Continuitate sau incompatibilitate? Un studiu comparativ între teoriile estetice ale lui Sámuel Brassai și István Angi
Continuity or incompatibility? A comparative study between the aesthetic theories of Sámuel Brassai and István Angi

Summary/Abstract: Sámuel Brassai (1797-1897) was a Transylvanian polymath whose first essays on aesthetics were published in 1832 in the weekly Nemzeti Társalkodó from Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca). As an active chamber music instrumentalist, music critic, and encyclopedic thinker, Brassai supported his aesthetic hypotheses with the help of music, visual arts, and literature. Although there are only a few publications on aesthetics in his work, it is essential to know them, as they certainly influenced his work as a music critic. A century later, István Angi (1933-2020), the founder of the Cluj school of musical aesthetics, published a first theory of his grotesque-transcendental axis system in 1970 in the magazine Utunk. As a professor at the Cluj-Napoca Conservatory of Music, he presented his aesthetic system in a two-volume course entitled Lectures on Musical Aesthetics (2004), and he was also the author of numerous volumes and articles in Romanian and Hungarian. The article will present the viewpoints of these two exceptional and beloved scholars of Cluj, highlighting their philosophical roots and the directions of their ideas, their attitude towards beauty in aesthetics, as well as their interpretations of the relationship between reality and ideal. In light of these considerations, I try to answer whether Brassai's assumptions, questions, and concepts find continuity in István Angi's aesthetic system theory.

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