The Search for Abilities and Characteristics Which Produce Expression of Quality
Authors: Rimas Juozas , Rimas Jr Juozas 
Published: September 2024

AbstractA series of sub-chapters summarising the subjective abilities necessary for expression in music: 3.1. A Musical Ear. “Inner hearing” vs. acoustic hearing; perfect pitch. Hearing and understanding (G. Colombero, B. Asaf’ev; C.P.E. Bach, R. Schumann). 3.2. Sound Creation. The method developed by C. Martienssen. “Wunderkind complex”. The author’s recording of the Andante from the Cassation in B flat major (KV 63a) by the 13-year-old W. A. Mozart. Six elements of sound creation: pitch volition (Tonwille); timbre volition (Klangwille) (cf. A. Losev: “the otherness of tone“); line volition (Linienwille) (cf. B. Asaf’ev: “melos“); rhythm volition (Rhythmuswille); form volition (Gestaltwille); forming volition (Gestaltungswille). 3.3. The Psychology of Tone. Physical sound vs. musical tone (G. Hegel, E. Kurth; B. Asaf’ev, Y. Nezaykinskiy; G. Scelsi). 3.4. Modulation. Not only as a change of tonality (Aristoxenus, St. Augustine, Heraclitus, the Venerable Bede; A. Šliogeris; B. Asaf’ev). The beauty of music is revealed through the modulations of sound dictated by intonation. 3.5. Intuition. Intuitivist philosophy of art (H. Bergson; A. Andrijauskas). Intuition as cognition which is unconsciously realised (K. Wojtyla). Intuitive vs. mental cognition. Listening to music is important for the development of intuition, like learning a language which requires one to hear it and accumulate (intonational) vocabulary. 3.6. Becoming. The interpreter must release the potential of the being of the work. Becoming is the basis of temporal art, such as music (A. Losev). Transformation of the visual form of the work into its actualisation in sound through intonation (H. Gadamer: Verwandlung; E. Husserl; H. Bergson; Vydūnas, A. Mickevičius, A. Sverdiolas, A. Šliogeris; S. Kowalczyk). 3.7. Imagination. Creative and recreative imagination. Relation of imagination to expression and understanding (L. Wittgenstein, R. Barthes, A. Schopenhauer). Idea and imagination (I. Kant, J. Maritain, F. Schiller; G. Colombero, G. Gachev, V. Nalimov). The goal in musical performance is beauty, while the means is the education of the imagination (V. Daujotytė). 3.8. Intentionality. Intention and intonation (E. Husserl; J. Stolnitz, R. May). Intentionality as a feature of aesthetic experience, with three phases: aesthetic attitude (introductory emotion), aesthetic process and contemplation. 3.9. Emotions. The psychological truth of the fact in artistic consciousness. What you feel is the precursor to understanding it (Aristotle; E. B. de Condillac, R. Wagner). Art as organised emotion attached to experience. Music as a tonal analogue of emotive life (S. Langer). Emotions and feelings. Three kinds of feelings: intellectual, aesthetic and moral (cf. kalokagathia). Music as the art of emotional intelligence (“sensuous showing of the idea”—G. Hegel; art as a central emotion—L. Vygotsky). Action and emotions (K. Wojtyla). Importance of emotions in author’s recordings of the Lithuanian folk song Tu, paukštuke (“You little bird”) and the music for the drama Caligula (J. Andrejevas). Emotions and values. Intuition of duration and vital impetus (élan vital) (H. Bergson; Ž. Jackūnas, A. Andrijauskas). 3.10. Spirituality. One of the qualities which condition the sense of meaning. Cultural activity as the decoding of the spirit (idea) of the work (P. Mantvydas, J. Kubilius, B. Bitinas). Spirituality and technology (G. Steiner: the fatality of technicity lies in the broken links between techne and poiesis). Inner beauty (W. Kandinsky). Expression influenced by the idea: Syrinx by C. Debussy, with the author as oboe soloist. 3.11. Intonation. The understanding of intonation as the grasp of the work’s idea. It is not the tone that makes music, but music that makes the tone. The work has potential intonational meaning. Actualising of the potentiality depends upon the interpreter. Form as a process and as a scheme (B. Asaf’ev). Structure and form (J. Cage). The freedom of interpretation (freedom as the recognition of necessity—G. Hegel; the artist loves their limitations—G. K. Chesterton). Phonetic and syntactical intonation. Intonation vs. form, tone, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, timbre and articulation. 3.12. Values. Value orientation does not exist within the subject in itself (V. Sesemann): a person is “the measure of all things” (Protagoras). The music of every nation does not lose its distinctive characteristics (M. K. Čiurlionis); the author’s recording of a work by R. Šerkšnytė, inspired by The Little Prince of A. de Saint-Exupéry, which is nevertheless imbued with Lithuanian lyricism. Interpretation presupposes a degree of understanding (“thought was supposed to rule over action”—H. Arendt). Discontent with one’s present self is the first step towards values (T. Sodeika, N. Hartmann). Consciousness, by relating to values, becomes cultural (M. Bakhtin). Avoidance of a hedonistic approach to values (“organic mendacity”—M. Scheler; B. de Spinoza; Ž. Jackūnas). The value of the aesthetic (N. Hartmann; Plato, G. Hegel). Values are the basis of meaningful expression.