A
Music Aesthetic Must Retain God in its Basis-part-2
In
Donald Grout’s treatise A History of
Western Music he quoted Aristotle as saying: “…when one listens to music
that imitates a certain passion, one becomes imbued with the same passion, and
if over a long time one habitually listens to the kind of music that rouses
ignoble passions one’s whole character will be shaped to an ignoble form.” Donald Grout and Palisca, A History of
Western Music, p.8. Aristotle
was saying that the continued influence of ignoble music would affect its
message so thoroughly on the listener that it would influence the actual
character of the auditor. Plato was famous for his classic philosophical
statement, “Let me make the songs of a nation and I care not who makes its
laws.” Robert Berglund, A
Philosophy of Church Music, p.18.
Ancient Greek philosophers evidently believed
that music could communicate not only beauty to the auditor, but also the
message of the moral intent of the composer or performer, not merely by words,
but also by the music part of the music. No one ever quotes Plato or Aristotle
as believing that only words communicate. Both of these philosophers mention
the effect of modes on the auditor. They mention emotions like anger,
gentleness, calmness, anxiety and personal restraint, and how the character of
the various modes conveys these messages to the hearer.
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