Alexander S. Klujev
Alexander
S. Klujev
Doctor Habil. in Philosophy, Full Professor
of the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia;
Leading Researcher at the
Russian Institute of Art History.
RUSSIAN
PHILOSOPHERS ABOUT MUSIC
Abstract
The
article examines the dynamics of Russian philosophers’ ideas about music. In
this regard, the status of Russian philosophy and its distinctive face are
being clarified. Russian philosophy is shown to be based on Byzantine
philosophical and mystical traditions, but at the same time embodies the basic
tenet of Russian culture (Russianness): the affirmation of spirituality as a
moral achievement – serving creation and resisting
destruction (annihilation). Russian
philosophy phenomenon is defined in accordance with the stated attitude of
Russian culture. It is argued that Russian philosophy is the solution to the
moral problem of victory over death. Russian philosophers study the
peculiarities of the development of the interpretation of music by Russian
philosophers in the context of this understanding of Russian philosophy. It is
stated that during the development of this interpretation, music was
increasingly recognized by Russian philosophers as the most powerful means of
defeating death, moreover, as evidence of the possibility of victory over
death.
Keywords: Russian philosophy, music, spirituality, man, world, God.
What is Russian philosophy?
The
question of Russian philosophy is not an easy one. Let us try to figure it out.
Initially,
it is significant to say that Russian philosophy is inextricably linked with
Orthodoxy. Russian philosophers constantly emphasized this connection. Let us
at least refer to the statement of V.V. Zenkovsky: “Russian thought has always
(and forever) remained connected with its religious element, with its
religious soil; here was and remains the main root of the originality…
of Russian philosophical thought” [30, p. 18].
Today,
in Russian philosophical literature, there is a clear idea that the connection
of Russian philosophy with Orthodoxy (“with its religious element”) does
not indicate its originality: Russian philosophy is permanently connected with
Western philosophy, and is a stage of its development (1). On what basis is
this point of view put forward?
Authors
who adhere to this approach believe that Russian philosophy interacts not with
canonical, strict Orthodoxy but with its innermost deep core, which is Gnosticism.
For example, as I.I. Evlampiev stated, “the constant attraction of Russian philosophy
and all Russian culture to the Gnostic worldview does not raise any doubts.
This fact has not received due recognition in the literature for a long time
only due to the established tendency characteristic of church and
Orthodox-oriented authors” [3, p. 9].
Such
scientists believe that the Gnostic mentality was intensively strengthened in
the West, starting from the late Middle Ages: Bernard of Clairvaux, Meister
(Johann) Eckhart, etc., and hence, Russian philosophy is connected with Western
philosophy. But what is Gnosticism?
Gnosticism
is a complex and not fully defined phenomenon. According to the German-American
philosopher Hans Jonas, an authority in this field, “we can speak of Gnostic
schools, sects and cults, Gnostic works and teachings, Gnostic myths and
speculations, and even of Gnostic religion” [7, pp. 47-48]. Jonas concludes
that Gnosticism is a kind of fusion of Hellenistic philosophy and Eastern
sources while noting that “in general, …the thesis about the Eastern (Oriental)
origin of Gnosticism has an advantage over… that is Hellenic” [7, p. 49].
Thus,
Gnosticism is respectively a mysticism that came from the East. What is
mysticism?
Mysticism
is a set of ideas about the direct connection of a person with sacred
principles [21]. Such a connection provides a person with a breakthrough from
the earthly, corruptible world into the Divine, imperishable world and thereby
deliverance from the earthly world, a way out of it.
Mysticism
underlies all religions (famous researchers of mysticism point out this in
their works: E. Underhill, R. Otto, S. Katz, K. Schmidt and others), but
especially Orthodoxy as the Eastern Church. Moreover, in Orthodoxy, mysticism
essentially merges with canonical theology.
So,
according to V.N. Lossky, “Eastern tradition has never made a sharp distinction
between mysticism and theology, between… the experience of knowing the Divine
mysteries and the dogmas approved by the Church” [20, p. 208].
In
Orthodoxy, hesychasm primarily represents mysticism.
