Music as a path to self-realization

Abstract

This article is written in the form of a dialogue based on an interview conducted by Colombian philosopher and psychologist Tayron Achury with Russian philosopher, musician, musicologist, and music therapist Aleksandr S. Klujev. Key tenets of A.S. Klujev’s philosophy of music are discussed, including his understanding of the essence of music, the connection between musical pedagogical influence on the individual and the goals of pedagogical work in general, the potential of the phenomenology of music in facilitating human advancement toward the meaning of music, and the extent to which music contributes to the formation of human existence. The models of Hegel and Nietzsche’s philosophy of music are compared, and the contribution of German philosophers to the current understanding of music and musical creativity is analyzed. The importance of the idea of “eternal” music, born before sounds, is substantiated, and the current state of musical culture both in Russia and globally is characterized. It is demonstrated that today, as a rule, the human element is absent from music; indeed, it is deliberately excluded. This negative tendency was already noticeable in the work of A. Schoenberg, and it later intensified with the organization of the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt (1946). Today, H. Lachen¬mann’s method of removing the human element from music is particularly popular, this technique is also followed by several Russian composers (A. Manotskov, O. Raeva, A. Filonenko, B. Filanovsky, S. Nevsky, D. Kurlyandsky). It is concluded that music should be considered a path to self-reali¬zation, that is a multidimensional interpersonal process, presupposing an encounter between man and God.