Anthropological View on the History of Musical Art Article Analysis

The article “Anthropological View on the History of Musical Art” by Olena Ye. Vereshchahina-Biliavska, Olesia V. Cherkashyna, Yuliia O. Moskvichova, Olena M. Yakymchuk, and Olena V. Lys is about a study whose purpose was a “generalization of the manifestations of anthropological thinking in the musical art of classicism, romanticism, and avant-garde, carried out on the basis of contemporary scientific publications” (108). This study was performed using the general scientific methods of scientific knowledge: analytical, historical, cultural, and comparative. 

Based on the research of the musical art of the classicism era, researchers believe that this era is one of the most important eras in the history of music. It was also well known for its association with three of the biggest and most famous composers. These composers were Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. Also, with this era of music, the structural principles of “natural perfection and the perfect nature of a human being as God’s image” (112) had new ways of application in music. In fact, it was a change in worldview that allowed the classicist cognitive strategy and outlined the importance of classicist intonation. A composer in this musical era would have been a self-sufficient author of their own theme, which has been described as a “sense of self-fulfillment” and the “intention to know the truth” (112).

Regarding the romantic era, romanticism itself was considered a symbol of the sixth sense. It was also argued that the “romantic episteme constitutes liberation from any thought: language as a representation of words, nature as a representation of beings, needs as a representation of values” and that “without representation as a tabular space of order, everything descends into chaos” (113).  Apparently, musical romanticism is considered extremely controversial. It is considered controversial because of it being somewhat of a dream. It shows how real life is filled with things like purity and holiness, but is distorted. It has created a sort of opportunity for a new religious experience and opportunity to build new ethical and religious systems and re-evaluate old ones. According to the article, “Dissatisfaction with the worldview led to experiments with demonic romanticism” (114).

The avant-garde era, at the time, “reflected the contradictions of society” (115). In music, it brought a sense of modernism. A new term to describe the work of composers in this time was “neo-avant-garde,” as it was said to reflect the concept of new music. Also, developments in science and technology, industrialization, etc., played an important role in the musical culture. They also influenced the creative objective of composers, as they began to use new technology in their music to create new sounds and to better the quality of their music.

Throughout this article, it seems that there was a constant connection between the era that certain music was made and how people felt spiritually at the time. The spiritual world seems to be ever present when discussing this topic. Also, knowledge of the different mechanisms of musical influence on people and society has a positive effect on the next generation. 

In this article, the authors used the analytical method to study the worldview principles of the eras discussed throughout the article. The historical method was used to survey the environment where the arts of the three eras functioned, and the comparative method was used to investigate the similarities and differences in the eras and manifestations of them. Finally, the cultural method was used to study the characteristics of classicism, romanticism, and avant-garde. Overall, the study went over the features of the music in classicism, how romanticism was able to develop, and the differences of the music in avant-garde. It also analyzed modern research on the history and anthropology of music and other areas related to those. The research in this article covered the aspects of musical anthropology of these eras and was presented well, considering how there has not been much research in the field of musical anthropology and that it only started to make an appearance in the last century or so.