THE CLASSICAL COMPOSER AND MUSICOLOGIST PETER HÜBNER
on his International Project of the INTEGRATION OF SCIENCES & ARTS
 
NATURAL
MUSIC HEARING


OUVERTURE
CONVEYING TRUTH IN MUSIC


TEIL I
THE OBJECT OF GAINING KNOWLEDGE IN MUSIC


TEIL II
THE LOGIC OF THE MUSICAL FIELDS OF COGNITION


TEIL III
IMMORTAL AND MORTAL TRADITION OF MUSIC


TEIL IV
THE LIVING EXAMPLE OF THE MUSICAL COGNITION OF TRUTH


TEIL V
THE THREE GREAT STEPS OF THE MUSICAL PROCESS OF GAINING KNOWLEDGE


TEIL VI
THE SYSTEM OF INTELLECTUAL DISCUSSION IN MUSIC


TEIL VII
ERRORS IN GAINING KNOWLEDGE IN MUSIC


TEIL VIII
EQUIVOCATION


TEIL IX
THE SECRET OF MUSIC


TEIL X
THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF GAINING KNOWLEDGE IN MUSIC


TEIL XI
INDIRECT AND DIRECT GAINING KNOWLEDGE IN MUSIC


TEIL XII
THE PATH OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE GOAL OF TRUTH


Musical Confrontation
of Feeling and Understanding


 
Mu­si­cal dis­cus­sion is the con­fron­ta­tion of feel­ing and un­der­stand­ing in the com­poser, but also in the mu­sic lis­tener.
This dis­cus­sion may be very easy and ef­fort­less as we ex­peri­ence with the sages, but it may also turn into a tough con­flict as we wit­ness in the case of the un­edu­cated.

 
Educational Differences in the Musical Discussion
Dur­ing the proc­ess of gain­ing knowl­edge in mu­sic our feel­ing as­pires in all sim­plic­ity to the fields of higher mu­si­cal or­ders, be­cause know­ing higher mu­si­cal or­ders re­leases more en­ergy in our feel­ing, by which we lis­ten­ers feel emo­tion­ally strength­ened – in other words, we find our­selves con­firmed in our feel­ing.

 
The Feeling on the Musical Path towards Unity
Ac­cord­ing to the in­ner sys­tem­atics of the com­po­si­tion the path of gain­ing knowl­edge starts from the mu­si­cal sound-space, and leads through the motif-space and the se­quence-space to mu­si­cal unity, which is real­ized in the har­mony.

 
Inner Systematics of Musical Structuring
Due to its in­her­ent in­er­tia our un­der­stand­ing ini­tially of­fers a cer­tain re­sis­tance to this proc­ess of gain­ing knowl­edge; be­cause, al­though it per­ceives more unity in the fields of higher mu­si­cal or­der, at the same time it per­ceives less di­ver­sity.

 
The Contradiction between Unity and Diversity in the Relative Musical Force-Fields
On the path of knowl­edge, how­ever, the un­der­stand­ing, owing to its na­ture, strives for di­ver­sity and is there­fore con­fronted with our feel­ing.
It tries to ex­plain to the feel­ing that with the ver­ti­cal di­rec­tion of knowl­edge, which leads into the depth, the mu­si­cal way to­wards sen­ti­men­talism is paved, and that this mu­si­cal proc­ess of gain­ing knowl­edge must end where one will also find the schmaltz.
Seen from its de­sire for di­ver­sity, our un­der­stand­ing does not see any sense in such a de­vel­op­ment, and makes it clear to the feel­ing with the nec­es­sary obstinacy.

 
And while our feel­ing lis­tens to these words of rea­son of the un­der­stand­ing, it looks long­ingly from the mu­si­cal sound-space to the motif-space, and its eyes be­gin to dream: only too much would it like to enter the motif-space and to un­fold there happily, rather than here in the rigid limi­ta­tions of the mu­si­cal sound-space.

