Rousseau on music and the hierarchy of the arts  

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Music as "language of the heart":

"Le Génie du Musicien soumet l'Univers entier à son Art. Il peint tous les tableaux par des Sons ; il fait parler le silence même; il rend les idées par des sentimens , les sentimens par des accens ; & les passions qu'il exprime , il les excite au fond des cœurs."

English:

The Genius of the Musician submits the entire Universe to his Art. He paints every portrait by Sounds; he makes silence itself speak; he renders ideas by feelings, feelings by accents; and the passions he expresses, he arouses them in the bottom of hearts.

--Rousseau

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In the famous Preliminary Discourse Jean le Rond d'Alembert proposed a hierarchy of the arts based on the imitation of that which "we receive through our senses":

"Painting and Sculpture ought to be placed at the head of that knowledge which consists of imitation, because it is in those arts above all that imitation best approximates the objects represented and speaks most directly to the senses. Architecture, that art which is born of necessity and perfected by luxury, can be added to those two. Having developed by degrees from cottages to palaces, in the eyes of the philosopher it is simply the embellished mask, so to speak, of one of our greatest needs. The imitation of la belle Nature in Architecture is less striking and more restricted than in Painting or Sculpture. The latter express all the parts of la belle Nature indifferently and without restriction, portraying it as it is, uniform or varied; while Architecture, combining and uniting the different bodies it uses, is confined to imitating the symmetrical arrangement that Nature observes more or less obviously in each individual thing, and that contrasts so well with the beautiful variety of all taken together.
Poetry, which comes after Painting and Sculpture, and which imitates merely by means of words disposed according to a harmony agreeable to the ear, speaks to the imagination rather than to the senses. In a touching and vivid manner it represents to the imagination the objects which make up this universe. By the warmth, the movement, and the life which it is capable of giving, it seems rather to create than to portray them. Finally, music, which speaks simultaneously to the imagination and to the senses, holds the last place in the order of imitation."[1]

Christopher Kelly argues in The Legacy of Rousseau (1997) that Jean-Jacques Rousseau reversed the hierarchy of the arts proposed by Jean le Rond d'Alembert by arguing "that appeal to the imagination rather than to the senses is what makes art genuinely imitative." He distinguishes between "natural music" which is nothing but music and "imitative music" which "expresses sentiments" or "forms images." [2]

In a telling episode in Essai sur l'origine des langues on the role of the composer, Rousseau notes:

"Not only will he agitate the sea at his pleasure, excite the flames of a conflagration, bring down showers, and increase the violence of torrents, but he will augment the horror of a dreadful desert, darken the walls of a subterraneous prison, calm the tempest, restore tranquillity to the air and serenity to the sky, and will spread new freshness over the words, by the power of his orchestra." --The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review
"Non-seulement il agitera la mer, animera la flamme d'un incendie, fera couler les ruisseaux, tomber la pluie, grossir les torrens; mais il peindra l'horreur d'un désert affreux, rembrunira les murs d'une prison souterreine, calmera la tempête, rendra l'air tranquille & serein, & répandra de l'orchestre une fraîcheur nouvelle sur les boccages. Il ne représentera pas directement ces choses, mais il excitera dans l'ame les mêmes mouvemens qu'on éprouva en les voyant."[3]

See also




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