Nowadays, we see that beauty, pleasantness and taste evaluations are at the forefront in most every subject. Don’t we sometimes make small touches to ourselves for the sake of our health and sometimes for aesthetic concerns? Do these concerns also include being liked, approved, etc.?
What about art, I wonder?
I will address the subject from the perspective of music.
First of all, it should be mentioned that aesthetic perception is the sum of emotional reactions and attitudes that people give when evaluating a subject or situation. In this case, we can say that aesthetic perception in music is the feelings and thoughts of music lovers or listeners towards a piece of music or a work. Musical substructures, harmony, melody, rhythm, tempo and dynamics and of course individual tastes contribute to the formation of aesthetic perception. Accordingly, let’s examine these expressions a little more closely.
Melody is one of the foundations of creating appreciation for a piece of music. Melodies can be memorable, but they can also be complex and difficult to follow and hum. While some listeners like these melodic differences, others find musical structures that they can sing along to and say “this melody sounds familiar to my ear” more familiar to them. Rhythm is the temporal structure of music.
Fast, slow, erratic, dynamic, relaxing, etc. We listen to different rhythms on
a long road, different rhythms on our way home from work, and different rhythms
during sports. It is even said that musical pieces that are above a certain
metronome in terms of rhythm structure have an effect on calorie burning.
Harmony is the chords and harmony within themselves formed by notes coming together in a certain system. Consonance, that is, more harmonious sounding sounds and chords provide a relaxing and balanced effect, while Dissonance, that is, discordant sounding sounds and chords can create different feelings, tension and drama.
The dissonance here is actually a sampling made for the ear to reach a timbral distinction. Today, new musical searches are also made with Dissonance tones.
Dynamics in music are the forms of expression used in addition to the rhythm pattern and together with rhythm, they give musical works their complete character. While we talk about the elements of speed in rhythm, we talk about the height, lowness and expression forms of the sound in dynamics. For example, FORTE, which means playing strongly, MEZZO FORTE, which means playing at a medium volume, PIANO, which means playing lightly and softly, Cressendo, which means going from a low to a high volume, Decressendo, which means going from a high to a low volume.
The elements that make up the main piece of music we deal with and determine how it sounds to our ears actually depend entirely on personal perception and taste. It is actually a completely personal situation with the individual equipment of music listeners, their preferences, the types of music they are motivated by, relieve stress, concentrate on and prefer to listen to in their free time. The current situation of liking and disliking can also be observed from time to time in artistic fields.
Composers or artists may also have aesthetic concerns. Sounds that are harmonious, or what we call consonance, are generally more suitable for hearing. Compositions that are created with memorable melodies that are pleasing to the ear, using certain preferred models in terms of harmonics, usually gain the approval of the listener, while taking risks and going for different emotional searches, composers can put aside the concern of getting approval and make music to improve themselves. Sometimes in both cases, there is an aesthetic concern in the work of the composer or artist.
The appreciation of the work, the interpretation of the audience, etc.
Since we know how relative the concept of beauty is, it is normal to have an aesthetic concern in artistic musical works, and it should not be forgotten that the art or composition made will be relative in terms of taste, and that aesthetic perception varies from person to person.
