What is a Musical Aesthetic Idea? Reflections Following Kant

Abstract

Kant assigns music the lowest rank among the arts. According to Kant, it is “more enjoyment than culture” and its effect is based only on a random association of ideas that are aroused by music. Moreover, it has a “lack of urban”, as its prac­tice is often perceived as a nuisance. This has led to the widespread opinion that the systematic yield of Kant’s reflections on music should also be regarded as low. This article counters this opinion. Based on Kant’s theory of the aesthetic idea and its application to music, it can be shown that the concept of a musical aesthetic idea is suitable for contributing to the elucidation of the epistemic status of the cognitive content of music. With reference to Kant’s statements on the rela­tionship between theme, the unity of a musical work and “the dominant affect in the piece”, the scope of the application of Kant’s concept of an “unutterable fullness of thought”, which explains the concept of a musical aesthetic idea, is ex­amined and demonstrated using two examples. The first example is the famous first scene in Richard Wagner’s Rheingold, in which the Rhinemaidens greet the Rheingold, who shines in the rising sun. Here, the idea of Rheingold is the sub­ject of an idea whose aesthetic content is interpreted through the song of the Rhine­maidens and the music. The second example is the well-known theme of the sym­phonic poem The Moldau from the cycle My Fatherland by Bedřich Smetana and its variations. It is the musical representation of the flowing of the Vltava through various landscapes and sceneries; at the same time, the work is to be understood as a musical expression of the ideas of a unity of nature and national freedom. The examples illustrate the relationship between imagination, understanding and reason that must be assumed for the formation of a musical aesthetic idea.