The evolution of consciousness as expressed in tone an East-West approach

Miguel Ribeiro-Pereira

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Te motto is taken from Jacques Attali’s model of cultural historiography — that the world is for hearing, not for beholding, that music is prophetic! Tis brief essay is an overview of the evolution of the Western mind, or consciousness, setting in parallel music and literature (the title’s double meaning of “tone” is sound imbued with purpose and meaning). It focuses on three pivotal moments. 1) Te humanist impulse of European Renaissance in the fourteenth century (“at the threshold”) brings about the experience of the musical interval of the third and the individualism’s dynamic integration of contraries. 2) Te new conceptual model in the early sixteenth century (“modern worldview”) gives rise to both opera and tonality with Monteverdi’s music, which is coeval with Cervantes’ frst literary novel, as the Western canon starts anew. 3) Te ultimate period of European modernity at the turn of the nineteenth century (“divided worldview”) considers music as the quintessence of the poetic realm, the authentic representative of infnity (Hofmann) or the will (Schopenhauer). Beethoven’s pivotal role here is epitomized by his distinctive use of modal mixture, a novel approach to the key system, whose chromatic relationship discloses another dimension of tonality. Eventually, an analogy is disclosed between my theory of harmonic modulation in tonal music and René Girard’s of mimetic desire in the novel. Tey both assert an actual awareness (although often intuitive) embodied in great masterpieces and mean to account for a psychological evolution of the modern individual towards inwardness and multiplicity of the personality.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationImages of europe past, present, future
Subtitle of host publicationISSEI 2014 - Conference Proceedings Porto, Portugal
EditorsYolanda Espiña
PublisherUniversidade Católica Editora - Porto
Pages874-882
Number of pages9
ISBN (Print)9789898366825
Publication statusPublished - 2016
Event14th International Conference of the International-Society-for-the-Study-of-European-Ideas (ISSEI) - Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto, Portugal
Duration: 4 Aug 20148 Aug 2014

Conference

Conference14th International Conference of the International-Society-for-the-Study-of-European-Ideas (ISSEI)
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityPorto
Period4/08/148/08/14

Keywords

  • Consciousness
  • Diatonic/chromatic tonality
  • External/internal mediation
  • Harmonic modulation
  • Jacques Attali
  • Miguel Ribeiro-Pereira
  • Mimetic desire
  • Modern mind
  • Prophetic music
  • Rene Girard
  • Third-interval

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