the proletariat — and perhaps the other classes — over the nature of capitalism. ...

Bad music

Simon Frith (2004, p.17-9) argues that, "'bad music' is a necessary concept for musical pleasure, for musical aesthetics." He distinguishes two common kinds of bad music; the Worst Records Ever Made type, which include "Tracks which are clearly incompetent musically; made by singers who can't sing, players who can't play, producers who can't produce," and "Tracks involving genre confusion. The most common examples are actors or TV stars recording in the latest style." Another type of "bad music" is "rock critical lists," such as *"Tracks that feature sound gimmicks that have outlived their charm or novelty" and "Tracks that depend on false sentiment (...), that feature an excess of feeling molded into a radio-friendly pop song."

Frith gives three common qualities attributed to bad music: inauthentic, [in] bad taste (see also: kitsch), and stupid. He argues that "The marking off of some tracks and genres and artists as 'bad' is a necessary part of popular music pleasure; it is a way we establish our place in various music worlds. And 'bad' is a key word here because it suggests that aesthetic and ethical judgements are tied together here: not to like a record is not just a matter of taste; it is also a matter of argument, and argument that matters." (p.28)

See also

See also: list of aesthetic principles of music This is a list of aesthetic principles of music. ...

Bibliography

• Bucknell, Brad (2002). Literary Modernism and Musical Aesthetics. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-66028-9.
• Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra. "The Magic of Music: Archaic Dreams in Romantic Aesthetics and an Education in Aesthetics." Philosophy of Music Education Review 13 no. 1 (Spring 2005): 77-94.
• Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra. "In Search of the Sense and the Senses: Aesthetic Education in Germany and the United States." Journal of Aesthetic Education 39 no. 3 (Fall 2005): 104-116.
• Washburne, Christopher J. and Derno, Maiken (eds.) (2004). Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-94366-3.

For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... This article is about Cambridge, England; see also other places called Cambridge. ... The University of Cambridge, located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ...

External links

• Schumann, a Romantic-era composer (on-line biography)