AN Whitehead and music 3

Real time
RICHARD ELFYN JONES ponders the relevance of an
h4 3o
influential thinker to the metaphysics of musical meaning
T O CITE Alfred North Whitehead in
any discussion of aesthetics needs some
emergence from antecedent entities to itself.) The
scope of the concept of 'actual entity' is quite
Notes
1. Whitehead
himself maintained
explanation, for he refers very little to remarkable since it applies to all forms of matter that he was
art or aesthetics in his work. Yet he was and, indeed, even to God. the only person
one of a small group of thinkers whose influence The actual entity 'becomes' as it absorbs in- ever to have read
extended far beyond any confined disciplinary fluences from other entities in its environment, the chapter on
'Abstraction' in
specialism. Indeed, I would like to suggest in including God. God also can become. This ab- his Science and the
this article that his philosophical writings can, in sorption is termed 'prehension', literally meaning modern world, and
fact, provide even musicians with much food for 'grasping'. So prehension is a ferment of qualita- Dorothy Emmett in
thought, despite their difficulty and stylistic tive valuation which need not necessarily be con- an obituary notice
said, 'There are
elusiveness., scious. The table on which I am writing prehends some who have
Whitehead was elected to the Professorship its surroundings, since its molecules react to oth- done so. But they
of Philosophy at Harvard in 1924, at the late ers. Whether one can romanticise this and see in must be very few'.
age of sixty-three, following a phenomenally it the workings of a mind or rudimentary con- 2. Revised
distinguished career as a scientist. Despite his sciousness evidenced by the simple transfer of edition, ed. Griffin
& Sherbume (New
advancing years, it proved a fruitful period of energy is not a matter for the present discussion, York, 1978).
activity for him: not only did he count among but we remember that Whitehead was a scientist,
3. Ibid., p.18.
his pupils such illustrious figures as Susanne well used to a purely rational approach and well
Langer, Paul Weiss, FCS Northrop and Charles aware that, by his time, physics was to do with
Hartshome, but, drawing heavily on his scientific flux of energy rather than the particle of Newton-
discoveries, he developed rapidly as a philo- ian matter.
sophical thinker. Indeed, the interaction between The entity prehends objects from its environ-
scientific and philosophic concepts underpins ment. Those objects are said to exert 'causal
one of his most important beliefs: that a funda- efficacy' on the subject. But this is not some
mental relationship exists between forces at work simple, easily understood effect, for to begin with
('process') and reality. it need not be conscious. In 'seeing' for instance,
In his famous book Processand reality: an essay the eye's enjoyment of a reddish feeling is
in cosmology (1929)2 we find an exposition of what intensified and transmuted and interpreted by
he described as his 'Philosophy of Organism'. complex occasions of the brain into definite
Here, he asserts that ultimate components of colours and other instances of qualitative 'etemal
reality are 'events', not particles of matter. An object'. The original physical feeling of causal
event is never instantaneous, for it always lasts efficacy is submerged but not eliminated by an
over a certain duration (even if perhaps an inrush of conceptual feelings, and then we have
infinitesimally short period of time, as when a a display of qualities presented to us. Whitehead
molecule in this paper reacts with another). This calls this experience 'perception in the mode of
is an event, and a process in time. An instant of presentational immediacy'.
time and a point in space, however, have no place The becoming of an actual entity is called a
in his scheme. Thus, with events we do not 'concrescence', which is an integration as a
talk of how things are (what they are made of) result of prehending other things or as a result of
but of how things become. The process of events, experiencing the causal efficacy of other things
their 'becoming' is fundamental. Those events on it.
of which the world is made are called 'actual
entities'. In older philosophies substance plays a
Actual entities (also termed actual occasions) are
fundamental role, but unlike substance (which the final real things of which the world is made
endures), an actual entity has no permanence. up. There is no going behind actual entities to
(And as if to emphasise this point he, in typical find anything more real. God is an actual entity,
neologistic fashion, describes an actual entity not and so is the most trivial puff of existence in far-
as a subject but as a superject, thus suggesting its off empty space.3