The
birthplace of hesychasm is Byzantium. The most famous Byzantine Hesychasts are
Sts. Macarius of Egypt, Diadochos of Photicus, Gregory of Sinaite, Isaac the
Syrian, Gregory Palamas. Based on Byzantine hesychasm, hesychasm began to
develop in Russia. Therefore, V.N. Lossky’s statement is absolutely correct
that “Russian Christianity is of Byzantine origin” and has with it the
homogeneous character of “spiritual nepotism” [20, pp. 214, 215].
The
basis of hesychasm is the ascetic practice of internal (silent) prayer,
called Jesus’ or Mind’ prayer.
Prayer
is aimed at obtaining, storing and transmitting the experience of a Christian’s
unity with God. Such unity is deification, the acquisition of the Holy Spirit,
carried out by God’s Grace. It is a gift from God.
The
unity of a Christian with God is the unity of the energies of the whole (“the
whole”, in the terminology of the Hesychasts) – bodily-soulful-spiritual – man
and the energies of God, which appears as an increase in human energies carried
out by God’s Grace in the sequence: bodily – soulful – spiritual.
At
the same time, according to the testimony of Gregory Palamas, the energies of
God surpass all human energies, “not only because
He is their cause, but also because what is received always turns out to be
only an insignificant share of His gift” [5, p. 309].
The interaction of human energies and the energies of
God is called synergy. Synergy ensures that a person can overcome the hardships of earthly life and even
death itself. Such overcoming is salvation. (“Salvation” is a concept, i.e., extremely important
in Orthodoxy. In fact, the entire life of an Orthodox person is work that, by
God’s Grace, can lead a person to salvation. And this work, as it was wisely
noted, consists of “transformation of the heart” [Macarius of Egypt].)
Hesychasm is determined in Russian philosophy its pronounced anthropologism,
metaanthropologism. S.S. Khoruzhy indicates this.
Having
a very close connection with the Byzantine mystical-philosophical tradition,
primarily through hesychasm, Russian philosophy constantly strived for
self-determination in it, finding its own face in it – not by excluding
Byzantineism, but by mastering it and transforming it.
And
this face, its “I” of Russian philosophy was predetermined by the peculiarity
of Russian culture (essentially, Russianness), which astutely wrote about. G.V.
Florovsky.
According
to Florovsky, Russian culture (Russianness) contains two cultures, as if
located on two floors. On the lower floor, there is a culture coming from paganism.
Florovsky calls it “night” culture. On the top floor is the culture coming from
Christianity (Orthodoxy), designated by the scientist as “daytime”
culture. According to Florovsky, “‘night’ culture is an area of dreaming and
imagination”, it manifests itself “in the insufficient ‘spirituality’ of the
soul, in excessive ‘soulfulness’ or ‘poetry.’ “‘Daily’ culture (is. – A.K.)
a culture of spirit and mind”. When we talk about “daytime” culture, “we are
talking about spiritual sublimation and transformation of the soulfulness into
the spiritual” [4, pp. 15-16].
The
first is finding oneself at the level of “night” culture: soulfulness, and the
second – at the level of “day” culture: spirituality. At the same time, it is
significant to remember that spirituality has been understood in Rus’ since
ancient times as a moral feat: service to creation and resistance to
destruction (annihilation) [6].
And
now, considering all of the above, you can try to answer the question: “What is
Russian philosophy?”
It
seems that in the most generalized, summary form, the answer to this question
will look like this: Russian philosophy is the solution to the moral problem
of victory over death. L.V. Karasev very accurately writes about this:
“There is no problem for Russia; there is a problem of overcoming death” [8, p.
104] (2).
Finding
the sense of music
Music
has always attracted Russian philosophers. To be convinced of this, it is
necessary to first clarify from what time Russian philosophy dates back, i.e.,
when it first felt itself at the level of “night” culture. Here the view on
Russian philosophy history, proposed by V.V. Zenkovsky, is very helpful.
