Henderson, Ian H.

English

The College at Brockport, State University of New York: Digital Commons @Brockport

Philosophic Exchange
Volume 4
Number 1 Volume 4 (1973) Article 2
1973
Response to Beadsley on "Semiotic Aesthetics and
Aesthetic Education"
Ian H. Henderson
The College at Brockport
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Henderson, Ian H. (1973) "Response to Beadsley on "Semiotic Aesthetics and Aesthetic Education"," Philosophic Exchange: Vol. 4 :
No. 1 , Article 2.
Available at: http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/phil_ex/vol4/iss1/2
IAN H .  HENDERSON 
Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts 
S. U. C. Brockport 
1
Henderson: Response to Beadsley
Published by Digital Commons @Brockport, 1973
RESPONSE TO BEARDSLEY ON "A SEMIOTIC THEORY OF 
AESTHETIC EDUCATION" 
by 
Ian H. Henderson 
After several readings of Beardsley's paper, I have begun to attempt to inter­
pret from the standpoint of a musician-educator just what the practical appli­
cation might be of this thoughtful analysis of artistic and aesthetic processes. Not 
being a philosopher myself, in the formal sense, I find it necessary to grope- for 
practical meanings among the terminologies. Metaphorical predicates, syntactic. 
density and repleteness, exemplification, and semiotic symbol-schemes are not 
my usual bp.g. My ontological and epistemological needs are more readily 
satisfied when the referents are major and minor, binary and ternary, tonal and 
atonal, consonant and disonant, even loud an� soft, or sharp and flat (naturally). 
[ recognize freely that our apprehension of musical art works is at times 
cognitive (we think our way through a composition), at times kinesthetic (we 
clap and tap inwardly if not outwardly) and at times affective (we sense moods, 
emotions, and feelings as we perceive the musical performance). In how many, 
and in which ways we find meaning in the performance is variable too accord­
ing to our past experience with the work (even the Beethoven Fifth can be 
labeled "war horse" if it is heard badly performed too often). We find meanings 
in music according to our present physical, emotional, and intellectual "set" 
(using "set" in the psychology sense); and according to the many conditions of 
the particular performanc-e (whether live or recorded, whether performed in the 
dark or with "visual" accompaniment, whether the seat is hard or soft-some­
one once said, I believe it was my wife, at the end of an overlong concert, that 
"the musical mind can comprehend only as much as the listener's seat can 
endure"). All of these and other intrinsic and extrinsic variables are found to 
affect our perception, apprehension, and discovery or assignment of metaphoric 
meaning to the musical work. 
As a musician, I find myself troubled by anyone's assumption or presumption 
that the Finale of the Beethoven Fifth is inherently triumphant. I am as willing 
as anyone to apply to that movement a number of labels (and one of them is the 
label triumphant-I don't particularly care whether the label is "is triumphant" 
or "evokes feelings of triumph" or "makes me think of triumphant" or "sounds 
.triumphant"). I would make a few points about this application of label. 
I think we assign as many meanings a.s our complex of perceptions demands: 
remembering that we hear, see, smell, taste, and touch, that all of these 
senses are or can be active at the same time that we think, feel, and react 
kinesthetically while a work is performed; remembering that for a particular 
performance one or the other or a combination of the senses might be more 
actively stimulated than others, that our "set" might motivate more thinking, 
less feeling. more physical reaction, less thought, etc., . we will tend to assign 
labels of "sounds triumphant," "feels triumphant," "makes me think triumph," 
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RESPONSE TO BEARDSLEY 
or even "convinces me that it actually is triumphant" according to the relative 
configuration of the variables at work. As an aside, but close to this point, let me 
say that I do not have a highly developed sense of absolute pitch-a mis­
application of the word absolute if there ever was one. The Beethoven Fifth 
could be performed in my presence in the key of C-flat minor instead of C 
minor and (though I might sense a different overall effect to the performance) 
I would be relatively untroubled. 'l'o many of my friends and colleagues that 
would be an unbearable and torturous experience. On the other hand, if I were 
to hear a performance of the work while following the printed score (in the case 
of this symphony the physical presence of the score is no longer required 
because I have followed it on so many occasions anyway) I will be obliged to 
assign labels of "C-minorish" as well as "foreboding," "A-flat majorish11 as 
well as "strongly assertive," "scherzoish" as well as "challenging," and "C· 
majorish" as well as "triumphant and fulfilling." In other words, my labels will 
tend to illustrate whaL I know from the standpoint of musical understandings: 
there will be key labels, tempo labels, structural form labels, metric labels, 
nuance labels, historical and stylistic labels, etc. as well as what I feel for the 
music "I've heard it too often or too recently;" "it's depressing because the 
brasses are out of tune tonight" or "because the hall is too warm tonight" or 
"because we argued over a parking space outside the hall tonight." 
I think too that there is more significance to the frame of reference than 
either Goodman or Beardsley has noted. I mean that in this sense: that those of 
us steeped in Western Civilization's classical/European artistic traditions have 
those traditions as our peculiar frame of reference and that our willingness to 
assign a label of "triumphant" to a Mendelssohn Wedding March, a Beethoven 
Fifth finale or a March from Aida is in large part engendered by our condition­
ing. The frame of reference for classical Indian music is a different one, one we 
in the West have just begun to attend to. I used to wonder at my own inability 
to sense the referential meaning of an Israeli folk melody until the Yiddish 
text was translated for me. I had been so carefu11y schooled to associate minor 
tonality with sadness that I had trouble finding character of joyfulness in what 
was to me a "sadness"-endowed musical configuration. Strange it is that even 
the ancient Greeks ascribed strength to the Dorian mode (very like our minor) 
and femininity or weakness to our stalwart major tonality, their Ionian mode. 
In other words, I don't personally believe that the ethos or meaning or character 
or metaphor is inherently in the art work. I think we assign a variety of 
meanings at various times in accordance with our set, our <:ulture, our exper­
ience, and our particula.r perceptions. 
That brings me to the point that I agree with Beardsley in his finding that 
art and the aesthetic experience provide us with a means for mediation, freedom 
of choice, and, to me, option of interpretation. In short, the art work allows for 
a multiciplicity of meanings rather than a single meaning. The arts, being 
gloriously unpredictable, are not science; the arts utilize quantitative principles 
but are not mathematical; the arts reflect upon history but transcend the 
finality of past events. I greatly admire those who are motivated to perform 
cellular biopsies upon the art object's left ventricle, but l prefer, myself, to 
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Henderson: Response to Beadsley
Published by Digital Commons @Brockport, 1973
IAN H. HENDERSON 
drink to the unpredictability of art, to its wonderful vagueness. I revel in my 
freedom to find in each art object the distinctive and personal meanings that 
you and others may or may not apprehend. And I congratulate the artist who 
has the mysterious power to create one work with so many meanings, some 
unique and some universal. 
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Philosophic Exchange, Vol. 4 [1973], No. 1, Art. 2
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