The British View of Music in the Eighteenth Century : Changing Implications of Music as Mimesis

Abstract

One of the most difficult aesthetic problems for the British thinkers in the eighteenth century was that of "mimesis". This word, derived from ancient Greece, had influenced European thinkers for many centuries. Though its influence didn't reduce conspicuously during the eighteenth century, its implication changed gradually. Now, the word "mimesis" was replaced by such words as "imitation", "description", and "copy". The main aim of this essay is to follow the changing implications of "imitation" shown in the eighteenth century treatises concerning arts, especially music. In this essay I have devided the years from 1720 to 1800 into three periods, namely, the first period (1720-1750), the second period (1750-1780) and the third period (1780-1800). I have chosen two persons for each period, whose views are characteristic of their age as well as original. Thus, for the first period, I have chosen Fr. Hutcheson and J. Harris. They had a common idea of music, that music, imitative art to be sure, could not be explained thoroughly by the "imitation" principle. In the second period, represented by Ch. Avison and J. Beattie, some change occurred in the conception of music. They began to put emphasis not on "imitation" but on "expression". The last period, where A. Alison and Adam Smith have been taken for the representatives, showed radical conversion. Music was now considered to have another peculiar power besides being imitative. This power is "the effect of the particular sounds which rung in our ears at every particular instant" (Adam Smith). Thus, it can be said that the eighteenth century witnessed a slow and wavering change in interpretation of music : from "imitative art" to "art with positive peculiar value".