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Edgar Jaramillo
N14881160
Music Education
Summer 2006
E85.1505
Performing Arts in Western Civilization
Summary of Ferrara Chapter 3


Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) wanted to bring to the natural and human sciences a new phenomenological foundation. Phenomenology is a way of doing philosophy, a system by which things can be scrutinized by consciousness in order to ascertain their essential and necessary characteristics. Husserl believed that these systematic descriptions would purify the objects engaged by consciousness of all constructive interpretations. He called for the direct the direct investigation of phenomena by suspending belief in theories. Husserl’s early period of phenomenology (Husserl I) is marked by a turn to the objects of experience in the immediacy of their appearance. The reason was in response to pychologism. Psychologism maintaining a priority over all other sciences was in contradiction of Husserl’s phenomenological motto “coming back to the thing themselves” which required the abandonment of pychologism. Husserl was attempting at that time to develop a pure empiricism based on the immediate perceptions of things. This is based to his commitment to the development of an empirically based objectivism. His focus was on the things of consciousness rather than consciousness itself is the distinct characteristic of his early phenomenology. Interesting that later on (Husserl II) he moves away from this objective view and focuses inward towards consciousness and psychologism.
Husserl is credited for being the founder of the Phenomenological Movement of philosophy although he is not the first to use the term ”phenomenology.” Immanuel Kant uses it to distinguish between phenomena, objects that are being experienced by consciousness, and noumena, things that exist outside and are autonomous from consciousness. Kant’s “The Critique of Pure Reason” is the position that blows away David Hume’s, the passive mind theory. Man consciousness is at the center of all knowledge theory was referred to as Kant’s Copernican revolution. Kant places consciousness at the center of thus providing a bridge to the phenomenology but also intersects with other philosophies of the nineteenth ands twentieth centuries. Yet, even though Kant’s principles are in keeping with phenomenological thought, he clearly was not a phenomenologist.
Georg Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel uses the term phenomenology in his 1807 work “Phenomenology of Spirit. Hegel develops the theory of the dialectical relationship between objects(phenomena of culture) and human consciousness. This relationship is results in a byproduct later called the “absolute mind or spirit.” His phenomenology is largely based on the absolute mind and it’s interaction with the cultural history it dwells with. Hans-Georg Gadamer notes that Hegel’s philosophy represents the last mighty attempt to grasp science and philosophy as a unity. Due to Hegel’s pursuit to back up his work with absolute knowledge, he fails because it cannot be attained neither in the natural sciences, philosophy, historical research or arts criticism. This separates him from mainstream phenomenology.
Franz Brentano can be considered a forerunner of modern phenomenology. Some biographical data regarding his past may be significant. He was a catholic priest and resigned after eight years. He was a professor for six years and was removed when he got married. He was a non-salaried lecturer for fifteen years before retiring to Italy and Switzerland. Kant’s view (mind has a central position) and Aristotle’s view (classic position termed realism) are stated. Brentano attempted to reconstruct this classic view of an object being in consciousness while understanding that the object remains separate and autonomous. Brentano explores the use of inner perception as an alternative to introspection as a data-gathering tool. He also suggests that empirical philosophy must be comprised of at least two domains: Descriptive and genetic psychology. Descriptive is more immediate and relegated to casual studies. Genetic follows this with established general psychology in the natural sciences. . Intentionality is introduced and distinguishes between mental phenomena and physical phenomena.
Husserl began his studies in mathematics and not in philosophy in Leipzig. For his PhD., he went to Vienna. There he heard lectures from Brentano. Then he shifted to philosophy. In his work, Logical Investigations, consciousness began to creep into the forefront as he studied its significance in understanding mathematic principles. Then he made a radical move and became a philosophy professor in Freiburg University. In 1928, he named martin Heidegger his successor. Then afterwards, he had become despondent due to the eventual Nazi regime that affected his life and Jewish heritage so profoundly. Husserl had absorbed Brentano’s notion of intentionality that every conscious act is directed toward something.
One’s attempt at self-awareness instantly brings awareness of what is non-self. Therefore, meaning is possible only when a thing is engaged by consciousness and brought to the status of “object” of and for consciousness. Husserl insists on bracketing out personal biases for the use of the phenomenological method. From here, a phenomenological reduction must follow with at least two stages. The first is transcendental reduction. The second is an eidetic reduction. The epoche and the eidetic.
The phenomenological method breaks down the steps of phenomenology as per Spiegelberg. They are descriptive phenomenology, essential, phenomenology of appearances, constitutive, reductive and hermeneutic.
The aforementioned phenomenologists have indeed mulled over their respective theories for the world to take note. Most fascinating to me is the wall that hits most experts in the sciences when they cannot further or fully explain the world or the object of analysis. I personally know two mathematicians that have switched careers to the human sciences after their pursuit for absolute knowledge ended up fruitless.