 
The Feeling Strives Always towards Greater Musical Unity
So, fi­nally, the un­der­stand­ing gives in and fol­lows the feel­ing into the world of the mo­tifs.
Cer­tainly, in this sub­tler mu­si­cal world of cog­ni­tion of the mo­tifs it feels more awake, and de­spite all the motif move­ments it has not lost track of the tones – of course it still has them all in sight and watches them care­fully.

 
The Understanding Follows the Feeling on the Musical Path of Knowledge
Yet here – in the world of the mo­tifs – our un­der­stand­ing feels that life and the proc­ess of mu­si­cal un­fold­ment is too sim­ple, a bit too plain. There­fore, it keeps its cog­niz­ing eye on the tones – which sur­round the motif-space – like an astrologer who con­tinu­ally gazes from his bor­ing earth into the highly fascinating space.

 
While the un­der­stand­ing is on the lookout, our feel­ing, in an unob­served moment, has al­ready peeked into the next world, the world of the se­quence, where it be­holds an even greater unity, and its eyes be­come even more shin­ing.
Be­cause there, our feel­ing dis­cov­ers a world of even greater mu­si­cal or­der, a di­men­sion of even greater mu­si­cal sim­plic­ity.

 
The Feeling Aspires Musical Simplicity
As our un­der­stand­ing no­tices this glance, it be­gins to doubt the quali­ties of the feel­ing.
Im­me­di­ately it real­izes very clearly: this is where the jour­ney is to con­tinue to – away from the stars, and into the life of the clan.

 
The Birth of Musical Doubt
There­fore, the un­der­stand­ing de­cides from this moment on to go back­wards for safety’s sake, be­cause on its fur­ther way with the feel­ing into the realm of the se­quence, its be­loved stars in the mu­si­cal sound-space appear more and more remote and indis­tinct.

 
The Feeling Drags the Understanding along to the Ancient Mothers of Music
But the feel­ing drags it along into the realm of the se­quences, to the an­cient moth­ers of mu­sic, from which all mu­si­cal mo­tifs emerge – like chil­dren emerge from their mother – be­fore they un­fold into melo­dies on their in­di­vid­ual life-paths.

 
Hav­ing reached the world of the se­quence, only eve­ry now and then the un­der­stand­ing dares to cast a glance side­ways, but oth­er­wise keeps its eye of cog­ni­tion di­rected out­side to the worlds of the mo­tifs and be­yond it, to the world of the mu­si­cal sound-space.
The un­der­stand­ing dares not to look be­hind it­self into the realm of the har­mony, be­cause even a glance side­ways shows that the mu­si­cal sim­plic­ity of the world of the se­quence has reached a de­gree which the un­der­stand­ing can­not read­ily iden­tify with.

 
The Dimension of the Harmony is Incomprehensible to the Understanding from Outside
The feel­ing, how­ever, in­dulges in its own hap­pi­ness of life, and a dis­cus­sion be­tween feel­ing and un­der­stand­ing also re­veals that the un­der­stand­ing ac­tu­ally be­gins to feel bet­ter in the sub­tler mu­si­cal fields of knowl­edge.
Al­though from here the un­der­stand­ing can no longer per­ceive the dis­tant stars of the mu­si­cal sound-space, the tones, so clearly, it be­gins to per­ceive them in the mo­tifs as well, for the mo­tifs are per­ma­nently deal­ing with the shin­ing tone waves.

 
The Understanding Begins to Anticipate Higher Musical Orders
And as a matter of fact, the un­der­stand­ing must admit that even here, in the se­quences, it senses a trace of the mo­tifs – just like con­clud­ing from the mother to the chil­dren.
Fur­ther­more, the un­der­stand­ing feels more alert here in the sub­tler mu­si­cal fields of knowl­edge, a sen­sa­tion that is very pleas­ant to it; and in­deed, it even be­lieves to be more in­tel­li­gent.