Aesthetics and the Beautiful

 

Aesthetics and the Beautiful

Aesthetics is that area of philosophy that considers the perception of the beautiful as distinguished from the moral of the useful.  Christian musicians often wonder just where Christocentric music philosophy fits in to a Christian aesthetic.  One thing is sure, God is interested in beauty.  We know that He is since His creation is not only useful but also very, very beautiful. 

As always, the Christian is concerned with where to start when building a philosophy of artistic beauty.  One thing we know, that in the beginning God created everything that is beautiful.  Since music was a part of His creation, we know from the Genesis record that the beauty that God created was very good so therefore His creation of beauty was exceedingly beautiful. 

Any philosophical view of aesthetics that admits the grotesque or ugly is faulty.  We know that crude, ugly unmusical compositions do exist, but they are the result of a misarrangement of the building blocks of music.  Never blame God with ugly grotesque unmusical compositions.  The anti-music compositions of the 20^th century were not produced by God-fearing Christian composers and arrangers.