C. Dahlhaus on analytical criteria of aesthetic evaluation of music (by Analysis and Value Judgment)

The article deals with the views of a well-known Germanmusicologist Carl Dahlhaus, a representative of the so-called new musical hermeneutics. According to Dahlhaus, the understandingof music is possible on the basis of adopting both the musical tradition and the tradition of music and language. The mostimportant destination of music analysis for Dahlhaus is its ability to explain the value judgment of music, which is explained in hisbook Analysis and Value Judgment. So, this approach to music has to assume a dialectical unity of compositional and technicalanalysis, aesthetic appreciation and historical knowledge. By Dahlhaus, different types of analytical judgment of music were appliedat different times - functional (the success of the implementation of the applied functions by music), aesthetic (consistent with theidea of music and beauty) and historical (matching the criteria of novelty in the practice of New Music) - they should not be confused.Of particular interest is the attempt of Dahlhaus to formulate analytical criteria that could justify the aesthetic value of music- the variety of relations, differentiation and integration, principles of form, analogy and equalization. The variety of relationsis the searching of meaningful relations in the production undertaken in the aspects of kinship of musical material and similarityin the forms functions. In this case, the kinship between the motive and theme is unacceptable to search, for example, in dodecaphonicmusic, where the connection of any fragments taken at random is provided: here it is also important to observe a clear andevident dissimilarity in the thematic material - only under this condition meaningful search of links is possible. The criterion of differentiationand integration is linked with the first one: the variety of differences inside the composition (melody, rhythm, dynamics,articulation) and their integration, functional relationship. This criterion is not universal historically, because differentiation andintegration do not necessarily counterbalance each other (for example, in Gregorian chant or early atonal pieces of Schoenberg andWebern, which does not lessen their artistic value). Another analytical criterion - the one of analogy and equalization - is connected,on the one hand, with the calculation by the composer of the impact of his music on the listener (as adjustment of some complexaspects of music by the simplicity of others), on the other - with the ideas of Schoenberg (he proposed the principle of analogywhen all the parameters of musical composition, which claim to be of artistic value, should be equally developed). The last supremecriterion of evaluation is the principles of the form, which involve a combination of a big number of relations, differentiation andintegration. There are four principles of the form: Reihung (lining), Fortspinnung (deployment), development, grouping. The deepestand richest of them is the principle of development, which is implemented in the classical-romantic sonata and symphony. All theanalytical criteria of aesthetic evaluation of music named before are, undoubtedly, the most interesting Dahlhauss attempt to demonstratelinks between historical, theoretical and aesthetic approaches to musical analysis, based on generalization of the vast heritageof Western European composers' school and a rich experience of European music-theoretical thought.

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