Musicologica Olomucensia

After the year 1840 the term "absolute music" appears, which means pure music that is eliminated from everything extra-musical. While music for Hanslick is tonal art, that is, peculiar type of art which is created from tones and never from a text or programme, Wagner considers absolute music to be a result of a faulty post-antique division of music and other arts. The term absolute music has played a historically meaningful role from three points of view: it appropriately pointed out the tendency of Western European music towards instrumentation, demonstrated its opposition to emotionality or sentimentality, to incorporation of a topic or theme, and to programmatic music, and was connected to German idealism. All of this is losing its relevance in the twentieth century. As a reaction on extremely functionalistic music of the 1920´s, new interest has been awakened in the question of the specificity of music, one now speaks of the autonomy of music. The phrase, "autonomy of music" expresses the fact that music creates and determines the laws of its existence by and for itself. The terms absolute and autonomous music are in agreement in the principle "separable", which is why autonomous music can exist as absolute and opposite. Absolute music is separable from all which is specifically musical (text, program, theater, activity) and is, therefore, an aesthetic category. "Autonomous music" is understood the reality which remains when music is separated from all function, especially social function, which is therefore a sociological category. From the contemporary point of view, the problem of the polarization of autonomous music and functional music is established, and at the same time, the possibility of usefulness of the terms absolute music and autonomous music for the systematics of aesthetics is established. Autonomous (self-determining) and functional (designed to fulfil a certain purpose) music are intentional expressions, they are various (accenting or repressed) moments of uniquely musical formation, moments of esthetic or functional quality. A polarizing watershed between them is not, therefore, possible. This pair of terms, autonomous and functional music, bring the components of extra-musical into confrontation with one another. At the very least, this factor, for composers representing the connection to music of subjectivity, life experiences and thinking, brings into doubt the existence of anything purely musical. Musical autonomy does not exist, because no constant, isolated musical being exists. In the course of thinking about music it is essential to treat the terms absolute, autonomous and functional music with caution and always have in mind their perspective, historical and intentional dimensions, in order that they do not become terms empty of meaning.