Aesthetics and the Christian Musician Part 5

 

Aesthetics and the Christian Musician-Part 5
             Dadaism was another aesthetic movement that had a profound effect on music philosophy and composition.  Dadaism was one of those movements that struck out at traditional aesthetic and moral values.  This school of thought, starting around 1916, used chance techniques and was a very irreverent and often irrational artistic absurdity.  Proponents of Dadaism were Tristan Tzara (1896-1963), Jean Arp (1887-1966) and others.
            This movement gave rise to surrealism which was formulated by André Breton (1896-1966) and made famous by Salvador Dali (1904-??).  The philosophy of surrealism came from Breton’s automatism philosophy that what a person thinks, feels or wills is determined by physical changes           After French impressionism, came several schools of artistic thought that had an in that person’s body.  This philosophy purports that, although one is fully conscious, actions come from subconscious images over which that person has no control.
            Another philosophical theory that affected composers of the 20^th century was existentialism.  This theory was a literary movement rather than an artistic theory like Dadaism and surrealism.  This theory was introduced by Sören Aaby Kierkegaard (1813-1855).  He believed that man was not a part of any metaphysical scheme.  He believed that each person must create (authenticate) his own being in his hostile environment by an act of his free will. Composers of the modern era, like the proponents of the “isms” mentioned above, struck out against all tradition and standards of correctness with their musical compositions.