Refleksje nad wymiarem głębi w muzyce
Thoughts on the Dimensions of Depth in Music

Summary/Abstract: For many, music is an ethereal and nonmaterial art; in contrast to language, it carries no meaning that could be expressed in words. I disagree: music is a humanist art with its own emotional and, more often than not, a spiritual dimension. This becomes quite clear when one listens to the musical dramas by Richard Wagner, to the symphonies by Anton Bruckner and by Gustav Mahler, or to some works by Ludwig van Beethoven. By the spiritual dimension of depth I understand spiritual, ideological and intellectual content; and the concepts of content and expression overlap in some way. Expression is a musical category of particular import. Gustav Mahler was of the opinion that music expresses the entirety of man, and thus man’s thoughts, pain (etc.). The so-called great music in fact relates to man’s entirety – to man’s ear, impression, intellect. There is no longer any doubt now that music exhibits affinities with language. It is no coincidence that it was described as “the language of tones” in the Baroque. Rhetorical rules play a significant part in music. They act as carriers of extramusical meaning; this function was taken over by leitmotifs and characteristic motifs in the 19 th century. Thanks to this, music significantly acquires its own semantics and psychology. It becomes a medium that can express thoughts and ideas both philosophical (opinions) and religious as well as emotions. Time after time, it is said that listening to music consists in discovering its formal structures and strategies. Yet conscious perception of tone-painting, dynamic processes, musical characters and nuances of expression is equally important. It seems that even more significant are attempts to discover the intent of the composer. To achieve this, however, one requires a thorough knowledge of the composer’s musical and symbolic language; such a knowledge only comes with patient and repeated listening. The above theses will be illustrated by examples of plainsong, Gustav Mahler’s symbolic language and the music of Alban Berg.

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