The Spiritual Meaning Of Ethic In Music From Late 19^th Century To Early 20^th Century

If we examine music from an ethical point of view, that is, making an ethical analysis of the creation, style, and content of music, we will look into the impact of music on man's spirit, mood, and autonomy. At the turn of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century, the West witnessed a significant turning in musical ethical values and culture as weli as in its culture. Traditional western ethical values were alienated in the industrialization and revolution process and they showed a strong tendency to rebel traditions, which accordingly helped the art of music turn a new leaf of its history. Scholars specializing in cultural research tend to regard the turning point of a century as a special period of crisis, holding that it is most remarkably reflected in the ethical crisis at the turn of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century. The ethical crisis started from Wagner and lasted through Mabler, Strauss, etc. and their musical works, with the result that western musical style was greatly influenced by the ethical thoughts at the end of the century and showed a tendency to fall into aestheticism and pessimism. Meanwhile, western music took on a strong color of modernity, whose connection to the ethical crisis formed the most remarkable feature of western music at the turn of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century.There appeared a comprehensive transformation in the West ever since the second half of the nineteenth century, which is not only reflected external institutional arrangement, but also reflected in man's spiritual world. The transformation in ethical standards found its expressions in the emancipation of independent individuals from communities, which showed itself as a kind of shift in artistic value and a reconstruction of musical form. The creational style of musicians were influenced by the irrationally orientation of ethics. They tried to express their ethical thoughts in their option of musical subject matter and content and experimented in their construction of musical laws. The change did not stop until the outbreak of the First World War in the twentieth century. The alienated and reconstructed music replaced traditional musical aesthetic standards, shook the formal structure of western music that had lasted hundreds of years and brought about a brand new style for western music.This thesis consists of an introduction, four chapters, and a conclusion. The introduction offers a literature survey and a disclosure of the significance of our research work. In Chapter One an examination is made of the musical view of western post-romanticism happening before the transformation of musical ethical thoughts at the turn of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century. Chapter Two provides an analysis of the ethical thoughts of such western musicians as Wagner, Mabler, etc. In Chapter Three is intended to display the ethical thoughts marked by the feature of modernity of early twentieth century. Expressionist music is taken as an example in Chapter Four to show the ethical orientation of expressionist music. Our conclusion is a summary of our present research, which suggests that the unity of ethics and music is necessary and significant in exploring the development of ethical thoughts and music.