What is music appreciation? It seems easy to answer this question: music appreciation is music. Indeed, listening is a common name for appreciation, and most people use it this way. We often say: "Go to the concert," "Please listen to this piece of music," but few people say politely: "Go to the concert," and "Please listen to this piece of music." "Listen" in It is synonymous with "appreciation" here and is used more commonly. However, strictly speaking, there is a difference between appreciating and listening. Appreciation means listening to music from an aesthetic perspective, rather than listening casually. The requirements vary. Music appreciation, to put it more clearly, means that the appreciator feels music through hearing, enjoys the beauty of music, and obtains spiritual pleasure and cognitive satisfaction. It is the final home of musical works and performances.
Whether it is music creation or performance, in the final analysis, it is for people to appreciate. Without the music appreciation part, they will fundamentally lose their meaning of existence. Mercer, an American musicologist, said it well: "Music appreciation is, in a certain sense, the basic form of musical activities and the starting point and destination of the work of composers and performers." It can be seen that no matter which era or where For composers and performers with this tendency, their artistic creation activities, whether consciously or subconsciously, are centered around the central link of music appreciation. Some modern musicians like to talk about "advanced consciousness", as if it doesn't matter if their music is not popular with the masses, because one day the masses will understand it. In fact, this view is just a kind of self-comfort. Deep down in their hearts, they still hope that the admirers will understand it as soon as possible.
Even Schoenberg, the founder of the twelve-tone system, said: "Writing in twelve-tones is just for ease of understanding and has no other purpose. Having said that, be a competent music appreciator It is not easy, and there is a lot of knowledge involved. First of all, he must have the knowledge and ability to understand music. In other words, he must be good at grasping the aesthetic object of music and understanding how it is composed and what constitutes music. What are the elements? How do composers use these elements to express? How do performers recreate them? What are the characteristics of different genres and schools of music? For the numerous classic works in Europe over the past two to three hundred years Whether we are familiar with it or not, etc., are all the knowledge we should have when mastering music. Only in this way can we cultivate our ability to appreciate music.
In addition to this knowledge, we also need to further cultivate the ability to appreciate music. People's aesthetic ability, listening to music from an aesthetic perspective, enters the category of music aesthetics. This is a higher level of music appreciation. Human's aesthetic ability is a kind of cultural accumulation and is formed historically. As Marx said: People. The aesthetic sense and its aesthetic ability "are the product of all previous world history. "Once people enter the realm of aesthetics, their relationship with the outside world is different. In this way, they not only have to see the world objectively and rationally through their own eyes, but they also have to see the world with emotional eyes and be moved by true emotions. . This emotional investment is the first key point of aesthetic appreciation. As the saying goes, "There is always love in thousands of rivers and mountains." Without this word, the relationship between people and society would be much colder, more boring, and no longer there. Art.
The study of aesthetic ability is the study of the aesthetic subject - the appreciator. This study has a lot of content. Modern music aesthetics especially turns its attention to the recipient of music and raises it to music creation. It is as important as the performance. The feeling produced by the listener under the influence of the musical object is a psychological thing produced in the consciousness of the listener. It is not exactly the same thing as the musical work itself. Music appreciation is ultimately the same thing. After all, it is the subjective consciousness activity of the appreciator. In the process of appreciation, it is inevitable to infiltrate his own subjective consciousness into the object of appreciation, thus changing the original appearance of music to a certain extent, and the experience and understanding are also different. The study of the subjectivity and creation of music appreciation is a new aesthetic topic. Finally, it should be emphasized that music appreciation does not only exist as a receiving aspect of music, but also affects music creation and performance in the form of feedback. , its aesthetic judgment and aesthetic choices can often influence the aesthetic choices of composers and performers. Every serious musician must pay attention to the feedback from music listeners to adjust and improve his or her artistic creation. We firmly believe in: style. Noble music can be subtle and cultivate noble music appreciators.
In turn, noble music appreciators with high aesthetic taste can also cultivate music with noble character. This is exactly the virtuous cycle we are pursuing.