A brief discussion on the basic requirements for emotional experience in music appreciation

Abstract: Music is an art that is good at expressing and stimulating emotions. It can be said that the process of music appreciation is the process of emotional experience. The process is not only the process in which the listener experiences the emotional connotation of music, but also the process in which the listener's own feelings and the feelings expressed in the music blend and resonate with each other. From a psychological point of view, emotion is a special form of human reaction to objective reality. It is a person's attitude towards external things, and is a person's experience of whether objective reality meets his or her own needs. From the perspective of artistic value, music is the most emotional art, the easiest to stimulate and mobilize emotions, and can well reflect personal cultivation. Therefore, experiencing the emotional connotation in musical works accurately, deeply and meticulously is the basic requirement for emotional experience in music appreciation. The experience of the emotional connotation of musical works first manifests itself as direct perceptual experience. This article mainly discusses the basic requirements for the emotional experience of music appreciators in the process of appreciating music. I make an argument from the perspective of the degree of the appreciator's emotional experience of musical works, and conclude that "accurate, profound and detailed experience of music" The emotional connotation in the work is the basic requirement for the emotional experience in music appreciation."

Keywords: Music Appreciation Emotional Experience

Text

Music is an art that is good at expressing and stimulating emotions. It can be said that the process of music appreciation is emotion The process of experience is not only the process in which the appreciator experiences the emotional connotation of music, but also the process in which the appreciator's own emotions and the emotions expressed in the music blend and resonate with each other. Whether for ordinary music listeners or music experts, emotional experience is an indispensable psychological element when appreciating music.

1. Music is the most emotional art

Music is the most emotional art. Tolstoy once said: "I like music more than all other arts." Hegel once said: "Music is spirit, the soul. It directly makes sounds for itself, attracts its own attention, and feels satisfied from it...Music is the language of the soul. The soul expresses its deep joy and sorrow through sound. In expression Obtaining comfort and transcending natural emotions, music turns the unique excitement of the emotional world deep in the heart into the freedom of self-listening, freeing the soul from depression and pain..." (Quoted from "Liszt on Berlioz and Schumann" p. 26). First of all, the scope of investment, imagination, association, and thinking in music is broad. It is an art that cannot be molded, and can have different levels of emotions in an instant or in the long term. When appreciating a musical work, the sound effect obtained through the human hearing organ directly collides with the person's life experience, allowing the understanding and analysis of the work to have an impact on people. It will also produce a transcendence of time and space, making the The audience is far away from this scene and is in the environment and era shown in the music. They can breathe, experience and experience the content of the performance together. Use your own emotions to think and get new conclusions (results you think you are satisfied with). Music itself comes from life, allowing emotions to be fully expressed. On this basis, they can be refined and sublimated, and emotions are also aggravated. Music art is a comprehensive art. It contains thousands of contents and is irreplaceable by any other art. Therefore, music is the most emotional art. The above explains that music has rich emotions, and human emotions are the richest. The two coincide. Therefore, through emotional experience, ordinary high school students can receive education and training in music art more broadly, deeply, and naturally. .

For music experts, if they only pay attention to techniques, technical techniques, structural forms, etc. when appreciating music, but are emotionally indifferent, then their appreciation of music will only focus on the text. "Having not seen its heart, its surface but not its inside" cannot fully feel and understand the beauty of music. An experienced British music educator once warned: "Don't allow your critical agility and intelligence to suffocate Your emotional response. Those experts often limit their attention to technique. "① He also said: "Unless you have re-captured the same feeling that inspired Beethoven to write this work (referring to Waldstein's Piano Sonata--quoter's note), or think that you also have this emotion, you can The right to say you appreciate him.

"②Music is an art that is good at expressing emotions. Music has rich and profound emotional connotations. Only when the emotional activities of the music appreciator are basically consistent with the emotions contained in the musical works can it be called correct music appreciation.

