Monday, May 16, 2016

Aesthetics and the Christian Musician- part 5


Aesthetics and the Christian Musician- part 5

Under this lack-luster philosophy mentioned in the four previous posts, religious music no longer has to be aesthetically beautiful.  Although almost all Christian musicians who perform rock-based music would deny it, they do not believe in a music aesthetic based on any definable traditional standards of beauty.  If they do believe in a Christian music aesthetic, it is most certainly a redefined beauty based on a synthesis somewhere in between beauty and ugliness.  How did music degenerate in its aesthetic beauty from the music of J.S. Bach to the anti-music of composers like John Cage? 

I believe that Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was one of the early composers who started in the direction of despair music.  He became interested in the literary works of the symbolist writers of the 19th century.  These writers addressed their writings to a system of symbols and symbolic meaning as a negative reaction to naturalism and realism in literature.  This school which was nonliteral and figurative began to develop a network of vague images.   These vague images found their way in to the music compositions of this off-shoot of the romantic period that became known as impressionism.

 

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