A Study Of Rousseau's Musical Aesthetics Ideas Based On Humanism

This article focuses on the music thoughts of Rousseau who was a French thinker of the 18 th century,and investigates the musical art in his “Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts”,“Essay on the Origin of Languages: In Which Melody and Musical Imitation Are Treated”,“Dictionnaire de Musique” and “Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men” to reveal Rousseau's music ideas,then explores the impact of humanism on his music ideas.Through a study of Rousseau's thoughts,this paper focuses on the humanistic understanding of Rousseau on the essential significance of the music,the influence of the effects of source music understanding and music performance characteristics,so as to express the era significance of Rousseau's music thoughts.According to Rousseau's works and publication time,this thesis sums up Rousseau's main theory into the following lines: First,Rousseau proposed that the development of civilization led to the issue of “alienation of human nature” in “Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts”;Second,Rousseau presented the emergence and development of inequality in“Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men”;Third,Rousseau expressed the yearning and pursuit of true nature through a love story of the feudal society in “The New Heloise”;Fourth,Rousseau put forward the democratic though in “The Social Contract,Or Principles of Political Right”;At last,Rousseau presented that education should follow the laws of nature in “Emile”.We learned about the background of Rousseau's humanistic though through his works,and then realize Rousseau's ideas and thoughts regarding human nature,human emotions and human life environment.Moreover,Rousseau's aesthetic reflections related to nature,emotion and freedom has aesthetic significance.Thus,this thesis delves into Rousseau's views as well as his central ideas by studying the works in the above mentioned line,to analyze and dissect the ideology of music aesthetics in his humanism,which contributes to learn and understand Rousseau's musical aesthetics thought.