THE MUSICAL TIMES / WINTER 2000 47

4. Ibid., p.22. There may be gradations of importance, or diver- up in the flow of process. In seeing an abstract
5. (Lewisburg, sities of function, but in principle all are on the painting we experience causal efficacy because
1972). same level. we follow the reference of the embodied mean-
6. Ibid., p. 147 . When the concrescence is complete, an actual ing and this involves a sense of process [...l.1
occasion or actual entity's private life (during
which it has been prehending) comes to an end. This extract gives an idea of the modus operandi
In perishing it embarks on a public career and the required when adapting Whitehead's theories to
cycle starts again. This novel occasion now a chosen area of analysis. In the context of the
becomes the object for another subject to pre- present discussion we need to focus on the
hend, and, if consciously, perhaps with sweet fundamental point of Martin's argument, that this
thoughts of immortality. While ordinary objects is a religious or theological quest, with the aim
may be physically prehended, eternal objects are of raising ultimate questions in the actual context
conceptually prehended. Whitehead sees them of specific works of art. And if we are to follow
as ingredients in an experience and rather similar him successfully we must be aware of certain
to Plato's ideal forms. They are patterns and elementary facts about sense and perhaps
qualities like squareness, blueness, hope or love. perceive them in a Whiteheadian manner. For
So when an actual entity undergoes the develop- example, if we consider sounds and ponder on
ing process (concrescence) it acquires a definite their nature we might argue that when I hear a
character (to the exclusion of other possible door shutting, the sensation is not (primarily)
characters) by selecting some eternal objects an abstract acoustic one. I, the subject, have
(rather than others) to conceptually prehend. But already prehended the object and, by means of
Whitehead rejects the Platonic notion of the the 'mental pole', interpreted it. If we are to be
superiority of the eternal forms, for they are useful transcendentalists we may have to listen
no more than 'pure potentials for the specific away from things, listen through things, perceive
determination of fact'.4 That is all. So if I say that the inner core of an aural (and indeed visual and
this pencil is green, then this is a proposition other) sensa, to the depth dimension of whatever
where the subject is a society (nexus) of mole- it is, the referent. Some will see this as somewhat
cular actual entities and the predicate is the comparable with Heidegger's notion of Being as
eternal object 'green'. The fusion of the two is the depth dimension of all beings, Being giving
the combining of something real with something enduring value and ultimate significance to

B
ideal.

_UT WHAT has this to do with music

or aesthetics? The answer lies in the
general or universal nature of White-
beings - indeed, so much so that a being is in-
Being. It is an attractive area of mental activity,
this rationalising of the finite so that it is given a
depth dimension that raises our reasoning to
dizzy transcendental heights. But if Being can be
head's concepts, thereby ensuring their recognised, can it really be cognised? Questions
application to all areas of reality. Strangely, it is about recognition are raised, with the attendant
in only one field that his speculations have been nagging doubts.
influential. Process Theology is largely the result Whitehead tells us that although the ontical
of the way in which Whitehead, along with (the secular) and the ontological or religious
Charles Hartshorne, succeeded in influencing are distinguishable, they are not separable.
members of the School of Divinity at Chicago Remember, God is an actual entity. So can we
during the 1930s and later. It is only fairly ever be sure where the ontical ends and the onto-
recently that the concept of process has featured logical begins? We may at least tentatively
in writings about art, notably in E David Martin's attempt to answer this by scrutinising the mate-
book Art and the religious experience: the language rials of our chosen art, music, and look at
of thze sacred.5 This is a work redolent of common experiences of music. To avoid con-
the Whiteheadian approach. For example, in fusion we will consider pure music only (not
attempting to explain the fundamental essence programme music). We also need to bear in mind
of different art forms Martin concludes that the traditional rift between the Referentialists and
the Non-referentialists, and remember that most
aestheticians tend to belong to the second
Music more than any other art is perceived
category, being either Formalists (like Hanslick
mainly in the mode of causal efficacy. Abstract
painting more than any other art is perceived or Gurney) or Absolute Expressionists (like
mainly in the mode of presentational immediacy. Leonard Meyer). For the Formalists tonal struc-
Thus music appears in part elsewhere, whereas tures have meanings which are strictly musical.
abstractions appear to be all here. In listening to The Absolute Expressionists take a softer line, in
music, we experience presentational immediacy that, while affirming the evocation of emotion by
because we hear the presently sounding tones. the musical meanings, this emotion is strictly
But there can be no 'holding' and we are swept musical, so musical meaning is intra-musical for

