In this week of class we reviewed and helped
to define the "aesthetic experience" and not only why it's important
in music but also how we as music educators can go about teaching it.
Your thoughts are probably the same as mine; this was quite a topic to cover in
just one week of class! As ominous as it may have appeared at first, it
wound up being (once again) quite interesting. The way this class delves
into philosophical points that music educators are contending with on a regular
basis is quite interesting.
One of the first assignments for this week is
to self-reflect on an aesthetic experience that I have had recently.
Something that met the following criteria: the event had little or no practical
purpose, and that it and similar experiences have provided something better and
different from ordinary living. In addition, I am required to tell you:
how it made me feel, as best that can be described in words, what I thought
about at the time, and maybe afterwards as well, and what I focused my
attention on during the experience.
After spending some time trying to sift through
my recent memories for an event that did not meet all the cliché type responses
that could be considered obvious like deaths of friends/family, joyous
experiences such as a recent promotion, and the most obvious event of them all;
moving experiences during musical performances, I settled on an event that
I believe is sufficient to describe to you. A few months ago, I picked up
and read the book A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson,
though his job functioned more as a ghost writer). This was the
fourteenth and FINAL volume of the epic fantasy series by Robert Jordan, The
Wheel of Time. I started on this series when I was younger, more than a
decade ago, and more than two decades later, the final volume was finally
published. Before I even began, the anticipation of this event was
monumental for me, which bears great similarities to art music as described in
our text, in which one of the great functions of music is described to be
helping to teach individuals to delay instant gratification, an experience that
is both more fulfilling than instant gratification and is uniquely human in
that we as a species do not need to lower ourselves toward operating as
purely animals that cannot use complex thought and do not ever deny themselves
of taking what they want immediately (Abeles Hoffer, & Klotman,
1995). For years I waited as the story developed, evolved, and eventually
was completed, but not without many pauses that included: not having the funds
to buy the next book in the series right away, not having time to read the book
I was currently on do to many of life's interruptions, and the most unnerving
predicament of them all; the death of the author himself! Years later it
was revealed that Jordan had divulged all the details of the remains of this
epic to his wife and brother, who both had copious amounts of notes written and
dictated. What followed was the hiring of Sanderson, to complete the
series with a trilogy written by his hand in the style (as closely as possible)
of Jordan's.
Needless to say, I was antsy and filled with
excitement and trepidation as I began the journey of reading the last title of
this series. Excitement because I would finally know how it all ends, and
trepidation for I was worried both for it to end, if it would live up to
expectation, if Sanderson would do a decent job, and also to a somewhat lessor
degree I was concerned for the outcomes of the characters themselves. I
became so involved in the reading that I finished 909 pages in mere days.
Though this would seem to contradict my earlier statement of delaying
gratification, I think in this case it still is a valid point because I did not
purchase the book right away, nor did I begin reading the book right away
either once I had it in hand. I waited until an opportune moment to
finish this literary journey. I read and read, and was filled with a myriad
of emotions as I flipped pages immersing myself in the story from joy to
despair, confusion to clarity, all the while being filled with the sense of
nervous anticipation until I reached the end. I felt what the characters
felt, and was with them until it was over. Did it all turned out how I
expected and hoped? Yes and no. The feelings I was flooded with
initially at the end were of disbelief that it was over and emptiness from the
same, knowing there would be no more of this great series. To a lessor
degree I felt accomplishment at reaching that moment, but it was a bittersweet
accomplishment. My eyes teared up both during and after, for all these
reasons and more, and it was quite a few days until I felt normal again,
especially each time I saw the book resting on my bookshelf.
This by no means helped me in any practical
way, except to serve as an escape from reality for me and to serve as
entertainment. This was entertainment with value though. It
did not help me become a better person, or be more productive at work or with
social interactions with family and friends. I did not learn anything
enduring or anything that changed my life. Regardless of this, my life
feels more complete having made the journey, and I look forward to more
experiences like this in the future.
This is how I know I agree that
"aesthetic experiences" help us to connect with our humanity, by
connecting us with feeling. Feelings make us more than
animals. Coupled with our capacity for more complex thought and delaying
gratification, it is important for us all to experience our humanity
individually through aesthetic experiences, otherwise risk becoming something
that is not complete and consummated.
References
Abeles, H., Hoffer, C., and Klotman, R. (1995) Foundations of Music Education (2nd Ed.). Belmont, CA: Schirmer Cemgage Learning.
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