Therefore, experiencing the emotional connotation of musical works accurately, deeply and meticulously is the basic requirement for emotional experience in music appreciation. The experience of the emotional connotation of musical works is firstly a direct perceptual experience. For example, when we listen to a piece of music, the emotion expressed by the piece of music (either happy, sad, or impassioned), this kind of emotion naturally comes with the perception of music. The emotional experience produced is what we call direct perceptual experience

① P.C. Buck: "The Psychology of Musicians", Chinese translation, page 107. p>② Same as above, page 104

For example, we hear such a musical theme:

Example 1 Quickly

Zheng Lu, Ma Hongye: "Good News from Beijing to Border Village"

We will naturally get an emotional experience of joy and joy from this fast and active musical theme played by string instruments and woodwind instruments. p>And when we hear the following slow, tearful music theme, a sad and desolate feeling will involuntarily well up in our hearts:

Example 2

Slowly

"River Water"

When the following sound is played on the piano, it is played by the right hand against the background of the continuous rolling up and down of the left hand. When using a musical motive as sonorous and powerful as a horn:

Example 3

Chopin: "Etude in C Minor"

The passionate grief and anger expressed in the music The emotional wave that the listener gets from the music is not caused by the title or text description, but is a perceptual one. Direct experience. Of course, the ability of the listener to transform the musical sound experienced from hearing into an emotional experience in his or her own consciousness requires correct music perception. When the artistic style is unfamiliar and he cannot correctly perceive the music, it is impossible for him to obtain the correct emotional experience. The classroom experiments I conducted during the teaching process for students showed that although students are familiar with the music style, they are not familiar with it. I didn’t know what music I was listening to in advance, but I was able to experience the emotional nature of the music generally correctly.

For example, I played a section for the students without any explanation of the music. In Dvozak's "Cello Concerto", I recorded the variations of the sub-theme in the first movement of the Cello Concerto, and then asked the students to write about their emotional experiences. The five students' answers were:

(1) Reminiscing, trying to get rid of some kind of entanglement.

(2) Sad, crying theme tone.

(3) Full of deep emotions.

(4) Sadness and sorrow.

(5) Confession from afar.

Although the five students’ answers were worded differently, their emotional experiences were relatively similar in nature and basically consistent with the emotional connotation of the original work. The students' emotional intuition can also be experienced by Dvozak's deep longing for his motherland and the loneliness and sorrow he feels in a foreign land expressed in this piece of music.

However, students showed obvious differences in their emotional experiences with music with unfamiliar musical sounds and artistic styles. For example, after I played the recording of the theme presentation passage of "Xiaoxiang Water Cloud" by Guo Chuwang from the Song Dynasty in class, I asked the students to write about their emotional experiences as usual, but five students gave various answers: < /p>

(1) Describe some kind of pain.

(2) Melancholy and full of power.

(3) Elegant and bright mood.

(4) Joy.

(5) Alcoholic.

The main reason why there is such a big difference here, or even completely opposite emotional experiences, is that some students have little exposure to guqin music and cannot correctly perceive guqin music. Unable to correctly experience the emotional connotation of the music.

The appreciator we talked about above

2. The importance of emotional experience in music appreciation classes

From a psychological point of view, emotion is a person’s response to A special form of reaction to objective reality. It is a person's attitude towards external things, and it is a person's experience of whether the objective reality meets his or her own needs. From the perspective of artistic value, music is the most emotional art, the easiest to stimulate and mobilize emotions, and can well reflect personal cultivation. From practical teaching, emotional experience can be obtained and cultivated. Therefore, in music appreciation classes in ordinary high schools, students can gain emotional experience, expression, and the ability to develop a certain level of understanding, evaluation, and appreciation through a large amount of music practice. , improve students’ musical aesthetic accomplishment. Emotional experience opens up many channels between teachers and music, students and music, and teachers and students. Emotional experience is guided and expressed naturally, and is closely related to music, highlighting the main role of students. The emotional response generated will lead to the accumulation of music knowledge and content, the improvement of music interest, and the search for music that is suitable for oneself and consistent with or different from the personality to listen to and comprehend. At present, ordinary high school music appreciation classes have fewer class hours and more content. (Music appreciation classes are generally only offered in the first grade of high school, one class per week for two semesters, and there are about 35 classes in total.) Emotional experience Teaching is even more important. To open the door to music, teachers must choose the key. Emotional mobilization and cultivation are the best choices in teaching.

