Question of the Week: Kivy and Hanslick

What do you think this might be? Do you think he's right, that there is something mysterious and inaccessible to us in music? Does Kivy's proposal of emotional content hold against Hanslick's thesis?

I feel Hanslick is correct on this one, I feel that there really is an explainable event when music occurs that we can only describe through metaphor and such. Music seems to us to rise and fall but it really isn't doing that, it is simply continuing in different tones we put that meaning behind it to the point that we can't explain it outside the metaphor, it is an indescribable experience. On top of that, we, as a species, are sensitive to those changes emotionally and audibly. We hear them and then we react in the proper manner. Musicians use these reactions to convey their emotions through music. The music is really only a translation of the the artist's state of mind while the music was written, the music itself is not full of emotion, just well utilized to convey it. 

Kivy and Hanslick 2

I am an actor, and I've done my fair share of musicals. The issue with musicals is that the songs really only convey one emotion at a time. It really limits the story telling of a musical as huge chunks of the show become simplified. People are not simply, yet although musicals do their best, they can never truly create the ever changing minds of mankind. It hinders the progression of an advanced story. I feel that is better done through the power of regular words. However, in those cases that one single emotion is prevalent, a song may be better to put someone else into that state through music and relation to themselves and the song. Both provide an important way to experience someone's expressions. Plays with story, musicals with music.

Kivy and Hanslick

My own personal opinion of the whole issue of whether or not emotion is inherent to things is this. With music, it is an artificial creation that takes advantage of underlying traits in people to perceive certain emotions from certain things. So the music in a way is inherently sad, in that it is presented in a way that sadness will be what is heard in the music based on those perceptions and underlying traits in people. When it comes to art however, it is almost always open to interpretation to the viewer and artist. Some artists use sad type paintings to get across positive messages and vice versa. So it is much more situational in that regard.