A walk in the Woods Part 1 – Too comfortable, too close?
As I have been walking the past few mornings I have been considering the philosophical concepts of the ‘sublime’ and the ‘beautiful’. It is considered that the ‘beautiful’ relates to those forms that please and can be ‘contained’ within a thought. That is, they are not somehow beyond our comprehension and somehow comfortably close by. A flower is beautiful, a valley is beautiful, a vase of flowers is beautiful.
The sublime on the other hand takes on the form of a positive experience that goes beyond our ability to simply comprehend it. The universe – it’s inspiring, but it goes beyond being beautiful. It inspires in a way that brings a sense of wonder – of something bigger than ourselves – we comprehend that which cannot be comprehended.
Using these thoughts, mountains are sublime, hills are beautiful, yew trees are sublime, wildflowers are beautiful – all relative and conceptual but none the less self evident to your personal experiences.
It then struck me that the concepts of the sublime and beautiful also become evident in music. My piece Supernature is very much grounded in the beautiful – flowers, valleys, hillsides, trees. A place to relax, to feel at peace – which is the motivation behind the piece.
However, I also fear that, to understand and appreciate the beautiful fully, one needs to see it in contrast with the sublime. I concluded I need to go beyond comprehension. The music must reach out to the sublime.
Therefore, this contrast between the ‘beautiful’ and the ‘sublime’ is a juxtaposition that will feature in the piece, Mother I am currently working on. Yes, there will be the beautiful – small, green lush valleys – but there will also be big skies, the universe, the stars. There will be a contrast between ‘Light’ and ‘Dark’.
Mother will sometimes sing you a lullaby, but she will also sometimes throw you into deep space.
Light,
David.