Musi 331 Assignment 2 Draft of Research Proposal P Crane Question 1.

1. What key developments in the first half of the 19th century resulted in a new aesthetic status for instrumental music?
The new aesthetics of instrumental music reflected fundamental transformations in contemporary philosophy and general aesthetics that were unrelated to the music of the time.1

The times in question, the late 18th century and on, were turbulent. European explorers were founding new continents and science and its sibling, technology, were expanding practical knowledge in a way that traditional theologically based paradigms could not contain. Sociological progress, exemplified by the 1789 French Revolution, saw the modern ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity underpinned, paradoxically, by the guillotine. European thought, the domain of philosophy, was charged with the responsibility of encompassing this dynamic. Philosophy, the subject that teaches logic, ethics, right thinking, practical thinking and efficient thinking among other things, had taken its opportunity to participate in the new debate. Kant and others had indicated the coming need for philosophic input as science began its march across the traditional territories of old knowledge. Developments in the mechanics of self-awareness were a good fit for new theories in linguistics which further loosened traditional models by demonstrating the ability of language to posit the abstract. Rules, it would seem, were made to be broken. Certainties were subject to scrutiny and the viewpoint of the postfeudal individual began to assume form and weight.
1

Mark Evans Bonds, Idealism and Aesthetics of Instrumental Music at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century, Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 50, No. 2/3 (Summer-Autumn, 1997), 389.

Romantic theories had held that if instrumental music could communicate then it had linguistic capability. Taking the line further it was said that good romantic music had the capacity to express what words could not. Taking the argument even further romantics said that by reaching for the inexpressible and sometimes attaining it, a transcendence could occur that had music and art generally, on the plane previously the preserve of religion. Romantic theorists then turned their attention to philosophy and in particular, science. When Schlegel posed the model that before Creation, the void was the result of available energy existing in a state of non-rhythm, music had entered the grand dialogue, as rhythm was unequivocally the preserve of music.2 Prior to the 19th century, instrumental music had no such pretensions. Kant saw instrumental music as a lesser art, certainly in relation to his own field. Music was perennially viewed as a social grace, a viable occupation for the gifted, a product for stated occasions or as a means of entertainment. What happened when music theorists entered the debate on the modern, as it was then, and acquitted themselves well, was that music ensured its survival by being a subject for serious study. An examination of the personalities involved in the dialogue of the time, the philosophers, the musicians, and pertinent political figures should reveal a pattern of developments that were reflected in instrumental music in 19th century Europe and what is generally referred to as the Romantic movement. It is a time when the issue of the modern as underpinned by the scientific was brought out definitively and music was part of the debate.

Jim Samson, The Cambridge History of Nineteenth Century Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 35.

Significantly for music, it is arguable that this good showing guaranteed musics strong position going forward. Bibliography: Dupre, Ben. 50 Philosophy Ideas (you really need to know). London: Quercus, 2007. Longyear, Rey. Nineteenth Century Romanticism in Music, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall, 1973. Rosen, Charles. The Romantic Generation, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995. Chantler, Abigail. E.T.A. Hoffmans Musical Aesthetics. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006. Hoffman, E.T.A., E.T.A. Hoffmans Musical Writings. Edited by David Charlton. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Bowie, Andrew. Philosophy of Music III: Aesthetics, 1750 2000, New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, online version, 2001. Accessed 23.09.2009. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.une.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/music/52965 pg3 Samson, Jim. The Cambridge History of Nineteenth Century Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.