Aesthetic Experience and the Christian Musician-part 1

Aesthetic Experience and the Christian Musician-part 1 

There are many definitions and opinions about what aesthetic experiences actually are.  “John Dewey (1958), for example, argued that aesthetic experiences are the most complete, the richest, and the highest experiences possible. One is actively engaged and conscious of the world's effect on one but at the same time appreciative of one's possibilities for acting on the world. One senses an organization, coherence, and satisfaction as well as an integration of the past, present, and future that ordinary non-aesthetic experiences lack.”  http://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/aesthetic-experience 

 An aesthetic experience is a deep encounter with music that is beyond musical enjoyment, pleasure or mere knowledgeable awareness of the nuts and bolts of the music.  It is a private experience that a knowledgeable listener or performer has when performing or experiencing a musical performance that reveals import that is deeply revealing and satisfying to the performer or auditor.  Since this experience is personal and private many writers have found it difficult to explain it with specificity.  They also find it even more difficult to even suggest how often a listener or performer has one of these elusive experiences.  It is also argued whether or not a neophyte is capable of having such an experience with music since it is generally believed that one must be knowledgeable of music in order experience musical import at this deep level. 

Thought for the Day

There does not need to be a conflict between a knowledgeable worshiping through the use of music and at the same time having an aesthetic experience as long as that person worships God instead of the music.