What is the main object of music aesthetics research? What are the specific methods?

On the research object of music aesthetics. Since music aesthetics gained the status of an independent discipline, people have been discussing its research object, trying to find a more accurate definition for this discipline. This is just as Hegel said: "As far as the object is concerned, every science must study two problems at the beginning: first, this object exists; Secondly, what is this object? " We have carefully studied some well-known foreign music dictionaries, such as German National Helmand Dictionary, Riemann Music Encyclopedia, American Harvard Music Dictionary, New Grove Music and Musicians Dictionary, Japanese Standard Music Dictionary, and Soviet Music Encyclopedia. , and combined with our research experience over the years, we summarize the research objects of music aesthetics as follows:

Music aesthetics is a basic theoretical discipline with the purpose of studying the aesthetic law of music art, which takes the aesthetic essence, value and function of music, the structure and object of music sound, that is, the form and content of music, the aesthetic problems in music creation, performance and appreciation, and the development history of music aesthetics itself as the research objects.

(A) On the aesthetic essence, value and function of music art.

This is a fundamental problem to be studied in music aesthetics. It is to understand the aesthetic essence of music art on the level of philosophical aesthetics and answer the question of what music is with the theory of philosophical aesthetics. Only by answering this question scientifically can we further understand other related theoretical problems in music aesthetics and grasp the aesthetic significance of music practice and various musical phenomena. The first thing to study in this topic is the relationship between people and music. People and music may have different relationships at all levels, so what is the essential relationship between people and music? At the same time, when studying the aesthetic essence of music art, we must further analyze and reveal the aesthetic essence of music art from the comparison with other arts and from the unique way of existence of music art. Throughout the ages, many philosophers, aesthetes and musicians have expressed their views on this issue and put forward their own opinions. Some of them were adopted by the rulers at that time and became the theoretical basis for formulating official policies. Some of them have promoted the development and prosperity of music art, while others have hindered or even destroyed music art. So, from the essence of music, what kind of value and function does it have? What are the manifestations and standards of these values and functions? The historical persistence and variability of the value and function of music, as well as the differences of the value and function of different music schools, are all problems to be studied in this discipline.

(B) the sound structure of music and its performance object

This topic will enter the ontological study of music art, and people usually attribute this problem to the form and content of music and the relationship between them. However, in order to avoid the disadvantages of beating around the bush in previous studies, this book chooses a more concise way, and directly cuts into the theme from the perspective of the acoustic structure of music and its performance objects. This topic will focus on the basic organizational form and aesthetic characteristics of music sound, and also analyze the style change law of music sound structure. Corresponding to the sound of music is its performance object. This topic will study the unique performance field and object of music art? How does the sound structure of music relate to its performance object? What is the psychological basis of this connection? In addition, this chapter will also analyze the emotional object, descriptive object, dramatic object and philosophical object of music, as well as the multiplicity and uncertainty of music related to it. In addition, it will also discuss whether there is a problem of presenting the beauty of music itself without expressing any other objects.

(C) Aesthetic issues in music practice

To study the aesthetic essence and characteristics of music, we must also go deep into the field of music practice and study the aesthetic problems in music creation, performance and appreciation. In the past, people's research on music creation often focused on its achievements, that is, music works, but rarely studied from the perspective of the production of music works, that is, the creative subject. However, only by studying the composer's creative thinking and its laws, including the motivation and source of music creation, imagination and conception, subjectivity, etc., can we truly reveal the essential laws of music art in depth and detail. It is also of great significance to study the aesthetic problems in music performance and appreciation activities. As a second creation, the relationship between music performance and first creation, the aesthetic principles of music performance creation, the historical evolution of aesthetic concepts of music performance, and the training and training of music performers; The basic law of music appreciation, the nature, characteristics and different ways of music appreciation, and the cultivation and improvement of music appreciation ability are all problems to be studied in music aesthetics. The study of these problems is not only of theoretical significance, but also of practical significance, which will play an important role in guiding and influencing all fields of music practice.

(D) Research on the history of music aesthetics

As mentioned above, music aesthetics is an ancient knowledge with a long history. Philosophers, aestheticians and musicians at all times and all over the world have discussed many issues of music aesthetics, involving the essence, characteristics, functions and aesthetics of music, and accumulated rich ideological and theoretical heritage. It is an important task for contemporary music aestheticians to sort out and study these heritages scientifically. Just as the construction of any discipline is inseparable from the achievements of predecessors, the construction of contemporary China music aesthetics must also be based on criticizing and inheriting the achievements of predecessors. Therefore, the study of the history of music aesthetics is of fundamental significance to the construction of contemporary music aesthetics. The more in-depth and detailed the study of the history of music aesthetics and its theoretical thought, the more foundation the construction of contemporary music aesthetics will have.

The above points can be said to be the main topics of music aesthetics research. Of course, these topics can't sum up all the problems that music aesthetics should study. In fact, the problems to be studied in music aesthetics are very complicated and diverse. At the same time, music aesthetics is a developing discipline and should be an open academic system. With the continuous development of music art, there will be some new problems that need to be included in the research category of music aesthetics, and some problems that have long plagued people will also gain new understanding different from the past under the enlightenment of new practice and new research methods. Therefore, in order to meet the needs of the continuous development of music aesthetics, researchers of music aesthetics must establish an open academic viewpoint and attitude. Human music practice will never end, and the study of music aesthetics should never stop. Only with the development of music practice, constantly discovering new situations, studying new problems and summing up new experiences will music aesthetics continue to glow with new brilliance and make new contributions to the development of music art.

Above, we have generally investigated the emergence of music aesthetics as a musicology discipline, as well as its research objects and topics. Of course, this does not mean that the subject of music aesthetics only appeared in the west in the second half of19th century, but in China it only appeared after the 1920s. As far as the historical origin of music aesthetics is concerned, China can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period from the 8th century BC to the 3rd century BC, and the West can be traced back to the ancient Greek period from the 5th century BC to the 3rd century BC. This is because the so-called music aesthetics, in its most fundamental sense, is people's thinking and understanding of music art on the basis of music practice, in short, music thought. But it is not any thinking and understanding of music, but mainly refers to the philosophical understanding and thinking of the basic laws and characteristics of music. As we know, philosophy is a science that studies the laws of nature, human society and human thinking. It is not only a theoretical and systematic world outlook, but also a methodology to observe, analyze and deal with various problems. Similarly, music aesthetics can also be said to be music philosophy from its fundamental nature. As a discipline that studies the basic laws of music art, it is not only a theoretical and systematic view of music in epistemology, but also mainly uses philosophical methods in methodology to theoretically summarize and abstract various phenomena of music art and seek a universal and regular understanding. Therefore, no matter from the perspective of epistemology or methodology, music aesthetics is a philosophical understanding and thinking of music. Because of this, when we study music aesthetics, we must sum up people's thinking and understanding of music in history, especially people's thinking and understanding of the essence, law and function of music art by philosophical methods, and explore what kind of ideological course people's understanding of music has gone through, and take this as the ideological basis for building our own music aesthetics system.