Aesthetics and the
Christian Musician—part 5
The
music of Claude Debussy was chromatic, fluid and vague. Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande in this
symbolist style The opera is an expression of Debussy’s philosophy that music
should be a free art, truly representative of the fact that it cannot be
contained, but exists in time and is born on air. That freedom meant a relaxation of restrictions
such as those that normally governed form, harmonic progressions, and
rhythm. The Development of Western Music, K. Marie Stolba, p.775.
This
vagueness was considered impressionistic and thus the connection was made with
the vagueness of the visual art of Edouard Manet (1832-1883), Paul Cézanne
(1839-1906), Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Claude Monet (1840-1926),
and Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919).
The works of these painters are studies in the impression light makes on
the subjects of these paintings. Often,
light and subject seem to almost merge. The overall impression takes precedence
over clarity, thus vagueness reigns.
After
French impressionism, came several schools of artistic thought that had an
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 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.
Thought
for the Day
Chance music and the claims of the
gospel mix like oil and water. You may mix
the two, but they do not make a successful efficacious amalgamation.
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