Zenkovsky
notes that in the history of Russian philosophy, there was a prologue (the
philosopher calls it “the threshold of philosophy”). We believe that in this
prologue, Russian philosophy first felt itself.
The
philosopher divides the prologue into two periods: 1) until the 18th century and 2) 18th century. Let us consider these
periods.
Until
the 18th century
At
this time, thinkers were already appearing – theologians, church leaders,
saints, raising philosophical questions. Among such thinkers, we should name
Clement (Clim) Smolyatich, Kirik of Novgorod, Cyril of Turov, but especially
the saint, monk Nil Sorsky.
Nil
Sorsky was a follower and successor of the Byzantine Hesychasts. Thus, he talks
about the state of internal prayer, leading to a kind of enlightenment, in
which “there is relief in the struggle and calmness of thoughts, and the mind,
as if with abundant food, is saturated with prayer and has fun, and a certain
inexpressible sweetness emanates from the heart, and spreads to the whole body,
and in all members the disease turns into sweetness… Then a person is in joy…”
[22, p. 170].
Being
associated with the Byzantine Hesychasts, Nil Sorsky shows a certain
independence in his approach to their heritage. So, e.g., in the description of
the Jesus prayer, Neil adds two new points: consolation and tears.
Nil Sorsky has wonderful thoughts about music, or more precisely, about church
singing, the basis of which was the znamenny chant (znamenny raspev).
(Znamenny
chant is a type of ancient Russian liturgical singing. The peculiarities of
this singing were that, firstly, when singing, the main thing was the
pronunciation of words, which were the words of the Jesus Prayer, and,
secondly, the singing was performed in unison – monophonic: everyone sang
together, as one person. According to the explanation by B.P. Kutuzov,
“znamenny chant… is icon-painting music, it can say to be a sounding icon…
Znamenny chant is… prayer expressed in sounds… The task of znamenny chant (is.
– A.K.) cleansing the soul from passions, reflecting images of the
spiritual, invisible world” [19, p. 43].)
Focusing
on consolation and tears, the saint highlights the same moments in the impact
of liturgical singing. Nil Sorsky points out: “The gift of tears… acquired… who
from what: one – from considering the sacraments of the Lord’s love for mankind
(icon painting. – A.K.), the other – from reading stories about the
lives and exploits and teachings of saints (literature. – A.K.) … others
are distressed by some canons and troparions (singing genres. – A.K.)”
[22, p. 168].
18th century
In
the 18th century, as G.V. Florovsky emphasizes, churchless
asceticism is noticeably increasing, which was “the awakening of dreaminess and
imagination. (Some kind of. – A.K.) mystical curiosity develops” [4, p.
161].
This,
as Florovsky puts it, “‘languishing of the spirit,’ sometimes dreamy, sometimes
ecstatic” [4, p. 161] was reflected in the works of the clergy of this time,
first of all, St. Tikhon of Zadonsky and Paisiy Velichkovsky.
At
the same time, at this time in Russia (in Malorussia, which was then part of
the Russian state), an original thinker making his way to philosophy, Grigory
Savvich Skovoroda, powerfully declared himself.
Due
to this “touch” of philosophy, Grigory Skovoroda became the herald of Russian
philosophy (at the level of “night” culture).
According
to V.V. Zenkovsky, Skovoroda is “the first philosopher in Rus’ in the exact
sense of the word” [30, p. 65]. (At the same time, Zenkovsky makes an important
clarification, especially in the context of our reflections: “And if we bring
Skovoroda closer to the mystics, then not Western ones… but to the Eastern
ones” [30, p. 70].)
Skovoroda’s
philosophy is a motley mixture of Greek philosophy, biblical stories, Eastern
intuitions, folklore motifs, etc. However, despite all the motleyness, two
significant themes clearly emerge in it.
The
first is about two natures: external and internal, i.e., created and Divine.
As
Skovoroda writes, “The whole world consists of two natures: one is
visible, the other is invisible. The visible is called creature, and the
invisible is called God. This invisible nature, or God, permeates and
contains all creatures, everywhere and always was, is and will be” [24, p.
149].