THE MUSICAL TIMES / WINTER 2000

them too. The Referential Expressionists, on designative meaning weakens our sense of 7. Ibid., pp.94-95.
the other hand, claim that musical meanings the fundamental compulsion of process is a 8. See his Emotion
legitimately refer to the extra-musical world, vexed question - it might form a distraction and meaning in
music (Chicago,
whether that be ontical or ontological. This inimical to the experiencing of process. Martin
1956), pp.2f.
theory owes its unpopularity presumably to the succeeds in conveying this peculiar engagement
9. See Martin:
implication that somehow one shouldn't listen to or participation in process via music by recalling
op. cit., p.1 0 4 and
music as such at all, but rather daydream of a striking passage from Sartre's The psychology The psychology
swirling torrents and great vistas of the natural of imagination, where the author succinctly of imagination
world - anything extra-musical in fact (a com- observes that music neither dates nor locates: (NewYork, 1948),
pp.279f.
mon perception among non-musical people). We
may not favour this theory, but in the present I am listening to the Seventh Symphony. For me 10. (New York,
that 'Seventh Symphony' does not exist in time, I 1957), p. 3 7 .
context we may choose to review it and give at
least some credence to it, albeit in a rather do not grasp it as a dated event, as an artistic
unorthodox way. This is because the whole point manifestation which is unrolling itself in
Chatelet auditorium on the 17th of November,
of our discussion is that of art referring to some-
1938. If I hear Furtwaengler tomorrow or eight
thing else. Bearing Whitehead in mind, E David days later conduct another orchestra performing
Martin's bold compression of Whitehead's thought the same symphony, I am in the presence of the
into a single sentence is useful. same symphony once more. Only it is being
played either better or worse I...]
Music more than any other art forces us to feel
causal efficacy, the compulsion of process, the I do not think of the event as an actuality and
dominating control of the physically given over dated, and on condition that I listen to the
possibilities throughout the concrescence of succession of themes as an absolute succession
an experience. The form of music binds the and not as a real succession which is unfolding
past and future and present so tightly that as itself, for instance, on the occasion when Peter
we listen we are thrust out of the ordinary pays a visit to this or that friend. In the degree
modes of experience, in which time rather than to which I hear the symphony it is not here,
temporality dominates. Ecstatic temporality, the between these walls, at the tip of the violin bows.
rhythmic unity of past-present-future, is the Nor is it 'in the past as if I thought: this is the
most essential manifestation of the Being of work that matured in the mind of Beethoven
human beings. 7 on such a date. It has its own time, that is, it
possesses an inner time [process], which runs
from the first tone of the allegro to the last tone
The implication here is that music can make
of the finale, but this time is not a succession of
us feel process directly, since musical notes a preceding time which it continues and which
are presented successively. But successive un- happened 'before' the beginning of the allegro;
folding is found in other arts too. Music's nor is it followed by a time which will come
special claim surely lies in its abstract nature. The 'after' the finale. The Seventh Symphony is in
meaning of the notes are basically internal, or no way in time.9
embodied, meanings, at least in pure music,
where there are no designative allusions. It At this point, it is useful to recall the distinction
appears that only music has both characteristics, which Suzanne Langer, in Problems of art,10
namely a successive unfolding and abstraction. makes between musical time and clock time, with
But before elaborating on this special claim musical time possessing a 'complexity' and
which is made for music, Leonard B. Meyer's 'variability' which is more similar to body time,
differentiation between designative and em- with its passage of vital functions and the
bodied meaning should be clarified.8 In language, tensions of 'lived events'. Music certainly seems
when a word refers to an object, this is a to give meaning to time, and through it we
designative meaning. Embodied meaning occurs experience the present in a special way, directed
when the stimulus and the referent are the same. as we are towards the future anticipated by our
A note, a phrase, or a section of music has expectations. Thus if the ontical categories of
embodied meaning, because it points to and time and place, and all the habits of everyday
makes us expect another musical (not extra- existence are not designated, then (to revert to
musical) event. Embodied meanings are the Heideggerian terminology) we may now be open
internal relationships of an art form, and in to Being.
pure music and abstract painting it is the very When discussing music in more detail, E David
lack of a designative meaning that distinguishes Martin's treatment of standard works is some-
them respectively from programme music and times disconcerting. For instance, in clarifying the
representational painting. ontological implications contained in music, he
Designative meaning is strong in literature, compares Bach's Well-ternpered clavier (i.e. all the
film and dance (in dance, the bodies themselves preludes and fugues as a single group) with the
have a designative meaning). Whether having a Art offugue and with the St Mattlhew Passion, all