The perceptual or intuitive emotional experience of music is the basic way of emotional experience in music appreciation. However, it is, after all, a preliminary experience of the emotional connotation of a musical work. If the listener only relies on intuition to experience, although it is possible to experience the basic emotions of the music, he will often be limited to the emotional experience of joy, anger, sorrow, and joy, and will not be able to experience the inner meaning of the music's emotions more deeply. Therefore, a further requirement for emotional experience in music appreciation is the participation of understanding and knowledge, that is, the appreciator must study and understand the emotional inner meaning of the music from all aspects. Only after we have a clearer understanding of the ideological and life foundation on which musical emotions are based, can we understand the emotional connotation of musical works more deeply and accurately. This is just as Comrade Mao Zedong said in his philosophical works. Our practice has proved: We cannot immediately understand what we feel. Only what we understand can we feel it more deeply. "①

Of course, what we are referring to here is the appreciation of those musical works that do express profound emotional connotations. And the reason why we put forward this further requirement for the emotional experience in music appreciation is that This is because the emotions expressed in music are neither mysterious and unpredictable things that have little connection with human thought, nor are they subjective and self-generated things that have no basis in life. On the contrary, the emotional connotation in music is determined by certain social life. It is caused by and is related to certain thoughts. Just as the Chinese classical music treatise "Yue Ji" says that the sound is generated by the human heart, and the movement of the human heart is caused by things."② However, due to the particularity of the means of musical expression, while it expresses emotions, it cannot also make the ideological and life foundations on which emotions are based equally clear

①Mao Zedong: "On Practice", "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" 》Four volumes, page 263.

②See "Le Ben Pian" in "Le Ji".

This requires the listener to experience the emotional connotation of the music with sensibility, and at the same time, be able to consciously use understanding factors to deeply experience the connotation of the emotional expression of the music.

Because the emotional connotation in music can often find the basis for understanding in factors other than music. For example, in vocal works, the root can be found in the title and text description; in title music, the root can be found in the title and text. Therefore, it is completely necessary to pay full attention to these non-musical factors in the emotional experience of vocal works and title instrumental works. If we ignore these non-musical factors and rely only on perceptual experience, it will be difficult to deeply understand the emotional connotation of the music, especially its social significance.

Music is an art that expresses life. In order to avoid the limitations of sound materials and achieve better artistic expression, it often needs to be combined with other arts. This approach dates back to the trinity of song, dance, and poetry in the primitive era of music development. It has already begun in the form of. Since these non-musical factors have been closely integrated with music into an organic artistic whole, when appreciators have an emotional experience of music, they need to use the psychological element of understanding and recognition to study this artistic whole, thereby deepening their feelings for music. Intensive experience.

Some untitled musical works do not comprehensively use non-musical factors, but this does not mean that the emotional expressions in these music do not have their life and ideological foundation. In order to experience the emotional connotation of this type of music more deeply, the listener must, on the one hand, listen to the music repeatedly and rely on intuition to experience the emotional expression of the music more accurately and meticulously. On the other hand, the listener must also listen to the music from a broader perspective. , especially research and understanding from various aspects such as the social environment in which the music was produced, the composer's life experience, creative intention, artistic style, etc., in order to obtain a correct grasp of the emotional connotation of the music.

3. How to enable students to gain emotional experience in appreciation classes

1. Use a variety of teaching methods and methods to gain emotional experience

Music appreciation is a psychological reflection This process is: external sound perception - imagination and association - emotional resonance - understanding and recognition, so music appreciation teaching must follow the psychological reflection process from the outside to the inside. From liking to listen to music, to listening to music with heart and soul, to understanding, evaluation, and analysis, students' appreciation level will gradually improve. Initially, you can choose some popular famous songs, such as the works of Johann Strauss. Students will be directly affected by the music, which breaks the mystery of students' music appreciation and makes students feel that they can understand music. During repeated appreciation, you will also be able to hear the different musical instruments, the passages of the work - the musical structure, the style of the work, etc., which will arouse students' enthusiasm for learning music. For example, when appreciating the ancient Chinese song "Spring River with Flowers and Moonlight Night", not many students have heard this piece. In order to enable students to get into the music, I simply first briefly analyze the title, sections and general content of each section. Appreciate it and ask students to write a short essay or a poem after appreciating it. (Appreciate it twice in class, watch the video once to gain an intuitive understanding of pipa and Chinese orchestra; listen to the whole song the second time). During the appreciation process, some students drew pictures on their notebooks, some recorded it in words, and after class, some students took the initiative to transcribe the entire song. Randomly excerpted an article "Rain and Lin Ring Spring River Flowers and Moonlight Night" - the author Wang Miaomiao (a first-year high school student) "The bright moon is condensed on the waves, the clouds are light and the mist is misty, and the cold smoke is misty. Suddenly I hear the bells and drums of the river tower, suspicious of fairy music, and the sound of the waves. The evening breeze blows gently on the river, creating ripples. Looking at the sky, the water disappears and the clouds merge. I feel sad in silence. I lean on the railing and look across the water. In the dim place, I can see a white-haired fisherman holding a pole and singing happily. . The fishing boats are fighting for the crossing, and the broken copper mirrors are stirring up the silver waves. The fishermen's songs are fading away, the storm is calm, and the willow trees are rising in the cold moon." This classmate wrote in his final experience: "I admire ancient Chinese music the most. It is elegant and smooth, and can only be summarized by the four words "Spring River and White Snow". I remember one time when the teacher asked a classmate to describe the scene of "Spring River Flowers and Moonlight Night". At first, I just I wanted to leave the matter alone, but when I locked myself in the hut and listened over and over again, the beauty produced by the delicate fingers stroking the strings brought me into a world of floating clouds, light mist, and misty mist." . Singing themes of musical works can better mobilize students' emotional participation. For example, in the ancient song "Song of Everlasting Regret", the boys' four-part chorus "The Fishing Suns and Bulls are Drumming the Earth Comes", the style of the march and the description of the lyrics are ups and downs, which contains elements of anger in the heart. The students experienced strong national will while singing. In terms of musical performance, changes in intensity, changes in key, etc., the work can more prominently portray the soldiers' dissatisfaction and indignation towards the monarch's mediocre state of "focusing on beauty and neglecting the country, only loving beauties and wine, but not the country." , actively mobilized students' emotional experience. Organically combine music, literature, and painting to express and stir up students' inner emotions. Music gives them space to express their emotions. The emotional exchange makes students have a strong interest in music, and these moving musical works will remain in their memory for a long time. Maybe they will forget it as time goes by, but when the music plays, they will be involved in it again, and their appreciation level will continue to improve with age and experience.