The
second is about three natures: the macrocosm (Universe), the microcosm (man)
and the Bible.
According
to Skovoroda, all these natures are concentrated in man. Thus, Skovoroda
remarks: “And without measuring yourself first, what is the use of knowing the
measure in other creatures?” [24, p. 135]. Or: “Who can recognize the plan in
earthly and heavenly materials… if he could not first see it in… his flesh?”
[24, p. 135]. And again: “My body is based on the eternal plane… (You. – A.K.)
see only a bestial body in you. You do not see the spiritual body” [24, pp.
136-138].
In
his teaching about man, Skovoroda emphasizes the importance of the heart. He
assures: “The head of everything in a person is the human heart. It is the most
accurate person in a person”. And then a stunning conclusion: “What is the
heart if not the soul? What is the soul if not a bottomless abyss of thoughts?”
[24, p. 341].
Skovoroda
constantly pointed out the frailty of earthly life and the need to break out of
it. The Thinker urged: “Leave all this physical pus and bloodworms to the
stupid and snotty virgins. And eat with Ezekiel the fragrant unleavened bread
and the satisfying manna of God’s sacred Passover, moving from
earth to heaven, from tangible to intangible, from the lower, corruptible, into
the first-born world” [25, p. 52].
Skovoroda’s
statement about the unity of people, unity in the “true man” – in Christ, was
especially significant. Skovoroda writes: “One work… is to know oneself and
understand God, to know and understand the exact person, all the work and his
deception from his shadow, on which we all dwell. But true man and God are the
same” [24, p. 140]. “This is the true man, equal to his eternal father
in being and strength, one in all of us and whole in everyone, but his kingdom
has no end…” [24, p. 162].
Skovoroda
talks a lot about music. And this is no coincidence.
In
addition to possessing theological and philosophical talents, Skovoroda was
extremely gifted musically: he composed spiritual concerts and songs, played
numerous musical instruments, e.g., violin, flutetraver, bandura, and gusli,
and sang great.
In
his ideas about music, Skovoroda proceeded from the Pythagorean idea of the
existence of Heavenly music – Harmony of the spheres.
The
Harmony of the spheres, according to Skovoroda, is the embodiment of Cosmic
Harmony, which he called Symphony. The word “symphony” comes from the
Greek word “sinphonia” – consonance, and the word “sinphonia” is directly
related to the concept of “synergy”.
As
Skovoroda believes, Heavenly music (Harmony of the spheres) is God. Skovoroda
reflects: “Is it not God who contains everything? … He is the true tree in the
tree, grass in the grass, music in music” [24, p. 134]. “Every ear hears the
creaking of a musical instrument, but to feel the taste of the agreement hidden
in the creaking, the ear must have a secret concept, and the one deprived of
it... is dumb in music” [24, p. 362].
According
to Skovoroda, Heavenly music is most clearly manifested in music created by man
– instrumental and singing.
The
connection between Heavenly music and music created by man, in Skovoroda’s
understanding, is poetically presented in the description of his learner and
close friend Mikhail Kovalinsky: “Not content with conversation…, he invited
his friend (M. Kovalinsky. – A.K.) to take a walk in the summer late in
the evening outside the city and insensitively brought him to the city
cemetery. There, walking at midnight between the graves and the coffins torn
open by the wind on the sandy ground, he talked about the reckless fearfulness
of people aroused in their imagination by the deceased bodies. Sometimes he
sang something befitting good-naturedness there; sometimes, retiring to a
nearby grove, he played the flutetraver, leaving his young friend alone between
the coffins, supposedly so that it would be more pleasant for him to listen to
music from afar” [25, p. 393].
Let
us add that Skovoroda was deeply aware of the beneficial effects of music on
humans. Thus, through the mouth of a character in one of his dialogues, he
says: “Music is a great medicine in sorrow, consolation in sorrow and fun in
happiness” [25, p. 113].
19th century
The
19th century, according to Zenkovsky, is the beginning of the actual
history of Russian philosophy. And what’s interesting, according to Florovsky,
is the time of the Russian philosophy establishment as an original phenomenon
(at the level of “daytime” culture). It is no coincidence that Florovsky calls
this historical moment the “awakening” of Russian philosophy.