Edgar Jaramillo
N14881160
Music Education
Summer 2006
E85.1505
Performing Arts in Western Civilization
Summary of Ferrara Chapter 2

Each successful method of musical analysis define its’ own task. The question proposed in the introduction is, should it? Roman Numeral analysis is an example of this type of pervasive success. In whole, the method enables the analyst to accomplish their task within that method. This is success by that criteria. A different way of analysis is to consider responsiveness to musical sound, from, and reference. In so many words, it is suggested that the work should determine the method. Therefore, a musical analysis would benefit from an eclectic method that supports the disclosure of multiple levels of musical significance.
According to Hans-George Gadamer, the temporal present is part of a stream of history that f=grows from the past and moves towards the future. That one’s tradition comes into play in every act of analysis. This type of pre-understanding is what makes pure listening and understanding of music impossible. Gadamer believes this is indisputable but is necessary and can be a positive force in one’s life. Prejudice must be defined in terms of contemporary language and/or concepts. The meaning of a musical work corresponds to it’s original past meaning to the analyst’s present historical being. One cannot suspend their present or step out of the context of his cultural time and place as Martin Heidegger refers to as ontological world. On the other hand, the benefits are that in understanding a past historical context lends to gaining a fuller understanding of their present one. In an analysis, it cannot restore an old work to its’ original meaning in an absolute way. Rather, meaning is derived to what it can mean in the present. Gadamer’s view is that pure historical objectivity is a myth. On the other hand, the composer’s sense of his own work should not be dismissed for it may provide insight in that work from the insight in their shared life-world. Gadamer concludes that there may be more problems with contemporary analysis than earlier works. This is because he felt that there would be too much present prejudices that may affect the work’s potential and what it can mean to them (composer). Not impossible but problematic in interpretive understanding with the work being so close to one’s being.
Since attitude can affect an analysis, the difference is between the music object as an aesthetic object or as an art object. The example of the millionaire with the Rembrandt is a great example to clear that up. If the millionaire sees it as a status symbol (financial investment) and locks it up, then the aesthetic aspect is not permitted while remaining an art object. If a friend of the millionaire visits it with an aesthetic attitude, then the art object is allowed to be an aesthetic object. Secondly, the clouds example brings it even more home. If you look at them to see if it is going to rain, then it is not an aesthetic object. If you look at the clouds and notice their fluffy texture as well as it colors, then the aesthetic attitude allows the clouds to be an aesthetic object. The clouds never change. It is the viewer (through attitude) that makes the difference. Yet, viewers cannot make an aesthetic object into an art object. The clouds are not created by an artist and therefore cannot be made to be an artwork. Thus, art objects require a creator in addition to an appreciator. However, it is possible that a viewer may lack the inventiveness (such as the millionaire example) to allow an art object to become an aesthetic object. Therefore, not all art works necessary are aesthetic objects as well.
A listener’s attitude profoundly impacts musical understanding. The listener, as a cultural and historical being, understands musical work through his historical present. This temporal distance that separates them from works of the past must be overcome. Gadamer’s provides grounding for questioning whether any method can suspend the human-cultural-historical involvement when it comes to collecting knowledge. The scientist must have control in order to perform a study. Can it be possible that control is even placed in what is to be observed? There is clearly a point illustrated here that the answers are then controlled if the method of inquiry is from a preconstructed schematic of what music can mean. This is not to condemn it but rather illustrate that the significance is only revealed to the extent of degree that the method allows. A thorough syntactical analysis is vital to the success of any eclectic method of musical analysis. This value is to be referenced later when discussing Heidegger’s position that referential meaning in music is only forthcoming when the analyst remains “open” and responsive to the life-world of the composer.
The need for methodology that includes more than one kind of analysis is apparent. Philosophical approaches to musical understanding at the levels of sound (descriptive phenomenology), and reference (hermeneutic phenomenology) will provide an orientation for asking alternative questions. These aforementioned philosophies that will be include in the eclectic methods are rooted in phenomenology. What is phenomenology? The correct answer would be to ask which phenomenon are they referring to. None can be as significant in this regard of phenomenology as Husserl and Heidegger. Descriptive and hermeneutic phenomenology respectively.
The difference between them is that Husserl feels man discovers his own conscious first. Then man encounters the outside world next. For Heidegger, man is “thrust” into the world and becomes historical through means characterized by the present status of their tradition. Respectively, the difference in methodology for attaining musical understanding is presented in three broad approaches. First, the conventional. Then the phenomenological. Finally, the hermeneutic.
Relating this to Gadamer, he explains that one does not “conduct’ a conversation but is “involved’ in a conversation is the whole enchilada in a nutshell. Gadamer does not cry over any spilt milk because he can’t quite get it all out there for the reader/listener. Rather he has opened that proverbial can of beans in hopes that we try some and savor the beans rather than just knowing it’s there. Being stocked up is a way different concept to “being full” and describing what full is.

