Understanding Value

When Immanuel Kant argued that music on its own was trivial, lacked moral purpose and its only value was to accompany dance or song, the ancient philosophers must have been turning in their graves.

Plato believed music to be critical in forming the “whole” person—the emotional, moral and intellectual soul of the person. In his words, musical harmonies “find their way into the inward places of the soul…imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated, graceful.” Pythagoras maintained that music expressed the harmonies that existed between the heavenly spheres and brought about spiritual balance. Such importance was attributed to the music during ancient times, so what happened in the Age of Enlightenment? Surely the great works of Mozart would have been enough to demonstrate the intrinsic value of instrumental music.

Critics would later say that music communicated emotions, attitudes and even a deeper understanding of the world. Others claimed its beauty and meaning came from musical form and design. Even a distinction between ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ music was made to determine value.

Hanslick and Wagner engaged in an outright war, contradicting each other on what is the innate value of music. But who’s to say either of them was wrong? What a piece of music says to one person may not be the same for another. It is deeply personal.

For me, music is about performing Shostakovich for my first piano recital. It’s my little brother belting out opera, Queen of the Night staccatos in the shower. It’s nailing a violin passage after practicing for the umpteenth time and a feeling of possibility on my way to Tanglewood. It’s closing my eyes to the hum of the singing bowls and tapping my foot to the bossa rhythm from my father’s playlist. I believe moments like these make music truly valuable.