Aesthetics

This course will examine the nature of art and aesthetics as presented in the German Idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, one of the major philosophers instrumental in the formation of modern aesthetic thinking, and as applied to music in particular. The role of the mind and intelligence not only in aesthetic appreciation, evaluation, and judgment, but also in the act of creation itself will be emphasized. The significance of critical interpretation, rational argumentation, and intellectual contemplation for the understanding of beauty and the sublime generally, and for the experiencing of individual works of art, in classical sacred music particularly, will also be studied and analyzed. In the process of evaluating, analyzing, and discussing both philosophical texts and musical compositions, we will explore various theories of art—representational, expressivist, formalist, moral, and inspirational—as well as distinguish various substitutes for or counterfeits of art, including entertainment, propaganda, fashion, sensationalism, and kitsch. Other distinctions between and questions about subjective tastes and objective standards, aestheticism and philistinism, talent and genius, fancy and imagination, reason and intellection are to come under philosophical scrutiny. The approach or method in this course to the assigned material is text-centered discussion.