The
Russian philosophical thought “awakening” was prepared by the social situation
in Russia. It was a response to it.
At
this time, a large number of philosophical circles appeared in Russia. The most
famous of them was the “Obshchestvo lyubomudriya”. It included D.V.
Venevitinov, V.F. Odoevsky, I.V. Kireevsky, S.P. Shevyrev, A.I. Koshelev and others.
Apparently,
the most significant philosopher in this association was I.V. Kireevsky. The
pathos of Kireevsky’s philosophy lay in upholding the originality of Russian
philosophy – in comparison with Western philosophy. He saw this originality in
the Russian philosophy support of Russian philosophy on Sacred Tradition, the
Holy Father’s wisdom reflection and implementation in it.
Kireevsky
considered the central position of Russian philosophy to be the affirmation of
moral principles. His phrase from a letter to A.I. Koshelev (1827) has already
become a textbook: “We… will agree gracefully with morality, arouse love for
truth, …we will elevate the purity of life above the purity of style” [10, p.
336].
Kireevsky
wrote little about music. At the same time, he has a statement surprising in
its insight, in which he mentions music. So, in a letter to A.S. Khomyakov
(1840), Kireevsky notes: “As long as a thought is clear to the mind or
accessible to the word, it is still powerless on the soul and will. When it
develops to the point of inexpressibility, it has only reached maturity. This
inexpressible, looking through expression, will give strength to poetry and
music…” [10, p. 362].
However,
V.F. Odoevsky wrote most consistently and in-depth about music at this time.
V.F.
Odoevsky’s music interpretation is evidenced by his treatise “An Experience in
the Theory of Fine Arts with a Special Application to Music”.
In
this treatise Odoevsky proceeds from the fact that every particular phenomenon
has its essence. In turn, there is a certain essence constituting the essence
of all essences. According to Odoevsky, this is Bezuslov (Absolute).
Bezuslov
predetermines the harmony of nature and reveals itself to the human soul. As
Odoevsky points out, “the existence of the Bezuslov is not only in
nature, but it’s thought is in the very soul of a person; this thought is dear
to the soul, it is a property of the human soul”. And further: “This thought is
innate to our soul, (and. – A.K.) it is up to the thinker to discover it
and explore its laws” [23, p. 157]. At the same time, “cognition is the
connection of the known with the knower, in other words: for an object to
become knowledge, two spheres are necessary: the knower and the known”
[23, pp. 168-169].
Odoevsky
emphasizes that music is the sound embodiment of the harmony of nature – the
harmony of the life-giving and deadening principles. The
life-giving and deadening principles “in music appear under the forms of… consonance
and anticonsonance (consonantia – dissonantia)” [23, pp. 157-158].
According to Odoevsky, representing the harmony of nature, music conveys the
harmony of the human soul and, thus, is a direct expression of the merging
of the soul and the Bezuslov.
Extremely
important was Odoevsky’s conversion, already at the end of his life, to the study
of Old Russian Orthodox singing.
Odoevsky
wrote a large number of articles on Old Russian church singing. Among them:
“Brief Notes on the Characteristics of Russian Orthodox Church Singing”,
“Orthodox Church Singing and Its Notes, Hooks and Other Signs”, “On the
Question of Old Russian Chant” and others. Summarized they are presented in his
work “Ancient Russian chant. Experience of guidance in the study of the basic
laws of melody and harmony for non-musicians, especially adapted to the
development of manuscripts about our ancient chant”, unfortunately, still
unpublished.
1st
half of 20th century
In
the 1st half of 20th century there was a rapid Russian
philosophy development, its true flourishing within the framework of the
general “Russian spiritual renaissance” [2].
It
is significant that at this time, among Russian philosophers, there was a great
interest in music and an understanding of the extraordinary philosophical
possibilities in it. Each of the philosophers saw these possibilities in their
way.
