Musical aesthetics
Philosophical study of musical beauty, distinct from music theory and acoustics.
What it means
Musical aesthetics is the philosophical study of musical beauty. It asks what music expresses, why it has an effect, where its value lies and how it should be judged. It is a branch of philosophy and musicology and works not with rules of composition but with concepts such as expression, form, beauty and meaning.
Musical use
The history of musical aesthetics runs from the ancient doctrine of numerical ratios through the baroque doctrine of the affections to the debates of the 19th century. In Vom Musikalisch-Schönen (1854), Eduard Hanslick argued that the content of music is "tonally moving forms" and not feelings; opposed to this was the aesthetics of expression and program music of the New German School around Liszt and Wagner. In the 20th century the discussion was continued by Theodor W. Adorno and Carl Dahlhaus, among others.
Musical aesthetics should be distinguished from music theory, which describes rules and structures, from acoustics, which studies sound as a physical phenomenon, and from music psychology, which researches perception and effect empirically.
Performance practice
When you prepare a work, ask yourself not only how it is built but also what it wants to express and how you can make this audible. Aesthetic questions help you to justify decisions about tempo, sound and phrasing.