Understanding Music Academy

"How many things poets say that have either been said by philosophers, or yet ought to be said!"
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (1-65), "Letters to Lucilius"/("Epistulae morales ad Lucilium")

My students know: I never get tired of reminding them that music, like other art forms, has a lot in common with philosophy. Artists, not only poets, also love wisdom (philosophy after all means "love of wisdom") and share it in their works of art. In art, as in philisophical essays, important questions are asked and answers are given that can help us in our everyday lives and, of course, as professionals on our paths. This is precisely what is not seldom overlooked/overheard/forgotten....

I would like to take today's Philosophy Day as an occasion to keep an eye on the philosophical aspects of music as an art form. When we listen to or play, for example, "Ich ruf' zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ" by Bach (BWV 639), the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata op. 27 no. 2 or Chopin's Etude op. 10 no. 1, we can focus on what questions are asked there about such philosophical categories as space and time, joy and pain or even about the essence of life.

And of course a reading recommendation for Philosophy Day: "Letters to Lucilius" by Seneca are very inspiring and also not difficult to read ;)

Do you like reading philosophical works? Do you have favourite philosophers? Do you enjoy discovering the philosophical aspects of art in general and music in particular?

On Spanish Language Day, as always, I enjoy reading poems by Federico García Lorca, e.g. one of my favourite works of his "La guitarra".

My students know that I think it is very important to read poetry, because poetry helps us to think more precisely, not only as artists or scientists, but also as human beings in general. Poetry helps us to understand music, other arts and life more deeply.

Also, of course, poems, like pieces of music, have their rhythm, their melody, their harmonies.... Lorca's poems (just as one example among many...) sound like music, which is also why I think it is very productive to read or listen to poems in the original, even if you don't understand the language (well).

It's the same with music, even if we don't yet understand it deeply, we can enjoy its melodies, harmonies, rhythms etc. - and joy, interest or even love are, in my view, always the first steps that make it possible for us to understand something: "Where there is no love, there is no understanding" (Oscar Wilde).

Do you like to speak/hear different languages? Do you like reading poetry?

On World Day of the Sea, I'd like to ask you what the sea sounds like to you. Like "Pirates of the Caribbean?" Debussy's "La Mer"? Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade"? Like Chopin's Etude op. 10 No. 1? Or perhaps after Rachmaninov's Étude-Tableaux op. 39 No. 5?

The sea is an important artistic image, also in music. Sometimes we know right away that a piece is about the sea when we read the title of the composition. Sometimes we can only hear it or see it in the score (as in my last two examples).

Regardless of whether we are dealing with the first or the second case, we should not forget that all artistic images are not superficial (natural) pictures, but aesthetic forms in which certain ideas (feelings, thoughts, states, etc.) are embodied.

What music will you listen to today, on World Day of the Sea? Do you have any favourite works that you associate with the Sea?

To understand or not to understand music and art - from my point of view this is not a question! (Part II)

A few days ago I was in the so-called "Hamlet Castle", the Kronborg Castle in Helsingør in Denmark, world famous as Elsinore in Shakespeare's "Hamlet". The medieval fortress was extended between 1574 and 1585 and inaugurated in 1582 as the royal residence of Frederick II.

After visiting the castle, which was built in the Nordic Renaissance style, I feel that I have become even closer to tragedy and especially to the scene with actors, which I love to talk about with my students.

By the way, it was easy for me - and for that I thank colleagues who are responsible for the mediation of history and art in this museum! Children, teenagers and adults were supported in their 'journey through time', e.g. by a conversation with Frederick II ( played by an actor), by opportunities to move around freely, to touch a lot of exhibits, to embroider and even to lie down in a huge bed: with the suggestion to imagine that you had come to a ball of the king and had spent the night in this room... All in all, a very wonderful experience that I would like to share here with you, but also with my students in our club for music students (get in touch if you want to be part of it!) or in individual coaching.

What have you experienced in the last few weeks? What was new for you? Surprising? Inspiring?

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)To understand or not to understand music and art - from my point of view this is not a question! (Part II)