MUSI2520 Aesthetics

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MUSI2520 Aesthetics Criticism

• Dr Karen Burland
• k.burland_at_leeds.ac.uk

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Overview

• Introduction to the module
• Timetable
• Work load
• Assessment
• Peer assessment procedure
• What do we mean by Aesthetics?
• What do we mean by Criticism?
• Why study Aesthetics Criticism?

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What do we mean by Aesthetics?

• aesthetics - derives from the Greek
  aisthanesthai (to perceive sensuously)
• There have been few philosophers specifically and
  only concerned with music, although many have
  contributed to to our understanding of the
  subject (e.g. Plato, Pythagoras, Aristotle)

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What do we mean by aesthetics?

• Theoretical reflection on eternal questions
• What is music?
• How does it carry meaning?
• What place does/should it have in human life,
  culture and society?
• How does/should it relate to the natural world,
  the cosmos, the deity?
• What is greatness and beauty in music?
• Who is asking the questions?
• Psychologists, educationalists, scientists,
  theologians, historians, artists, musicians,
  philosophers.
• Not a branch of philosophy until 1750

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Some central themes

• Form
• Content
• Expression
• Imitation/representation (mimesis)
• Objectivity/subjectivity
• Political and Ideological ideas
• Social status and function of musicians

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What do we mean by criticism?

• Types of criticism broad (vs. narrow)
• Analysis/evaluation
• Qualities, merits, faults
• Of specific interpretations, pieces, genres, or
  the art as a whole
• Measurement against an ideal (an aesthetic
  ideal), so inextricably linked with aesthetics

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Why study aesthetics and criticism?

• For a deeper understanding of the eternal
  questions for which musical aesthetics seeks to
  find an answer (therefore of music as an art)
• For insights into
• Culture, society, and civilisation at different
  points in history - contexts informing the way we
  think and have thought about music
• Specific works (what did the composer think s/he
  was doing?)