THE MUSICAL TIMES / WINTER 2000 49

11. Martin: op. cit., three works being reduced to single, rigidly transparent icon, cannot be understood inde-
p. 1 13 . uniform types. We may tentatively agree with pendently of careful attention to the icon.'12 This
12. Ibid., p. 1 1 6 - 1 7 . him that technically the Passion is a form of is where a work of art attains ontological
13. Ibid., p.160. programme music for liturgical use, its designa- significance, and there is no doubt that works of
tive meaning referring specifically to religious art possess this translucent iconicity While
events and doctrines. But he goes on rather Gruinewald's Christ has conventional symbols
provocatively to say: it also has iconic symbols. Martin asserts that
without the addition of conventional symbols,
Yet music can have a religious programme and it will be very difficult for an iconic symbol to
even be put to liturgical use and still not be function as a religious one. For how can one
religious, except in the sense that all works of art prove that certain brush strokes in a painting
are religious insofar as they reveal something of have iconic symbolism? Martin's answer is that if
the mystery of Being in their seeming inexhausti- the primary subject matter is ontological, then,
bility [...1 There must be a more essential or and only then, can the work be appropriately
further inner continuity between the music and described as religious. But how does one deter-
the religious dimension.11 mine whether a work is ontologically oriented?
The answer has usually been - 'if conventional
Unfortunately he is not clear about the 'how' of symbols are present'. But what if it is not a paint-
this inner continuity He points out that the Art of ing of Christ, or the Cross, or anything like that?
fugue and the Well-tempered clavier lack religious Let us say Picasso's Guernica (to cite an example
programmes. How then he asks, very provoca- of Martin's). There are no conventional symbols
tively, is it possible that the Art offfugue possesses in it which might specifically indicate the reli-
an inner continuity with the religious dimension gious dimension. We must ask therefore whether

xW
that the Well-ternpered clavier lacks?

T
ITH this question poised in
suspended animation we could
perhaps digress for a moment in
it has iconic symbolism even if only implicitly.
Does it point to a further reality in its devastating
representation of what the ontical is like when it
becomes man's supreme value? One can assert
that Guernica does suggest something other than
order to refer to another area the secular values of Franco's fascism, a some-
of art where Martin's arguments prove more thing other than the awful image of a bull
convincing and logical. In discussing painting, signifying totalitarianism. But this 'other' image is
Martin recalls the ground-rules set by Tillich, not explicitly indicated, despite the fact that
particularly Tillich's distinction between 'signs' one is helped in a possible interpretation by the
and 'symbols'. There is a further distinction, too, presence of recognisable figures. This raises the
that between conventional signs and iconic signs, issue of how to extend this ontological enquiry
wherethe term 'sign' designates ontical (secular) to paintings which are completely abstract, or
reality. We also have conventional symbols and indeed too abstract, or to pure music. Tillich
iconic symbols, where symbol designates onto- himself was moved to see in Guernica an onto-
logical reality. The meaning of a conventional logical dimension, and, as Martin reminds us,
sign is arbitrarily attached to it, perhaps by social it was Tillich who argued powerfully (in a
convention, like [Z] at the roadside or x and y in much more abstract context) that there was more
mathematics. The sign's value is its transparency, religion in Cezanne's apple than in Hofman's
since one sees through it to the message con- Jesus 113
veyed, as when using a non-onomatopeic word. To return to music, we must now note Martin's
An iconic sign on the other hand incorporates conclusion, which greatly complicates the
characteristics significantly similar to the refer- premise whereby the St Matthew Passion and,
ent, like a stickman. In language, the word 'rat- say a secular work like the Art of fugue (or the
tle', because it resembles the sound of a rattle or Well-temiipered clavier) are pigeon-holed into
something rattling, is an iconic sign. There is a ontological and ontical categories respectively
designative meaning here too, and thus this sign For, as we have stated, he maintains that not only
is also transparent. Martin cites another human is there a difference between the Passion and the
image very far removed from our stickman, Art offtigue, there is also a distinction to be made
namely Christ in Gruinewald's Cnicifixion. He between the Art of ftigute and the Well-temnpered
says of it: 'our sight is ensnared, we attend care- clavier, with the former at least implicitly seen
fully to the embodied meanings'. The designative to possess 'an inner continuity with the religious
meaning is very obvious, while the embodied dimension'. He amplifies this as follows:
meaning is the divinity and suffering itl the lines.
'Whereas the stickman is a "transparent icon", In most of the work - Contrapuncti 1-11,
Gruinewald's Christ is a "translucent icon". The 14, 17-18 and above all 19 (the unfinished
referent of a translucent icon, unlike that of a quadruple fugue) - there is in the structure of

