As in most things, so on the subject of music, Aristotles ideas are more
down to earth than Platos. For him, music is useful not only in education and in ritual, but also as entertainment and relaxation, so long as its use does not become excessive and distracting. Besides the ethical benefits music can impart, Aristotle recognizes a purely aesthetic pleasure (he calls it enthusiasm) foreign to Platos scale of values. However, he cautions against too professional an attitude, which can only compromise the free mans status.
Our chief inquiry now is whether or not music is to be put into education and what music can do. Is it an education or an amusement or a pastime? It is reasonable to reply that it is directed towards and participates in all three. Amusement is for the purpose of relaxation and relaxation must necessarily be pleasant, since it is a kind of cure for the ills we suffer in working hard. As to the pastimes of a cultivated life, there must, as is universally agreed, be present an element of pleasure as well as of nobility, for the happiness which belongs to that life consists of both of these. We all agree that music is among the most delightful and pleasant things, whether instrumental or accompanied by singing, so that one might from that fact alone infer that the young should be taught it. For things that are pleasant and harmless belong rightly not only to the end in view but also to relaxation by the way. But since it rarely happens that men attain and keep their goal, and they frequently rest and amuse themselves with no other thought than the pleasure of it, there is surely a useful purpose in the pleasure derived from music, and the young must be educated in and by it. And the teaching of music is particularly apt for the young; for they because of their youth do not willingly tolerate anything that is not made pleasant for them, and music is one of those things that are by nature made to give pleasure. Moreover there is a certain affinity between us and musics harmonies and rhythms; so that many experts say that the soul is a harmony, others that it has harmony. We must now return to the question raised earliermust they learn to sing themselves and play instruments with their own hands? Clearly actual participation in performing is going to make a big difference to the quality of the person that will be produced; it is impossible, or at any rate very difficult, to produce good judges of musical performance from among those who have never themselves performed. And all that we have been saying makes it clear that musical education must include actual performing; and it is not difficult to decide what is appropriate and what is not for different ages, or to find an answer to those who assert that learning to perform is vulgar and degrading. Since, as we have seen, actual performance is needed to make a good critic, they should while young do much playing and singing, and then, when they are older, give up performing; they will then, thanks to what they have learned in their youth, be able to enjoy music aright and give good judgments. What is needed is that the pupil shall not struggle to acquire the degree of skill that is needed for professional competitions, or to master those peculiar and sensational pieces of music which have begun to penetrate the competitions and have even affected education. Musical exercises, even if not of this kind, should be pursued only up to the point at which the pupil becomes capable of appreciating good melodies and rhythms, and not just the popular music such as appeals to slaves, children, and even some animals. We reject then as education a training in material performance which is professional and competitive. He that takes part in such performances does not do so in order to improve his own character, but to give pleasure to listeners, and vulgar pleasure at that. We do not therefore regard it as a proper occupation for a gentleman; it is rather that of a paid employee. Inevitably the consequences are degrading, since the end towards which it is directedpopular amusementis a low one. The listener is a common person and influences music accordingly; he has an effect on professionals who perform for him; the music which he expects of them, and the motions which they which they have to make to produce it, affect detrimentally their bodies and their minds. We say then, in summary, that music ought to be used not as conferring one benefit only but many; for example, for education and cathartic purposes, as an intellectual pastime, as relaxation, and for relief after tension. While then we must make use of all the harmonies, we are not to use them all in the same manner, but for education use those which improve the character, for listening to others performing uses both the activating and the emotion-striving or enthusiastic [faculties]. Any feeling which comes strongly to some, exists in all others to a greater or lesser degree: pity and fear, for example, but also enthusiasm. This is a kind of excitement which affects some people very strongly. It may arise out of religious music, and it is noticeable that when they have been listening to melodies that have an orgiastic* effect they are, as it were, set on their feet, as if they had undergone a curative and purifying treatment. And those who feel pity or fear or other emotions must be affected in just the same way to the extent that the emotion comes upon each. To them all comes a pleasant feeling of purgation and relief. In the same way, cathartic music brings men an elation which is not at all harmful.
Aristotle, The Politics, trans. T.A. Sinclair, revised and re-presented by Trevor J. Saunders (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, rev. ed. 1981), 307-16. The 1962 translation copyright the Estate of T.A. Sinclair, 1962. Revised translation copyright Trevor J. Saunders. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Books Ltd.
*orgiastic: Arousing or causing unrestrained emotion; frenzied.
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