Orchestral Music: Thinking Art - Essay Example

From the benchmark ical music as characterized by pure music in standard forms meticulously formulated, the music of Beethoven and Berlioz introduced Romanticism which diverted from the commonly accepted tones and rendered fantastic symphonies that were anything but structured. On the other hand, in contrast to the style of Romanticism the emergence of Neoclassicism aimed to revert to the appeal of the precision that guided the Classics prior to the advent of Romanticism. This was greatly influenced by going back to the style of Haydn which propelled Neoclassicism as fostered by composers such as David and Burke.

Where the romantics were highly influenced by their personal feelings which dictated the arrangement of their music which are often disorganized and reflective of a world’s point of view in accordance with the composer’s perspective, the Neoclassicism repels the mythical sense as distinct from the music (Mordden, p.47). Hanslick opined that as art form music is pure and must not have any other embellishments because it is autonomous in itself. He further argues that “in music, no distinction can be made between substance and form, as it has no form independently of the substance” (as cited by Braembussche, p.4). This formalist view of Hanslick finds no meaning especially as seen in today’s music.

His proposition is quite resisting and unfortunately did not progressed along with the times as it had already been too restrictive at first publication. There is no doubt that he bears substance in maintaining the separation of feelings in art but this only yields it to be confining and resolute to an extent that only yields to stagnation. To an extent beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Our standards of beauty may be relevant to what we have been accustomed to and this may also be affected by personal predispositions distinct in each one of us.

But in our society and upbringing, we had been moulded and acclimatized in such a manner that in most cases we have but one perception of beauty. This standard is important to be able to determine what is worth spending our time it. At the outset, this is the very basis of reviews which determine for us whether one thing is good and therefore worthwhile. First and foremost, something must be appealing to the senses. Different categories have different standards which are pre-determined in accordance to what is acceptable and more importantly, beautiful.

Bibliography Braembussche, Antoon Van den. Thinking Art. Dordrecht: Springer, 2009. Google Books. Web. 31 May 2012. Mordden, Ethan. A Guide to Orchestral Music: The Handbook for Non-musicians. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. Google Books. Web. 31 May 2012.