Essay: Music As A Beautiful Art

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‘Music as a Beautiful Art' - again, this is a title designed to provoke critical reflection along the following lines - what makes Music beautiful? Is beauty always in the eye of the beholder? Or, are there objective criteria of beauty? Is beauty a pre-requisite of art? Can 'ugly' music be art, can the 'ugly' be beautiful? Are questions of form and structure intrinsic to definitions of art and beauty?

In this essay, I intend to delve into the genre of Impressionist music and it’s link to my favourite period of art, Impressionism. As a student of both Music and Art History, I myself have seen the links between both impressionist music and impressionist art whilst studying both subjects. I have picked impressionist music and art as I consider impressionist music …show more content…

This is the third movement of the famous Suite Bergamesque, 1890. The text of Clair De Lune or moonlight, was written by impressionist poet, Paul Verlaine in 1869. The text referes to a bergamasque dance (“performed as a circle courtship dance for couples: men circled forward and women backward until the melody changed; partners then embraced, turned a few steps, and began again”) . This is just another example of how Impressionist arts come together just like Mallarme and Debussy before. Gustave Cailbotte’s Paris Street: Rainy Day, 1877 is a piece of art I personally associate with Clair De Lune as the gentle movement of the quavers in piano in the introduction remind me of the soft rain falling on this contemporary Parisien scene. Cailbotte has created a scene of modern, contemporary life in Paris with it’s wide boulevards, high-rise apartment blocks in the background and the bourgeoisie walking the streets convey just that. Clair De Lune represents modern life through Debussy’s revolutionary use of augmented chords and strong use of rubato creating a relaxed and mellow atmosphere, just like the muted greys and blues we see in Cailbotte’s

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