Aesthetic Realism Foundation

Learn

The Opposites in Music

Taught by Barbara Allen and Edward Green, Ph.D.

This class is based on the Aesthetic Realism principle “Art is that which, through an individual, shows the oneness of the permanent opposites in reality.”

Alternate Sundays, 4:00 – 5:30 PM Eastern Time (USA)

The Spring-Summer 2021 semester is now in session.

SPRING-SUMMER 2021

This semester we’ll begin our two-semester study of “The Aesthetic Method in Self-Conflict,” a magnificent chapter from Eli Siegel’s book Self and World. It can be read online here.

With this great text as our foundation, we’ll see how music—across the globe, through the centuries, and in all styles, traditional, popular, and classical—resolves the everyday conflicts we have. “All beauty,” Eli Siegel explained, “is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.” Literally, we want to be like art; we want to be like music!

  • May 23: Here and There–What Do Musical Notes, Phrases, Compositions Teach Us about These Everlasting Opposites?

“We all of us start with a here, ever so snug and ever so immediate. And this here is surrounded strangely, endlessly, by a there. We are always meeting this there: in other words, we are always meeting what is not ourselves, and we have to do something about it.”

  • Jun 6: Passion & Control, Excitement & Calm Form—Are They Together in a Monteverdi Opera, a Beethoven Symphony, a Song by Elvis?
  • Jun 20: Music Is High & Low; Has Modesty & Pride, Is Yielding & Assertive in a Way We Can Learn From!

“Look at Jamison. He is shy and he is arrogant. In fact, he is like most people.”

  • July 4: No class because of the Independence Day Holiday
  • Jul 18: Freedom & Justice—in Mozart, Prokofiev, the Rondo, & Ourselves

“Through Mozart, Rosalind sees the universe for a while come into form in the concert hall.…In proportion as she is stirred, swept, moved about by sound in great, wonderful order, she is more Rosalind Hines, not less.”

  • Aug 1: How Are Instruments Separate & Joined?—in West Africa, a Jazz Band, & a Symphony Orchestra?; or, The Ensemble and Ourselves

“A drum and a clarinet were playing at once. The way they play is plainly different. If the drum tries to play exactly what the clarinet is playing, the result is not good….It is possible that, as can be seen very often where music is played, the drum can play different things at the same time…and…that the difference make for togetherness or harmony.”

  • Aug 15: Freedom & Security—Do We Want Both? Is Good Music Always Both?

“Timothy Watkins is against what he sees as restrictions. But, troublesomely, Mr. Watkins find also that he wants order and routine….”

  • Aug 29: Students in the Class Present Papers

To audit:

  • Permission must be requested by telephone at least 2 days in advance of the date of the class.
  • Contact Registrar at 212.777.5055, between 2-6 PM Eastern Time (USA), Monday through Friday.
  • Once you receive permission to audit a class, click on the “AUDIT” button to pay the fee.

Fee: $60 per semester (7 classes)

Auditing fee: $12

Suggested reading:

“Music Tells What the World Is Like,” by Eli Siegel; and: Aesthetic Realism and Music, a 1951 lecture by Mr. Siegel, serialized in The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.

FACULTY BIOS: Barbara Allen, flutist; Edward Green, composer