Hamelin Piano Performance of Liszt's "Sigh"

1. Beauty in Western Music Philosophy

The "beauty" mentioned in Western music philosophy, Hegel discussed in his book "Aesthetics":

"Only the soul is real, and only the soul covers everything, so all beauty can only involve this higher realm (that is, it refers to The soul is truly beautiful only when it arises from this higher realm."

In this sense, natural beauty is only a reflection of the beauty that belongs to the soul. What it reflects is only an incomplete and imperfect form, and according to its entity, this form is already included in In the mind. Hegel also said:

“But people have never put things in nature together for comparative study from the point of view of beauty alone. We feel that as far as natural beauty is concerned, the concept is neither certain nor certain. There is no aesthetic standard. Therefore, this kind of research is meaningless.”

Hegel’s conclusion is a typical research method of Western philosophy. That is, a standard must be used to measure a certain law of things. Without concepts and standards, there is no way to conduct comparative research. However, when he talks about the soul and its artistic beauty being "higher" than nature, the "higher" here is not just a relative or quantitative difference. I think at this point, it is different from the traditional Chinese The "beauty" mentioned is somewhat similar. "Beauty" lies in people, that is, a highly developed spirit can produce a kind of spiritual activity in the "heart", which is not a spiritual state that ordinary creatures can achieve. Therefore, Hegel’s argument that “beauty” belongs to the soul is similar to the concept of “beauty” in traditional Chinese philosophy.

In terms of "beauty" mentioned in Western music philosophy, Hanslick said:

"This is a kind of beauty that is not attached and does not require external content. It exists in In the artistic combination of music and music, the ingenious relationship between the beautiful and pleasant sounds, the coordination and confrontation between them, the pursuit and encounter, the leap and disappearance - these things are presented to our intuitive mind in a free form, and It makes us feel the pleasure of beauty."

Hanslick's views are more or less similar to traditional ancient Chinese philosophy. He also admitted that beauty is "in the combination of musical sounds." But it is a pity that he only took care of the music itself, but did not pay attention to the main body that produces music-people. In other words, his theory is still one-sided. Mr. Li Shuming said in "Theory of Sound-Heart Correspondence":

Autonomous theorists (and Hanslick is a representative of the autonomic theory) strive to explore the essence of musical art through the movement of music itself. It is proposed that "the content of music (actually sound) is the movement form of musical sound". This is basically an indifferent "sound-only" theory that denies the spiritual social content of musical art.

These conclusions hit the nail on the head of Hanslick’s theoretical issues, and the fate of Hanslick’s theory of autonomy also took a huge turn with the arrival of the heteronomy of “emotional aesthetics”. Hegel's aesthetics lecture "Aesthetics" published in 1817 actually provided the basis for the romantic heteronomous aesthetics from the perspective of philosophical aesthetics. Hegel was an objective idealist, and his view of music was just an integral part of his philosophical system. As an art, its content is nothing more than the perceptual manifestation of ideas (or absolute spirit) at a specific stage of development. Under this premise, he emphasized that the content of music is the expression of emotion, and only emotion is the field that music should claim as its own:

“In this field, music expands to express all different things. Special emotions, all the different shades of joy, trouble, sorrow, love, hate, pain, melancholy, etc. in the soul, and even emotions such as awe, worship and love belong to the unique field of musical expression. ”

For Hegel, form is the external manifestation of content and is determined by content: this content is an idea that exists objectively and independently outside the work of art. Without this content, form loses its own premise of existence. Hegel's thoughts on the relationship between the emotional content of music and its form directly influenced Liszt, the enemy of form-autonomous theory.

It can be said that the theoretical pillar of his music criticism comes from Hegel's aesthetics. Liszt wrote a series of music criticism articles in the 1940s and 1950s. He placed extreme emphasis on the emotional content of music, even placing it above thought and reason.

Liszt pointed out in his paper "Berlioz and His "Harold" Symphony" published almost at the same time as Hanslick's "On the Beauty of Music":

Emotion plays a vital role in music It exists independently and radiates light, neither relying on the shell of "metaphor" nor relying on the medium of plot and thought. He believes that only in music, because of the free torrent of emotions full of warm power, can we be freed from the power of thoughts and can our wrinkled foreheads be temporarily relieved from the burden of thoughts. relief. Only the emotion expressed in music can free us from reason and the means of expression dictated by it. Liszt even believed that music expresses emotions all the time, and even music itself is the "incarnation" of emotions.

Gong Yi plays "Goose Falling on the Flat Sand"

2. The philosophical beauty of traditional Chinese music

Whether it is Hanslick or Liszt, they The "Beauty of Music" is all about the relationship between form and content. Whether it is the form that gives people a sense of beauty or the emotion that gives people a sense of beauty. None of them is as comprehensive and systematic as "Le Ji".

The opening chapter of "Legends of Music" points out:

Every sound originates from the human heart. When the human heart moves, things make it happen. It moves when it is sensed by things, so it takes shape in sound, and the sound corresponds to it, so it changes and becomes a square, which is called sound. It is music when compared to sound, and it is called music by Qian Qi Yu.

This paragraph ***52 words clearly explains the origin, generation process, function, form, and beauty of music.

The origin of happiness comes from people and is produced by the human heart. Since the human heart and external objects have a dynamic correspondence, it is externalized into "sound", which is organized and regular, produced by people and people. The "music" produced by the musical instrument simultaneously carries out the spiritual movement of "le". The function of music is to give people the spiritual movement of "le". This is just a general function, the function of "yue" , detailed in the later text of "Le Ji"), the beauty of music (yue) is the form of singing and dancing with props, which gives people a sense of beauty and "joy (1e)". This is just a short paragraph at the beginning of "Music Notes". In fact, "Music Notes" does not discuss "what is beauty" in detail and clearly like the Western music philosophy and aesthetics. However, we can taste the "beautiful charm" throughout "Le Ji".

The traditional Chinese "beauty" is consistent with the "beauty" mentioned in Western philosophy in some places, and is different in some places. In the time of Confucius, he emphasized "perfection", and in the time of Mozi, he emphasized "perfection". "Not music": Mencius' time talked about "having fun with the people" and "the reality of music is music (benevolence and righteousness)"; Laozi's time talked about "great sound and sound"; Gouzi's time talked about "beauty and kindness" "Happiness", by the time of "Le Ji", the mature aesthetic concept of "unity of nature and man" had been put forward. It is not difficult to see that the "beauty" mentioned in traditional Chinese philosophy is not a single "beauty", but a The highest point of human nature that is holistic, systematic, and respected by the entire society. In this regard, it is different from the "beauty" mentioned in Western music philosophy, which closely links "beauty" with ethics. At the same time, this can be seen in the traditional Chinese music philosophy and aesthetics.