Why Beauty Matters a BBC sponsored video by Roger Scruton

     Roger Scruton, a writer of over 30 books and several novels, philosopher, professor and composer hobbyist who has written 2 operas, was commissioned by the BBC television station to contribute to a television series on beauty. I can see why, apart from the fact that he is easy on the eyes, he is a captivating speaker with points on beauty, that really make us think about our impact on the world and that impact on us as individuals and human beings.
   In Scruton's eyes, between the years of 1750-1930, the arts aim was beauty. The feeling was that through our quest for beauty we understand our own spirituality and "shape the world as a home".  Beauty was central to our civilization for 2000 years and seen as "the revelation of God in the here and now".  Sacred and beautiful were two words on equal planes. Artists of the past valued art as a thing of beauty, a way to bring peace from chaos, ease our suffering and help us celebrate our joy. Thus, there was a need for skill, taste and creativity. Ornaments, such as in architecture, music and art were reminders that we needed more than just practical things.
     During the 20th c., art aimed to disturb, originality was valued and beauty stopped being important .  As a result, we are now self-centered and our language, music and manners are increasingly "raucus.... as though beauty and good taste have no real place in our lives". We are surrounded by ugliness, including the architecture.  "No longer does art raise us to a higher spiritual or morale plane". "the world is disturbing so art is too". Today, art displays randomness and is meant to shock us, showing that anything can be art. This makes it a joke.  It is considered a work of art if the artist thinks it so. "It helps people see the world in which we are living". We value only the utilitarian, things that are useful. If art is thought of as being useless, nobody cares what they listen to, look at or read. Beauty has become a side-effect not a focus. "Todays works of art aim to create a brand even if they have nothing to sell". Speaking of music on a related subject, Ann C. Clements writes, in her article; Escaping the Classical Canon ;  "...keep in mind that popular musics are often popular because someone has paid big bucks for it to be that way......They are deliberate attemps at profiteering....".  Todays thought if you create a brand, a gimmick, with the popular dilineated meanings, it will appeal to the masses despite its' quality and sell. Scruton believes that if you only consider utility the things that you build will soon be rendered useless".
     Scruton states, from www.rogerscruton.com, that "postmodern culture emphasizes ugliness, despondency and desecration which is a betrayal of a sacred calling".  Beauty is a real and universal value within our nature and is indispensable in shaping the human world. It is his philosophy that if we lose beauty we may lose the meaning of life. We need to look for standards of beauty that has a firm base in human nature and build them into our lives. Esentially, what he is saying here is to look for art, and in our case music, that celebrates us as human beings instead of things that may aggravate or have negative meanings to us.
     My thoughts about this subject in relations to music. Should we be concerned about our students choices of music? And, what do we do about peer pressure that affect students' willingness to stand up for what they feel is beautiful when the majority of their friends do not feel the same.  As it states in our text by Lucy Green: "If such pressure does affect pupils' willingness to express certain musical allegiances, then that is clearly a cause for concern amongst music educators".  What about negative music that, by Scruton's view, does not exhibit beauty or add anything positive to our lives. How do we as a culture change the programming on the radio to play beautiful music, and who is going to be the deciding body of what is deemed "beautiful".  I agree with Scruton on many levels; I do not see anything beautiful in a toilet seat or an unmade bed with condoms, tissues and alcohol strewn around, I do not care if it shows reality in our world today. I do not want or need to see or hear negative things that do not elevate me to a higher plane or celebrate me as a person. I do understand that art is representative of the world in which we are living, but whatever happened to "keeping your skeletons in the closet" instead of on display for all the world to see or hear. I think that an add campaign would be nice "Bring Back Beauty", an all-out assault on all things negative and oppressive....something that shines a spotlight on, and places beautiful things in high public regard. I see this in commercials and presidential campaign goals. After watching Scruton's video, I see that it is a matter of great importance to humanity and for the children of our future. I do not want my child to think that art or music is a joke, I want him to have many beautiful and positive experiences, not time wasted in modern art galleries looking at the depressing way that the world is portrayed today, or listening to music that has no merit just made for the masses with no substance or anything that we can see as beautiful. I, on the other hand, question this stand because I feer that the term 'beautiful' in music will be taken as tonal and melodic. I fear that composers will feel a tying of their hands, afraid that their unique compositional style will not appeal to anyone because of the emphasis on beauty, and their music may not be seen in that light. This is a lot to think about but an extremely interesting and controversial topic.