So,
A.F. Losev’s music is an exceptional means of ascent to God, a kind of prayer;
P.A. Florensky’s music is the life-giving power of the Liturgical action, based
on rhythm and carried out according to the typikon (church charter); N.O.
Lossky writes that sound expresses the unity of the visible and the invisible;
I.I. Lapshin emphasizes the fusion of music and philosophy, especially in the
work of Scriabin. But, perhaps, the specifics of the interpretation of music by
Russian philosophers are most generally revealed in E.N. Trubetskoy’s works at
that time.
Trubetskoy’s
music interpretation followed the guidelines of his main philosophical work,
“The sense of life”.
In
this work Trubetskoy argues that the sense of life is revealed to a person
thanks to philosophy, which helps him understand that his life sense is in
reunification with God [27, p. 23].
This
reunification requires human creativity.
According
to Trubetskoy, the clearest expression of such activity is music. Trubetskoy
concludes that music has unique possibilities for reuniting a person with God
and talks about how he experienced a meeting with God while listening to
Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at a concert.
It
is how the philosopher describes this event: “It is difficult to convey the
state of delight that I experienced then at the symphony concert. Just a few
months earlier, a dilemma inspired by Schopenhauer and Dostoevsky had
confronted my youthful consciousness. Either there is God, and in him is the
fullness of life above the world, or it is not worth living at all. And
I suddenly saw this dilemma deeply, clearly expressed in brilliant musical
images. There is something infinitely more here than the formulation of a
dilemma – there is a life experience of the otherworldly, – a real
feeling of (eternal. – A.K.) peace. Your thought… perceives
the entire world drama from that height of eternity, where all confusion and
horror are miraculously transformed into joy and peace. And you feel
that (this. – A.K.) eternal peace that descends from above onto the
universe is not the negation of life, but the fullness of life. None of the
great artists and philosophers of the world felt and revealed this as Beethoven
did” [28, p. 157].
Beethoven
helped Trubetskoy survive his meeting with God. And there, it is necessary to
note an extremely significant point: this happened when Trubetskoy was immersed
in symphony – Beethoven’s 9th
Symphony. And the word “symphony” had a sacred meaning for Trubetskoy (close to
the meaning of this word for Grigory Skovoroda).
In
Trubetskoy’s view, a symphony is something uniting the earthly and the heavenly
(Divine). The philosopher reminds: “The symphony, uniting the entire world of
heaven and earth, sounds already at the beginning of the Gospel, in the story
of the Evangelist Luke about the Nativity of Christ. The Good news
preached to all creatures is precisely the promise of this symphony”
[27, p. 208].
Beethoven’s
9th Symphony was a
harbinger of such a symphony for E. Trubetskoy.
2nd
half of the 20th century – present day
In
the 2nd half of the 20th century Russian philosophy
collapsed as an original spiritual phenomenon.
The
Russian philosophy collapse was also reflected in works that explored the
philosophical issues of music. At the same time, it was reflected in two ways:
in some works, Russian philosophy was replaced by the dominant one at that
time, Marxist-Leninist, in others, philosophical issues were completely
dissolved in musicology.
And
yet, in the 2nd half of the 20th
century, most likely already at the turn of the 20th and 21st
centuries, there was a return to Russian philosophy, i.e., the “renaissance of
the renaissance” of Russian philosophy and it is associated with the works of
A.L. Kazin, A.A. Ermichev, A.A. Korolkov, S.M. Polovinkin, N.K. Gavryushin and
other authors. This return also made itself felt in the field of philosophy of
music.
At
the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the first works
on the philosophy of music appeared, again built on a well-established basis
for Russian philosophy. These works belong to M.S. Uvarov.
Uvarov
views music as a means of confession. The philosopher has written many articles
and books on this topic but it seems his ideas are most concentratedly
expressed in the article “Music and Confession”.
In
it, M.S. Uvarov writes that the aspect of the confessional word, which is well
“read” in the main genres of artistic creativity, is especially clearly
manifested in music. The music of any outstanding composer, Uvarov emphasizes,
cannot but carry a confessional meaning. The maturity of an artist’s thinking
depends on the ability to analyze an artistic task, including at the level of
its experience bestowed by confession and prayer. The composer, sensitively
reacting to the objective conflict of existence, realizes and transfers the
measure of his awareness of tragedy into the fabric of the work of art, in
turn, expressing the degree of comprehension of world harmony [26].
