When reading Isserlis’s comment
about “telling the right story”1 it made me think of Hume on
aesthetic disagreement. What if two people have differing accounts of how a
piece should be played and both think their story is the right one? I remember
a video I watched where Barenboim describes two eminent pianists, both of whom he
greatly admires, describing the same passage of music in Beethoven’s Piano
Sonata no. 7 in D major2. One was adamant he felt it was a tragic
sounding passage whereas the other felt it expressed humour and saw a comical
joke being expressed in the way a pattern of notes were disrupted by pauses3.
So Barenboim concludes that ascribing adjectives to music is perhaps the most
problematic approach!4 He suggests we should “explain music through
sound” instead5. Given this common type of aesthetic disagreement, I
am inclined to agree with Barenboim. His example of difference in aesthetic
judgement reminds me of Hume’s famous example of wine tasting in Don Quixote.
Hume’s essay ‘Of the Standards
of Taste’: The concept of taste and difference of judgement
Hume6 summarises the
story of wine tasting in Don Quixote to illustrate his point about aesthetic
judgement and refined aesthetic taste7. On judging the taste of a
wine, one man claims he detects an aftertaste of leather in the wine while
another declares he can taste a residue of iron in the wine8. Both
men were mocked for their judgement by the others9. However, they
were proved right in the end when a key with leather tied around it was
discovered in the wine cask10. This, I think, highlights many
important points about aesthetic judgement.
One, difference in aesthetic
judgement is normal and healthy. It can help lead to a deeper truth which
emerges from the aesthetic debate which would not have emerged if only one
opinion had been put forward. We only reach the full truth about both
aftertastes by listening to the differing judgements containing the half-truths
of a taste of iron and a taste of leather in the wine.
Two, just because two judgements
differ and declare apparently opposing opinions, it doesn’t mean one is right
and one is wrong. They were both right!
Three, we should never become
arrogant in our judgement and mock the opinions or “feelings of sentiment” of
others, one reason being that they both contribute to the delicacy of taste11.
The other men did not take their unusual claims about the wine seriously but
they were the ones proved wrong in the long run.
Four, it captures Hume’s
observation of human nature wonderfully:
“We are apt to call barbarous whatever departs widely from
our own taste and apprehension: But soon find the epithet of reproach retorted
on us. And the highest arrogance and self-conceit is at last startled, on
observing an equal assurance on all sides, and scruples, amidst a contest of
sentiment, to pronounce positively in its own favour.”12
In other words, people are prone
to basing their apparently objective opinion on their own bias or personal
opinion and have an arrogant confidence that they are right. So, this is no
indication that what they say contains more truth than another person’s opinion.
People also have a tendency to think their judgement is the only correct one so
are surprised when others behave the same way about an opinion which seems to
contradict theirs.
This is one of the reasons why
Hume advocates that, in order to be a good critic, we rid ourselves of our
preconceived prejudices and think of nothing but the aesthetic subject in front
of us13. This is because prejudice destroys “sound judgement” and
ruins our “intellectual faculties” which is relevant to aesthetic taste
because, although taste is a sentiment of sorts, reason plays an important role
in works of “genius” which involves assessing the work in its entirety14.
Such disagreements also lead to the desire to find an universal standard by
which we can judge aesthetics according to agreed rules and thereby generate
some consensus about taste15. According to Hume, a general standard
of taste is achievable but only under certain conditions and with certain
provisos16. For instance, “rules of composition” are discovered
empirically not by a priori abstract reasoning17. The “laws of
criticism” in aesthetics do not require “exact truth”18:
“Many of the beauties of poetry
and even of eloquence are founded on falsehood and fiction, on hyperboles,
metaphors, and an abuse or perversion of terms from their meaning. To check the
sallies of the imagination, and reduce every expression to geometrical truth
and exactness, would be most contrary to the laws of criticism; because it
would produce a work, which, by universal experience, has been found insipid
and disagreeable. But though poetry can never submit to exact truth, it must be
confined by rules of art, discovered to the author either by genius or
observation.”19
Like developing a refined
“palate” for food and wine, aesthetic taste can be developed so subtleties are
detected and “allow nothing to escape them”20. Rules of art are
useful because they provide us with, for instance, models of what beauty is and
“patterns of composition”21. Nevertheless, to be a good critic, we also
need to regularly think about various different types of beauty22.