Edgar Jaramillo
N14881160
Music Education
Summer 2006
E85.1505
Performing Arts in Western Civilization
Summary of Ferrara Chapter 1


Answers to the question, “What does music mean?” has been thought to be found
Within two broad approaches. Music understanding being limited to musical syntax or that musical understanding should engage referential meaning in music. A question of the adequacy of analytical methods to describe music syntax and referential musical meaning is tied directly to the question, “What CAN music mean?” Nicolas Cook is noted to having an excellent compilation and commentary of music analysis. Yet this book will contain a critical review of literature that engages referential meaning in music due to the possibility that many musicians (including music analysts) may not have read the predominant philosophical approaches to musical understanding. Leonard B. Meyer’s theory of emotion and meaning in music is a starting point for such middle ground. While Meyer’s theory encompasses “emotion which may be considered a fact of referential meaning, he tries to stay within the broad formalist tradition.
Edward Hanslick and Edmund Gurney advanced formalist approach in music. They were concerned with music that had no program (absolute music) such as the sonata or other abstract form. According to them, absolute music is devoid of referential and emotive meanings. While such a viewpoint is unpopular with music listeners, formalists acknowledge that music can be the cause of emotional responses and can evoke extra musical ideas. However, since emotions cannot be systematically or objectively analyzed, explanation into this type of subjective musical meaning would be fruitless and irrelevant.
Meyer delineates two types of musical meaning. One is absolute meaning (intrinsic) and the other is referential meaning (extrinsic). He has tried to ground musical emotion in formal musical meaning. Meyer says that there are at least two broad approaches to the analysis of absolute musical meanings: formalism and absolute expressionism. Formalists maintain that musical meaning is purely intellectual. Absolute expressionists contend that emotions can be aroused by music but as a result of intrinsic processes. Meyer helps to produce a system that would build a bridge from musical syntax to human emotion.
Dewey’s theory specifies that emotion is aroused when tendency to respond is arrested or inhibited. Meyer takes Dewey and operationalizes his theory. If one supposes that out of habit and repeated listening (open listening, hmmm) that a Mozart piece sounds like a Mozart piece and not a Stravinsky, then expectations are created as part of normative complex system of probabilities, expectation becomes active only when norms are disturbed. A deviation from neutral music with musical meaning arises when there is tonal delay or disturbance. An example is the Wagner Operas. When uncertainty increases, musical meaning increases. Without norms, expectation is not possible. Without expectation, in Meyers view, music is without syntactical meaning.
Meyer’s brand of absolute expressionism is to demonstrate that listeners can experience emotional responses amidst the formal syntax. This would be stimulus evoked from music syntax and not that of extra musical stimuli. Meyer states that meaning in music occurs when one musical fragment refers to another fragment. This would undoubtedly lead to expectation. Meyer further brings his point home by explaining that the listener (trained musician) consciously expects congruence to musical phrases. If listened unconsciously, an emotion is simply experience. Yet, with intellectual insight, a more clarified level of analysis may result.
In the Meaning of Meaning by Ogden and Richards, meaning is referential in the sense that a symbol is placed in a context when we associate it with something else. Words mean nothing by themselves. Syntax is grammar. Referential meaning of a word refers to the thing or idea of the word to which it points. We don’t have to have a car present to know that the letters “c”, “a”, and “r” mean car but presents the concept of car.
Langer had many works that focused on referential meaning in music. She was deeply impressed by man’s genius of symbolic meaning. Thus, creating language as a symbol system. While those before and after (Kant, Cassirer, Descartes, and Darwin) all have integral parts in “philosophy” associated with Langer’s own.. Philosophical study of the arts also contains a non-rational realm. Simply put, these are two modes (genuine and non-discursive) in rationality. According to Langer, music is a metaphorical image of actual life. This music analogically represents principles of living form in a new “virtual” form. One is not actually sad when sadness is a concept presented in music. This is a symbolic transformation of actual to virtual.
The chapter in overview gives an ancillary overview of the search for further discourse in meanings of musical significance. After reading the ideas formulated and great struggle in appealing to the intellectual institutions, new thoughts or relevance were regarded as radical and maybe even dissonant. Imagine in class if someone has an idea that most of us find strange or “way out there”, how do we react to it? Granted we are students and have an aim at completing our tasks. In the real world, if that idea did not facilitate our own work or maybe even went against it, then I think we all would react as all the establishments did to the great pioneers that have contributed to our present eclectic method.

Every viewing of the movie brings a new facet of phenomenon to it. As if studying the skies and discovering a new star. Just as Thom de Plume had noted that "authentic swing" scene had 63 shots, it is only natural that the mind now begins to adapt to it's initial phenomenological experience and discover the formal syntax of the film. Such as all the filming cues, directorial decisions and actors active participation in performance. Yet, the remarkable synthesis of phenomenology and firmer grasp of the formal analysis is what has given me a more profound phenomenological experience. I believe this happens cyclically with more understanding of the film. Rather, it may be more due to the mind forgetting itself and just living at the moment.

Regarding the second viewing of Bagger Vance (authentic swing scene), it is also one of the things I have experieced that has changed my life. The beauty I feel from this scene is the visual. In truth, the visual would not work without the audio component of the "go ahead, swing" scene. The visual part, such as Bagger's hands in front f the lantern was allegorical. This was represented again in the mesmerizing part of the scene when the shots are takens over and over. The sky was moving in front of the moon/sun. Rather, the clouds were. This was the part that very significant to me. Hit me like a ton of bricks. It was my whole flashing before my eyes!!!

I am ready to receive.