The
further development of the philosophy of music in Russia – on the foundation of
Russian philosophy – was performed (and is being carried out to this day) by
the author of this article.
We
have proposed a model of the philosophy of music, which, we believe, today can
be considered as the result of the development of judgments about music by
Russian philosophers (from the period until the 18th century to
the present day).
About
the model
The model is called the “New Synergetic Philosophy of Music”. It has two
components: theoretical and practical. In the theoretical component, the model
is based on the conjugation of two principles: classical (old)
synergetics and hesychasm. Let’s explain what has been said.
Classical (old) synergetics, which emerged in the 70s of the XX century,
was an interdisciplinary field in science, within the framework of which the
peculiarities of the self-organization of systems in the world were studied. It
was found that systems evolve in the direction from less organized (orderly,
stable, reliable) to more organized (orderly, stable, etc.). According to the
founder of synergetics, German physicist Hermann Haken, he used the word
“synergy” to name the new scientific branch he proposed – “synergetics”.
Hesychasm has already been mentioned above.
The conjugation of classical (old) synergetics and hesychasm occurs as
follows: reading prayer by a Christian hesychast leads
(and today)
not only to his unity with God, but also to the
transfer of the experience of this unity, since in the process of prayer the
Christian hesychast communicates with all people, humanity [1]. Such communication
contributes to the emergence in every lay person of the desire for unity
with God in the world. This aspiration is expressed in the bodily, soulful
and spiritual activation of a person in the
world and determines the development of the world, according to the principle
of self-organization of systems. In our opinion, the very self-organization of
systems is represented by the sequence: nature – society – culture – art –
music. In other words, music is the embodiment of person’s unity with
God in the world.
In practice, we believe that music is the most
powerful means of uniting the
individual with God. In our opinion, music therapy is the process
of bringing individuals to
God through music.
We have developed a music therapy technology designed
to provide a person with an ascent to God. How is
this achieved?
We believe there is a structural similarity between
person and music. In our opinion, both person and music consist of three
intercorrelated levels: the first level of person is correlated with the first
level of music, the second level of person is done with the second level of
music, the third level of person is done with the third level of music.
Human levels: bodily,
soulful, spiritual.
The
levels of music, its bodily, soulful, spiritual levels, are called by us,
respectively, physical-acoustic (the elements of which are rhythm, meter,
tempo, timbre, dynamics), communicative-intonation (the element of which is
intonation), spiritual-value (the elements of which are mode (tonality), melody
and harmony).
Principle
of operation: in the first sessions, music is used in which the first level of
music prevails (rhythm, meter, tempo, timbre, dynamics). Such music is designed
to activate the body-plastic component of a person (at the same time, of
course, the use of other types of sound is not excluded, but the main thing is
still material based on rhythm, meter, etc.).
Instead
of a conclusion
So,
consideration of the topic showed that Russian philosophers paid close
attention to music, and this attention intensified from era to era. This
increase was explained by the fact that Russian philosophers became more and
more clearly aware of the music greatness and its unprecedented possibilities
in liberating man from the misfortunes of earthly existence, everything
temporary, finite.
And
indeed, listening to music, we forget about time and space and find ourselves
in some another “wonderful” dimension of existence, in a new world of unfading
beauty, greatness, and nobility. This world is of eternal existence, eternal
life. Andif this is so, music consequently helps us overcome earthly sorrows,
sadness, not for long while it sounds, but thereby strengthens our faith that
such overcoming is possible forever. In other words, music testifies that it is
possible to defeat death! (3)
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(1) By the way, this position is not original. It was stated before,
e.g., by B.V. Yakovenko [29].
(2) This section of the article exists as a separate
article in Russian, English and Italian, see: [17;
16; 11].
(3) For more information on the topic of the article,
see: [12; 13; 14; 15].
