Man has for centuries sought beauty, its attainment, observation, or creation. The very essence of all art is precisely to achieve it, to have power over it, or to please one’s senses. However, one should not forget that this notion is mainly subjective. Moreover, music is only one of the possibilities of obtaining and delivering pleasure or of self-expression and self-discovery within the non-visual dimension.
The fundamental essence of beauty in the history of music depends on understanding, realizing and demonstrating the beauty of creation and attempting to convey it in non-visual forms. In addition to beauty, the content of each piece reflects the importance of communication, knowledge, and the underlying nature of the individual. The history of music begins with an awareness of its unconscious beginnings and appeal (Cook, 2021). Since ancient times, man has detected various sounds of underhand objects and come to understand rhythm and dimensionality to try to order his feelings and the meaning of life through tempo. That is why one of the first musical instruments was an analogue of the drum, the sound of which was the closest to the human soul and concentrated or relaxed attention. The beauty of nature in those days was emphasized by cadenced rhythms embodied in acoustic beauty.
Later, with the development of various musical instruments, the embodiment of beauty became more complex. Thus, it eventually came to classical music, which embodies the unity of many different instruments. Around the time of the appearance of the still famous composers, the concept of beauty in music was considerably unified in every culture (Watkins, 2018). Only many years later, subjective beauty emerged, and music was divided into hundreds of genres to allow each person to find exactly the one that was closest to his or her sense of beauty. However, classical music is still the benchmark and has considerable popularity.
From a West-Eurocentric perspective, the classical compositions, most of which initially had no vocal range, have long been the ideal of beauty embodied non-visually. Several things, beginning with symphonic orchestral music, are examples of this. Composers such as Bach and Beethoven are still known to everyone since childhood, and many consider their works the standard even in today’s ambiguous times. Projecting the soul and mood of the author, drawing parallels with nature and its processes or human existence is closest to the beauty of the physical (Daughtry, 2020). For example, while not very old, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee arouses explicit associations with the natural world, harmony, and the beauty of the universe.
Another example is the ability of music to shade or amplify people’s emotions. This music feature is much more universal than it may seem and evokes similar emotions in different members of society (Cook, 2021). An example of this would be the musical setting of Verdi’s opera Rigoletto, where each tone and instrument is responsible for conveying the character’s mood and shaping the listener’s feelings. Such works, devoid of sound, cannot give everyone an understanding of the meaning of beauty as a whole and its dependence on auditory manifestations.
Another example of music as such is the background sound works of authors playing in a particular setting. Not everyone can immediately grasp their importance, but visual beauty is definitely complemented by auditory beauty, demonstrating the musical accompaniment of art galleries or auctions (Dietrich & Knieper, 2022). Forming emotions even in people who do not listen to music regularly can enhance anyone’s sense of beauty.
Despite the diversity of styles and excessive variations in a globalized and digitized space, each of the multi-billion population can find and hear their own. This fact is what the modern understanding of beauty emphasizes because the purely subjective awareness of the beauty of a piece of music can make a person listen to a tune over and over again. Enjoyment in the process of listening is the true quintessence of understanding the natural beauty for each individual.
References
Cook, N. (2021). Music: A very short introduction. OUP Oxford.
Daughtry, J. M. (2020). Did music cause the end of the world?Transposition, Hors-série 2. Web.
Dietrich, P., & Knieper, T. (2022). (Neuro)Aesthetics: Beauty, ugliness, and ethics. PsyCh Journal, 11(5), 619–627. Web.
Watkins, H. (2018). Musical Vitalities: Ventures in a biotic aesthetics of music. University of Chicago Press.