Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry… and the Problem of Musical Sublime

Abstract

The paper aims to examine the relationship between musical experience and the category of sublime as formulated in Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful. I point out that the sense of hearing is, according to the Anglo-Irish philosopher, the privileged sensory channel to arouse the feeling of sublimity due to the openness of the ear and the immediacy of audial experiences. Unlike sight, hearing is a passive organ, susceptible to the experience of infinity and indeterminacy, rendering the boundary between subject and object abolished. Thereafter, I describe the 18th-century context in which music started to be associated with the sublime prior to Burke. Subsequently, I specify the particular conditions that, according to Burke, must be met in order to define music as sublime. It should be violent, diverse, affective, full of disruptions, and be performed by a powerful instrumental ensemble. I also emphasize the role of shock, abruptness, corporeality, and anticipation in the musical experience. Moreover, I show that Russian romantic symphonic music (Tchaikovsky) carries out the conditions of musical sublimity indicated in Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry…