Bad music mars market visits

WHAT IS BEAUTY?

: Please, give us some local rock, jazz, indie, or even an orgy of Cape Breton fiddles – just stop holding our ears hostage with bland musical crap.” Hater of Soft Rock

The question of just what constitutes “bland musical crap” raises the central question of the philosophical category of aesthetics, i.e., “What is beauty?” The poster appears to suppose that his claim is self-supporting, that “bland musical crap” is whatever he claims it to be. But is this right?

Interestingly, I have recently finished two books on aesthetics by the English philosopher Roger Scruton (“The Aesthetic Understanding,” 1983 and “Beauty,” 2009) who claims the reverse to be true, that beauty in whatever form – art, architecture, music and so on – is not simply the response of the viewer or listener but rather depends upon qualities inherent in the particular art form. In other words, to determine whether something is beautiful or not rests upon objective factors in the art form itself and not, as “Hater of Soft Rock” seems to suppose, on one’s subjective reaction to it. The question is important since the appreciation of beauty is that which, for many, gives life itself meaning.

To take music – Scruton didn’t deal with local rock, jazz, indie or Cape Breton fiddles, of course – the claim to recognize the beauty of Mozart or Beethoven, for example, rested upon a knowledge of symphonic music generally and that of Mozart or Beethoven’s symphonies in particular. It was a knowledge-based appreciation in the same way as appreciation of science is knowledge-based. It is objective, not merely subjective. In the case of music such knowledge-based appreciation rested on an understanding of structure, movement, narrative line and so forth as contained in Mozart and Beethoven’s symphonies.

Of course, being in philosophy, I was waiting for Scruton
to identify just what he understood by “beauty” and he never did. Was this a victory for me? Perhaps not, since art can never be reduced to its strictly rational components – the appreciation of beauty is not the outcome of reasoned debate – but requires the presence of emotional engagement to achieve its fullest impact.

It seems to me that the solution to the dilemma lies not in playing more local rock, jazz, indie or even an orgy of Cape Breton fiddles as the poster recommends but rather in playing more Mozart and Beethoven. Gradually we would come to an appreciation of the objective elements which makes their music truly classical. I’m sure you agree.

A pleasure as always.

Cheerio!