Teachers should use as many teaching methods and methods as possible in ordinary high school music appreciation classes, and constantly explore and improve them so that students can gain more emotional experiences. These emotional experiences will affect students' lives and extend to To students’ future experience, knowledge and understanding of life and society. .

2. Emotional experience through the content of music itself (elements of music)

Plato once said: "In addition to paying great attention to moral and social purposes, music education must also integrate beauty into Explore things as their own ends and educate people to be beautiful and kind.” Music education is like this. Music art itself should be the embodiment of beauty. The rhythm is steady, slow, and fresh

① Quoted from page 10 of "On Music by Western Philosophers, Writers, and Musicians"

Ming and rhythm are full of national characteristics, so Rhythm is the skeleton of music and the organization of sound in time. The change of rhythm makes a big difference in mood. When the rhythm is slow, the mood is calm, heavy or depressed, while when the rhythm is sharp, the mood is generally high and exciting. The speed of the rhythm will also cause physiological and psychological changes, and the emotional experience will be inconsistent. Fast rhythm speeds up the heartbeat and enhances the sense of dynamics, such as African music. The highly developed rhythm is fast, complex and changeable, and multi-layered. This rhythm represents the sympathy and will of African tribe members; a slow rhythm means calmness and stability. , often used in narrative, lyrical, etc. in musical works. In music appreciation teaching, let students do some rhythm exercises to experience these changes.

For example, Dvozak's "Cello Concerto" we mentioned earlier, if students understand the role of recognition and understand that this concerto was written by the Czech composer Dvozak when he lived in the United States in his later years. Through this work, the author expressed his deep nostalgia for his motherland and relatives who are far away across the ocean. Then, students will gain a deeper experience of the emotional connotation of this work during the appreciation process. Another example is the overture in the ten-part score of Beethoven's "Egmont", without understanding that the protagonist Egmont of this drama was a hero revered by the Dutch people in the sixteenth century and resisted the Dutch people he led. Without knowing anything about Spanish rule and the struggle for independence, it would be difficult to experience the dramatic emotional changes in this overture: painful groans, fierce resistance, tragic carols and triumphant carnivals. If the audience can give full play to the role of understanding and timing, and have a deeper understanding of the content and characters of this drama, they will inevitably have a deeper experience of the emotional connotation of the music, which can only be achieved by perceptual experience alone. Impossible.

