The humanities in music concern the “spiritual element” in music and the principles of the systematic
cognition and description of truths through the understanding.
The human
mind is the substance through which the composer makes the music resound for the first time. And the mind, the physics of the mind, is the musical instrument through which the sound is generated.
At the same time, however, the
mind is sound itself, the vibrating sound-substance in the form of the movement of waves on the surface of the mind; and the sounding composition is the changing vibration on the surface of the musical artist’s mind.
The gaining of knowledge, as we know it from the humanities is, according to the expositions in this text, an accomplishment of the
self-awareness and is achieved by means of its main organ, the
intellect.
The
self-awareness acquires the knowledge of the meaning of the musical statement through the
intellect by means of the qualities of
feeling and
understanding.
Moreover, the
self-awareness translates its inherent knowledge into the language of music by means of the faculties of
feeling and
understanding.
And the expression of this music “of
silence” – deep within the conscience of the musical artist – is projected by the composer’s
creative self to the surface of his
mind, on which his sense of
hearing feeds.
On the one hand music is an “a priori science,” because on the level of the
self-awareness, through the power of
creativity, knowledge is systematically
cognized in its seed form, and – starting from this
intuitive cognition – it is projected onto the level of the
mind and passed on to the
surroundings as an artistic musical event.
On the other hand, however, music has also been described earlier as an empirical science, because the
self, through the
intellect, systematically surveys with the sense of
hearing the music created on the level of the
mind, and so experiences – as if from outside – the content of truth in the musical structure of the composition and ascertains its degree of musical mastership.
With reference to the basis of musical
creativity, this empirical way of comprehending music could also be called “the comprehension of music through the natural sciences,” and the
a priori way of comprehending music could also be called “the comprehension of music through the humanities,” because a priori music is
created by the self, and empirically it is
heard again by the self.
In a complete cycle of the two scientific views the information of the musical event emanates from the
creating self and advances through the
intellect to the level of the
mind, where it is
perceived by the sense of hearing and lead back again through the
intellect to the
hearing self.