Going over an “individual performance” repeatedly under different conditions
“with attention and deliberation” helps the sentiments of beauty become more
“clear and distinct” enabling us to have better aesthetic judgement and be
better critics23. However, although one can put forward good
arguments and appeal to the standard of taste during aesthetic disputes, there
will always be some differences in aesthetic judgement because different people
have differing personalities and may have different aesthetic responses during
their lifetime. Hume illustrates this with his example of people at different
stages of their life:
“A young man, whose passions are
warm, will be more sensibly touched with amorous and tender images, than a man
more advanced in years, who takes pleasure in wise, philosophical reflections
concerning the conduct of life and moderation of the passions.”24
In these situations, we should
stick to what comes naturally to us and go with “Mirth or passion, sentiment or
reflection; whichever of these most predominates in our temper”25.
Some prefer “the sublime”, others “the tender” while some prefer repartee26.
Some prefer “simplicity” while others prefer “ornament”27.
Individual differences range from insisting on “correctness” and disliking
“blemishes” to preferring “lively feelings of beauties and pardons twenty
absurdities and defects”28. Indeed, Hume even argues that some are
“delighted with a copious, rich, and harmonious expression.”29 So I
read Hume as leaving open exactly how much expression a musician should give a
passage of music because this may well be a genuine reflection of their
individual personality coming through the music rather than something which can
be regulated by rules of art or aesthetic taste. Similarly, “Comedy, tragedy,
satire, odes, have each its partizans, who prefer that particular species…”30
However, according to Hume, this
is not something to warn against or worry about in aesthetics. On the contrary,
Hume concludes:
“It is plainly an error in a
critic, to confine his approbation to one species or style ….and condemn all
the rest. But it is almost impossible not to feel a predilection for that which
suits our particular turn and disposition. Such preferences are innocent and
unavoidable, and can never be the object of dispute, because there is no
standard, by which they can be decided.”31
So just as Barenboim32
highlights the various and opposing interpretations pianists have chosen when
deciding how to play a passage of music, especially sections which are left
wide open to interpretation by the composer, I think it is great that nowadays
we can listen to a variety of musicians, both living and past greats. Our
choices of playing styles range from the legendary Jacqueline du Pre, whose
free-flowing personal approach gave her a unique and distinctive interpretation
in all her music giving it a timeless appeal. She sometimes made use of
idiosyncratic cello technique but it worked for her and she always produced
intensely emotional and passionate music which delighted her audiences wherever
she played, hence, her popularity has stood the test of time. In contrast,
Natalia Gutman plays with impeccable command of cello technique and wows her
audiences with her fast and challenging musical feats. I found watching and
listening to her in concert an awesome, breath-taking, humbling experience! She
really is the queen of the cello! So all musicians bring their different styles
and personalities to the same pieces, showing us the different meanings and
truths they have discovered in the music and composers’ scores. They also bring
their own unique voice and interpretations which reveal personal truths that they
feel is present within the music. This, then, leaves us a creative space as
musicians to find our own distinctive voice and style and blend it with what we
can gather about the composers’ intentions. As listeners of others’ music
making, we have the luxury of appreciating a range of approaches to music and
choosing our favourite expressive playing style which best matches our own
emotional and aesthetic disposition.
1
Isserlis, S., (23rd September 2017 at 3:24pm) ‘Beware of emotion –
well, of inappropriate emotion, anyway… (again)’ facebook post
2
Barenboim, D., (28th October 2016) ‘5 Minutes On... Beethoven -
Piano Sonata No. 7 (D major)’
Available
at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh-pcrWG3Mg
3 ibid
4 ibid
5 ibid
6 Hume,
D., Of the Standard of Taste, Essay
XXIII in Part 1 in ‘Essays Moral,
Political and Literary’, Ed. Miller, E.F. revised edition 1994, Liberty
Fund Inc. Indianapolis p227-249
7 ibid
p234-5
8 ibid
9 ibid
p235
10 ibid
11 ibid
p234
12
ibid
p227
13 ibid p227, p239
14 ibid p240
15 ibid p229
16 ibid p231
17 ibid
18 ibid
19 ibid
20 ibid p235
21 ibid
22 ibid p237
23 ibid p237-8
24 ibid p244
25 ibid
26 ibid
27 ibid
28 ibid
29 ibid
30 ibid
31 ibid p244
32 Barenboim,
D., (28th October 2016) ‘5 Minutes On... Beethoven - Piano Sonata
No. 7 (D major)’
Available
at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh-pcrWG3Mg
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