more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
To describe a piece of music as expressive of melancholy is to give a reason for listening to it; to describe it as arousing or evoking melancholy is to give a reason for avoiding it.
Gist of Idea
Expressing melancholy is a good thing, but arousing it is a bad thing
Source
Roger Scruton (The Nature of Musical Expression [1981], p.49)
Book Ref
Scruton,Roger: 'The Aesthetic Understanding' [Methuen 1983], p.49
A Reaction
Expressing sexual desire, while avoiding arousing it, is the nice challenge for a particular type of art. Would Scruton say that expressing joy is a good thing, but arousing it is bad? It is a nice observation, though.
| 20344 | Music is not an expressive art, because it expresses no familiar emotions [Hanslick, by Wollheim] |
| 8123 | The purpose of art is to help mankind to evolve better, more socially beneficial feelings [Tolstoy] |
| 20425 | In the cinema the emotions are weaker, but much clearer than in ordinary life [Fry] |
| 23926 | Art is distinguished by its aesthetic emotion, which produces appropriate form [Bell,C] |
| 12164 | Expressing melancholy is a good thing, but arousing it is a bad thing [Scruton] |
| 20404 | Music isn't just sad because it makes the listener feel sad [Davies,S] |