MUSIC AND MORALITY: The Reverend Hugh Haweis and his Music and Morals. A voice from the Victorian England about the morality of music: ethical effects of musical emotions

• Authors: Siechowicz, Paweł

Abstracts

EN

The Reverend Hugh Reginald Haweis with his book Music and Morals received an astoundingpopularity in the Victorian England. In his writings, he affirms the moral powerof music, both in temporal and eternal terms, describing carefully its similarity to humanemotions. The link between emotions and music can be found in their formal characteristics. The moral virtue of music is closeness to life when it comes to its emotional content.The moral sin of music is that it expresses false emotions. What is even more important,Haweis asserts that the moral power of music depends on the disposition of a composer,a performer, and a listener. In his considerations one can find a certain ethics outlining theduties of the three to make the moral power of music serve the good. That is the developmentof emotionality and the understanding of feelings in everyday life. The lesson thatwe can learn from Haweis today is to think carefully about the conditions that make thesocial practice of music serve good.

Keywords

EN

Music; morality; Haweis; Emotions

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Gdański
• Journal: Miscellanea Anthropologica et Sociologica
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 16(3)
• Pages: 144-152

Contributors

author

Siechowicz, Paweł

Identifiers

DOI

10.5604/20842937.1186517