Artistic understanding matters to musical judgment: Comment on “From everyday emotions to aesthetic emotions: Towards a unified theory of musical emotions” by Patrik N. Juslin

Abstract

If a student claims that he likes arithmetic but is unable to solve simple arithmetic problems, we would be justified in adopting a normative stance by arguing that his preference is shallow because he misunderstands arithmetic. In contrast, experts in empirical aesthetics seem to accept uncritically that a listener understands a piece of music if she claims that she likes it. In line with the psycho-historical framework introduced by Bullot and Reber [1,2], we argue that normative considerations play a role in the appreciation of music as central as in other domains such as ethics, mathematics, and the empirical sciences. While researchers in empirical aesthetics tend to dismiss the need for a theory of the normative aspects of artistic appreciation [3,4], Gilmore [5] and others [6] have stressed that normative aspects are crucial. We agree with Gilmore. Because the normative aspects of music cannot be understood independently from an understanding of the historical context of each musical artwork, any theory of musical judgment needs to take the historicality of music into consideration. Consequently, researchers need a theory that examines the design stance [1, 7,8] – a strategy through which an audience queries the historical context in which an artwork has been designed and transmitted – to explain musical judgments. In sum, our psycho-historical approach leads to questions regarding how artistic understanding emerges as a consequence of historical knowledge, and how historical understanding influences artistic evaluation. These psycho-historical considerations supplement the theory presented by Juslin [9] because they add a historical and normative dimension to his model, which is currently absent from his account of what he terms “aesthetic judgment” – a concept that we find problematic [see [2]]. Some artistic understanding may be provided to appreciators even if they do not have specific knowledge of the historical context of the musical artwork. For example, Bigand and Poulin-Charronnat [10] reviewed research suggesting that basic exposure to music is sufficient to experience similar patterns of emotions [11]. Music might evoke emotions automatically (e.g., by simulating prosodic features of speech). However, learning about the art-historical context in which a piece of music has been composed may help an audience to achieve a new kind of understanding. For example, learning that Shostakovich dedicated his Symphony No. 7 to the city of Leningrad as a symbol of resistance against the Nazi regime may elicit novel feelings and change a listener’s evaluation.