Eric Lederman
English Comp 110
Professor Emerson
What is beauty
On the day I was born my mother told me it was a beautiful day. She had just brought another child into this world, another member of our family to love and cherish. But why was this day so beautiful? Beauty is something that draws emotions out of people. It reaches into the inner soul and pulls out that raw feelings. When you think of it that way then that day was beautiful, a birth is considered beauty, but the world contains so many more forms of true beauty. In John Armstrong’s essay “La Bella Vita” he talks about how vast the world of beauty is and how there is no true definition of it. He emphasizes on the ideas of a German dramatist and poet Friedrich Schiller’s views of beauty. Schiller talks about the two drives of human nature, the sense drive and the form drive. With so many forms of beauty in the world, one form stands out to me more than any other the others. One of the truest forms of beauty in the world is music and it being so multiplex.
The from drive is the natural beauty of the works of things. Schiller described it as “the inner demand for coherence over time, for abstract understanding and rational order”, an understanding of the complexity of how things work. This drive makes us use our brains when noticing beauty and pushes us towards a deeper style of thinking. This seems to be the ignored part of beauty, no one ever looks at a the Mona Lisa and instantly thinks “Wow the way that this painting was made is beautiful” but they do admire how it looks. For music this happens very often. Society is all about rushing and not truly taking time to take in life. No one tries to understand more than just what they are hearing. With music the only people that I feel appreciate a piece of music are musicians. They understand the effort and hard work that it takes to put all of the puzzle pieces together to make a song. Some pieces of music are extremely complex and full of
many working parts that come together as one to create something truly amazing. For example the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen is a song that is full of many parts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ. The song contains five different sections, all are different styles of music, but together they make one of rock’s greatest hits. There is a section that has a opera style and there also is another section that is a guitar solo, two completely different styles of music in the same song. When looking at the sheet music you can see how music time must have been taken to. All of the notes and ties placed exactly where they should go to produce such a magnificent song. Music contains all of these things that go unnoticed by most people. When relating the form drive towards music you talk about the different notes and how everything flows together. When you play one note alone it is not beautiful but when you put them all together it is. All of the instruments, tempos, time signatures, written music, moods, and so much more are aspects that make music. And in their own way they are considered beauty as well. If you think about all of these independent factors that join as one to make music it is beautiful.
The other drive in human nature that Schiller discussed was the sense drive. This drive is focusing more on the now, a living in the moment kind of thing. It is that form of beauty that you feel when you first see a sunset painted across the sky. You get that “immediate gratification” that really does take your breath away. The sense drive is the initial emotions that come to you when you are experiencing something beautiful. With music you gain this instant feeling when you hear a piece. If you are just skipping through Spotify you will stay on a song you like or skip the ones that you do not. All kinds of music have different moods which create emotions. For instance at a party if a certain song come on everyone gets up and dances and sings along, there is this sudden euphoria. The sense drive is all about emotion. And beauty draws out emotion just like music can. The style of a song makes an impression on people’s mood within a couple of seconds. Music holds this beauty because it can easily draw that emotions from people.
The thing with music is that basically everyone loves listening to music. There are so many types of it, millions of songs, billions of words, so many opportunities for people to relate to it. It is beautiful to think that there is music for everyone. Music goes against the usual societal view that there is one thing that is deemed the icon for something. Beauty is viewed by society on covers of magazines with pictures of a photo shopped gorgeous man or woman with an amazing body. But music is an outlier in this topic, everyone listens to different music so there cannot be one style set by society as music. Armstrong said “don’t get worked up trying to figure out which things are beautiful” because there should not be one definition of beauty. This is a very accurate statement, society tries so hard to make this definition when the real definition changes according to each person. Jake O’Neill talks about in his “Let’s Talk About Art” about rap and hip hops’ lyrics. Jake uses quotes from J Cole’s song “Crooked Smile” to talk about societies view on what beauty should look like. “With all the pressure to look impressive and go out in heels, I feel for you, Killing yourself to find a man that’ll kill for you, You wake up, put makeup on, Stare in the mirror but it’s clear that you can’t face what’s wrong”, these lyrics express the idea that society has created what women’s beauty is and what women are willing to do to be considered beautiful. But J Cole’s lyrics are saying that people should not let society’s view of beauty make you feel like you have to conform. This song holds a beautiful message as to what beauty is and has a positive message towards the negatives of societal views.http://joneill7.uneportfolio.org/2018/04/03/lets-talk-about-art/
Whatever you are feeling at that moment or how you want to feel can be found in music. Chopin’s Nocturnes for example, a set of lovely piano pieces that make you stop sprinting in this marathon we call life and just walk and notice the flowers on the road. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gDinVAmtA0 These piano sonatas in my opinion are some of the greatest pieces of music ever written, 21 pieces of music written to perfection. The soft sound of a piano reaching a peak of a chord then beautifully being resolved by another chord. Is it beauty because you can relate that to life? We all want this feeling of being resolved, like everything in our lives are figured out. So maybe we grasp at things that resolve themselves and use them to fill in our own gaps of uncertainty. As you listen you can slowly feel tranquility flow over your body as you get lost into the music and you really do feel this sense of completion. You can feel some connections to music through common emotions between you and the piece. That is beauty, a feeling of completion is so satisfying and makes that joyous passion. Whether it is a piano song that only plays minor keys that you just want to listen to and cry or a fast up-tempo song that makes you want to get up and dance and laugh to. Music accompanies life in a way, in its own form of beauty it makes you feel, it goes deep under your skin and bones to touch your soul. But we can all agree that music makes you feel exactly like how beauty does. Many lyrics hold meaning in which people can formulate a connection with them and then hold a sentimental meaning towards them.
To me music holds a very important part of my life. Through all of the struggles I have faced and the tragedies I have lived through, music has always been there for me. My life would be miserable without music in it. I find it so beautiful from the emotional bonds I have created. Along with just my natural love of making and listening to it. The sound of music is so appealing and makes life a little less crappy than it is sometimes. This happiness and optimism that it holds is so meaningful. Music helps people decompress and relax in this world of chaos and sprinting. Anything that helps people through an emotional way is helpful. But music reaches this whole new level, in a way that it affects everyone due to if being so multiplex which does make it a thing of beauty.
Work Cited
“Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (Official Video)”YouTube, uploaded by Queen Official, 1 August 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ
“Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen – the ULTIMATE SCORE – Piano Sheet + Guitar + Vocals + Drums.” Scribd, Scribd, www.scribd.com/doc/20945436/Bohemian-Rhapsody-Queen-the-ULTIMATE-SCORE-Piano-Sheet-Guitar-vocals-drums.
Armstrong, John. “Can Beauty Help Us to Become Better People?”. John Armstrong | Aeon Essays.” Aeon, Aeon, 14 Feb. 2014, aeon.co/essays/can-beauty-help-us-to-become-better-people
O’Neill, Jake. “Lets Talk about Art.” Jacob O’Neill, 3 Apr. 2018, joneill7.uneportfolio.org/2018/04/03/lets-talk-about-art/.
“Chopin Nocturnes” YouTube, uploaded by Wonders of Classical Music, 14 November 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gDinVAmtA0
