Aesthetic Meaning vs. Aesthetic Ends

Aesthetic Meaning vs. Aesthetic Ends

           All quality music performance will have valuable aesthetic meaning, but all quality musicing will not have only aesthetic ends.  By the terminology “aesthetic ends’ I mean that the sole purpose of the existence of the music is aesthetic beauty and hence the import of that meaning.  The terminology “aesthetic meaning” is that which is concerned with beauty and emotion as opposed to that which is strictly intellectual.   Robert Berglund explained the evolution of music from utilitarian purposes to aesthetic ends. “Art that exists for art’s sake is art that has ends that are primarily aesthetic in nature. Historically, most vocal music created prior to the fifteenth century was of a utilitarian nature.  Its purpose centered either in the experiences of the church or in social concerns…However, as instrumental music and the instruments themselves were developed, the performance of music for sheer pleasure increased.  Parlor music lead to concert hall music, the purpose of which was primarily enjoyment.”  A Philosophy of Church Music by Robert Berglund, p.18.  

          Every Christian musician must have a clear understanding of the difference between aesthetically performed sacred music which has the primary purpose of being offered to God as a worship offering, and aesthetically performed religious music that has only the aesthetic end of enjoyment.  This is not to say that an aesthetically performed musical offering to God should not be an enjoyable experience for the performer and the listener.  What I am saying is that there is a philosophical difference between a performance of a piece of sacred music which has aesthetic meaning and a performance that has only an aesthetic end.

          What about a musical performance that is strictly art for art’s sake?  I believe that there is no Bible based prohibition of a Christian musician performing a secular piece of music in a concert as art for art’s sake.  However, the matter is much more complicated when a musician’s purpose is presenting a musical offering unto God.  If God is to be the object of a Christian’s sacred musicing, then one’s musicing moves philosophically from mere artistic performance, i.e. art for art’s sake, to the realm of utilitarian purposes.  As one can deduce, any musical performance that is directly addressed to God cannot be strictly a performance of an art form for art’s sake although it may very well contain artistic meaning.