The Study Of Kierkegaard's Musical Aesthetics Conception

S?ren Aabye Kierkegaard?1813-1855?was a Danish theologian,philosopher,aesthetician,and poet.The topic of this dissertation is focused on Kierkegaard's ideology of musical aesthetics.By thoroughly studying his publications on music,firstly I will reveal how Kierkegaard applied a descriptive and poetic language to the definition and explanation of abstract aesthetic concepts in arts regarding subject matter and classic,form and content,idea and media,music and language,etc.Secondly,I will disclose the distinguishedness of Kierkegaard's ideology of musical aesthetics by comparing it with those of mainstream musicologists in western countries from different perspectives.Lastly,through summarizing reflections from western musicologists on Kierkegaard's ideology,I will further underscore the significant influence of his thoughts both in history and in contemporary research.The book Either/or is one of Kierkegaard's most influential works.This thesis will explore such a masterpiece from several aspects including characteristics,logic,structure,thought,content,theme and method.In the chapter titled“The Immediate Stages of the Erotic or the Musical-Erotic”,Kierkegaard takes on a pseudonym of the unnamed aesthete“A”,proposes a well-structured and comprehensive romantic music conception and applies it to the analysis of Mozart's Don Giovanni.However,as far as I am concerned,“A”s suspiciously incomplete and arbitrary idea?the sensuous-erotic in its immediacy can be represented artistically only in music?,together with his questionable interpretations of Mozart's work in this essay is thought-provoking.They might as well be ironic remarks on the romantic music theory welcomed by his contemporary musicologists in the19^th century.Following such a lead,a novel theory on Kierkegaard's ideology of musical aesthetics is proposed in this dissertation.Through a comprehensive and detailed analysis of his famous theories on three spheres of existence,indirect communication,pseudonyms,irony,etc.,this dissertation,for the first time,reveals Kierkegaard's convincing and plausible thoughts hidden beneath his irony.Specifically,this dissertation consists of five chapters.The first two chapters cover the origin of Kierkegaard's ideology and associated conceptual discrimination.Because of a poetic and fragmental language,it poses challenges for readers to grasp and organize his systematical thoughts on music hidden in such a loose and bizarre piece of work.As a result,it is indispensable to introduce the key concepts and terminologies to the readers.In Chapter 1,I briefly introduce the life of Kierkegaard,a19^th extraordinary philosopher yet a hard-to-evaluate ideologist in the field of musical aesthetics,giving an overview of the origin of Kierkegaard's ideology and associated research in musicology.In Chapter 2,the five realms covered in Kierkegaard's ideology and their connections are explained,i.e.,poem,existential philosophy,aesthetic view of existence theory,style of work,and indirect communication.Chapters 3 and 4 are the core parts of this dissertation.With the preparation of the first two chapters,Chapter 3 reviews Kierkegaard's opinions regarding fundamental problems in musical aesthetics from different aspects including the subject matter and classic,form and content,thought and media,music and language.Meanwhile,I will summarize Kierkegaard's visionary thoughts and reveal that the unreliable narrative from“A”,one of his several pseudonyms,regarding a unique“romantic music conception”is not Kierkegaard's true ideology of musical aesthetics at all.In Chapter 4,I will first put narrator“A”'s perspective in a historical context in 19^th century filled with romanticism,and will reflect on associated romantic music conception from a historical view of musical culture.Second,the assumption is made that the intentional misinterpretation of“A”on Mozart's Don Giovanni is just a common opinion in the social environment filled with romantic music and aesthetic ideology,i.e.,the narrative of“A”is actually quite welcomed by romantic musicologists in the 19^th century.Later,I will provide a detailed analysis and review on such a misinterpretation,and will capture the ideological connections hidden in such fallacious arguments.Last,through contradiction,a plausible path will be paved to analyze Kierkegaard's ideology of musical aestheticsBased on both the theoretical and the practical work shown in the first four chapters,Chapter 5 is dedicated to the evaluation of Kierkegaard's lifetime accomplishments in academia from the perspectives of both historical influence and modern inspiration.Such an assessment will be focused on the realms of philosophy,aesthetics,literary criticism and musical semiotics.The final conclusion will summarize the main problems this dissertation tries to resolve,the final conclusions,my original contributions,and will provide a conclusive assessment on Kierkegaard's ideology overall.The core conclusion of this dissertation is:“The Immediate Stages of the Erotic or the Musical-Erotic”is a product based on the background of 19^th century romantic ideological.It is an ironic practice carried out by Kierkegaard with the name of“A”,aiming to criticize the romantic conception of the same period.Therefore,in the field of Kierkegaard's musical aesthetics,in addition to the sensuous-erotic,music can be a proper medium for expressing the immediacy of religious passion.In light of Kierkegaard's general ideology,specific historical context,and modern research on musicology,I think Kierkegaard was always trying to convey his thoughts as a contemporary.His insightful reflections,unique language styles,acute and visionary thoughts on many fundamental problems faced in musical aesthetics not only revolutionize the field of aesthetics itself,becoming a pioneer in blueprinting the future directions of traditional aesthetics,but also cast an immense influence on other fields.Generally speaking,Kierkegaard's ideology is open,inclusive,critical,practical,and full of contradiction.However,I think his true thoughts were concealed by pseudonyms and irony in his indirect communication,leading to misunderstandings in academia that last for over a century.In summary,this dissertation covers various fields,including philosophy,aesthetics,psychology,hermeneutics,musical analysis and musical semiotics.In addition,the associated research incorporates discrimination of concepts,analyses of music works,derivation of theories and applications to practice.