However, not every music listener can achieve this further requirement for emotional experience. Not every music appreciator has the conditions to understand musicians and the creation of musical works. Moreover, there are many untitled instrumental works, and the authors often left no relevant description when creating them. The works themselves do not express any profound social content, but are just expressions of certain emotions. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to further explain the music, and one can only experience the emotion of the music through sound perception and a grasp of the author's overall creative personality and style. Therefore, we must face the reality that for the vast majority of music listeners. The emotional experience in music appreciation is more in the form of intuitive intuition. As is commonly said, the listener is in a psychological state that can only be understood but cannot be expressed. What's more, the feelings expressed in music are indeed "can only be understood but cannot be expressed" in many cases. ! This way of judging whether an listener can express the feelings experienced with the help of a certain concept depends on whether the listener truly experiences the feelings expressed in the music and whether the listener's feelings can be expressed. In the process of appreciation, the music fluctuates and changes. If you can do this, you can say that you have experienced the feelings expressed in the music. Of course, when we say this, we do not deny understanding. Regarding the important role of emotional experience in music appreciation, it is necessary to explain that only when this understanding is integrated into the perceptual experience can it truly contribute to music appreciation.

3. Based on the psychological and physiological characteristics of high school students, enrich and improve students’ emotional world through emotional experiences in music appreciation classes

High school students are in the early stages of youth, and their physical development tends to mature. , moving toward independence in terms of psychological development, is a period when a person begins to independently determine his own life path. In the development process of their psychological activities, one thing is that their moods and emotions are becoming increasingly rich, which are characterized by vitality, enthusiasm, and affection. These universal characteristics can be reflected in music appreciation classes, providing students with a hot spot for emotional experience. I remember an evaluation class where I listened to Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture". First divide the theme, paragraph, and image appreciation, and then fully appreciate the whole song. There is "silence" in the classroom, and only the music jumps in the hearts of teachers and students. At this time, the subjectivity of the students is mobilized to use the music knowledge they have learned and the music itself. The performance is closely integrated, hearing, vision, feeling, and perception are all connected, and the situation is blended to appreciate this work. Music is an emotional art, and the charm of music cannot be avoided. Regardless of whether you love music or not, music will be delivered to everyone without reservation, and sometimes it may even be somewhat compulsive. As long as you have hearing, music will use its special way to communicate with you. Emotionally connected. The music ends and disappears. Isn't this sincere emotion left in every student's heart what the students should have and are looking for!

4. Integrate with the times and get emotional experience close to the actual life of students

Belinsky once said: "No matter what kind of music reflects an emotion, as long as there is The terrible monotonous impression of mechanical expression of emotion is gone”①. The expression of emotion can be reflected in classical music, as well as in popular and popular music. Students are exposed to a large amount of popular music on a daily basis. If it is prohibited in the classroom, it will achieve half the result with twice the result. Find some time and opportunity for the students themselves in class. For 5-10 minutes, listening to some popular music that students like can relax their nervous nerves, establish communication between teachers and students, and make them more comfortable. Students' musical emotions are allowed to develop freely. Teachers have to screen before class, such as Yanni music, Pavarotti and pop singer *** singing "My Sun", "Drinking Song", etc. Small music appreciation meetings are more popular among students. They not only entertain themselves, but also influence each other. The appreciation level and taste of students are constantly improving. The students' performances, their hearty performance on the stage, and their true feelings in the audience are echoed. Intense, the more emotionally invested, the stronger the interest. Students have different personalities and hobbies, so we choose different styles of music to suit them. I believe it will collide with them at some point and create sparks.

①Quoted from page 258 of "Le Hua".

Emotional experience is an important part of music appreciation class. Emotion is the key to a good music appreciation class. If teachers and students grasp and use various methods and means to experience the music itself, good results will be produced, students' musical artistic accomplishment will be improved, and the music appreciation class will be more vital. . To sum up, the above is only part of the emotional experience of music education. It still needs in-depth research and practice. The task is arduous but meaningful. Let us *** work together to make suggestions for a new round of curriculum reform, cultivate high-quality talents with all-round development that meet the needs of the new era, and contribute the talents of music educators.

To sum up, I think that in the process of appreciating music, the appreciator should first have a direct perceptual experience of the music, and secondly, the appreciator should study and understand the emotional inner meaning of the music from all aspects. . In other words, the appreciator must experience the emotional connotation of the musical work accurately, deeply and meticulously, which is the basic requirement for the appreciator's emotional experience in music appreciation. Of course, I think there is another aspect to the problem, that is, music appreciators have different appreciation abilities, and each appreciator can only experience the emotions expressed by the music based on his or her own different life experiences. Therefore, we can From another perspective, we can argue that music appreciation activity is a subjective activity of the appreciator. The music in the mind of the appreciator must be permeated with his own subjective color, and it cannot be exactly the same as the emotional experience of the author when he created the music. . In other words, the relationship between the subject and the object (the appreciator and the music being appreciated) in music appreciation activities is a dialectically unified relationship that is consistent but not completely consistent.