THE MUSICAL TIMES / WINTER 2000

 the embodied meanings an unearthly inevita- stowing, conflict and resolution, speed, arrest, 14. Ibid., p.124.
bility about the resolution of the tensions that is terrific excitement, calm or subtle activation and 15. Feeling and
iconic with the sense of reverence and peace that dreamy lapses - not joy and sorrow perhaps, but form (New York,
accompanies coercive experiences of Being. For the poignancy of either and both [...] Music is a 1953), p.2 7 .
example, in the opening sixteen measures of tonal analogue of emotive life.15 16. This is also
Contrapunctus 11 the three-note phrases that Martin's view, op.
form the subject sound in isolation somewhat Unlike Langer, however, I would claim that the cit., p.122.
baseless and suspended. iconic designations of music are not necessarily 17. See Charles
restricted to the structure of feelings. By means Hartshorne's
Despite their majestic pace, there is unfulfilled
of powerful internal connections which seem Creative synthesis
tension, anxiety in each one. Yet this theme of and philosoplhic
four and a quarter measures is centred around inexhaustible, the very .structure of music (so methiod (Illinois,
the tonic pitch, and when it arrives at the D there much out of only twelve notes) suggests that 1970), chapter 4.
is a sense of quiet release, although there is no music as an analogue of feeling is too restricted 18. translated by
final release until the last chord of the fugue. a definition.16 To begin with, the fundamental Trasg (London,
The Well-tempered clavier on the other hand, technical basis is an eternal object found in 1956), chapter 5.
despite its perhaps equally powerful icons of nature and bequeathed by God to us, and that is
inexhaustibility and temporality generally lacks the harmonic series. We all know its pervasive
icons of religious feeling [ ... ]14 role as the very root of all music, so we should
ask what statements can be made about the
Later, he admits: 'often no doubt we will differ resultant art. Our approach might be to ponder
about such judgements.' what the world must be like if between us and
Fortunately, there are some conclusions one the world the phenomenon of music can occur.
can draw from this, and they suggest the need for How must I consider the world, how must I
a more careful scrutiny of the musical materials consider myself, if I am to understand the reality
than is found in Martin's analysis. First, if music of music? This may not have all that much to
is an iconic symbol and translucent, showing us do with conventional analysis of a particular
a world beyond, then very careful attention must piece of music, so concerned are we with certain
be paid to the actual harmonic and rhythmic fundamentals common to all music. And it is
characteristics. After all, if God is somehow to be fascinating how musical notes, although derived
evoked and perhaps even experienced through from something very material like the harmonic
the icon, then the icon itself must be carefully series, do not correlate with any material
assessed. When one does this, it soon becomes phenomena when they are in horizontal motion
apparent that what is really under scrutiny is the or vertical grouping. Acoustical phenomena and
language of music as whole, not just one 'secular' one's auditory apparatus are indeed material, but
piece and the way it differs from another secular they have nothing to do with the meaning of the
one. Some will argue quite convincingly against sounds. (We might impose a private meaning on
this by stressing that a metaphysical distinction is the sounds, of course; and we might be helped to
apparent between the Art offugue and some banal appreciate the music by the designative meanings
music. We may indeed concur, and plausibly or conventional symbols in it.)
dismiss the inferior music as failing, through its
embodied meanings, to inform us or make us
aware of ecstatic temporality because of the
B UT one should be very cautious in the
present context of this personal interpre-
triteness of meanings and their failure either to tation, for claims have been made (by
make significant demands upon our imagination Charles Hartshorne and other process
or to conjure up a translucent iconicity. But such philosophers) that the element of feeling is
general statements may be so weighed down with more closely bound up with the 'outer world'
cultural preconceptions and prejudice as to be component than might at first be assumed. As
rather suspect, and one reason for this is the lack Hartshorne has pointed out in discussing colour
of a detailed assessment of the actual music. (and the point remains true of music) 'the
What if we found that a piece of pop had the "gaiety" of yellow [...] is the yellowness of the
same chord structure as a beautiful (transcenden- yellow'.17 One of the most lucid examinations of
tally beautiful) piece by Mozart? What criteria this metaphysical basis of music is by Victor
apply then, even when there is meticulous regard Zuckerkandl, who in his Sound and symbol
for musical materials? So, comparing pieces has analyses the inherent metaphysical quality of
its pitfalls. I would rather look at music as a musical phenomena.18 He deals with the issues
whole and do so in the light of a modification of raised by Hartshorne as follows:
Susanne Langer's observation that
Though the strict separation of the two worlds
The tonal structures we call 'music' bear a close is abandoned, the two components, physical
logical similarity to the forms of human feeling - and psychic, are still maintained. The non-
forms of growth and of attenuation, flowing and physical element that is found in the outer

THE MUSICAL TIMES / WINTER 2000 51

19. Ibid., pp.59-60. world, although it is no longer imported into viewpoint of the trigger action and the reverber-
20. Ibid., pp.60-6L it from an inner world, is yet, so to speak, ation.20
an external psychic. Even the vocabulary -
feeling, excitement, gaiety, and so on - is What is this 'external psychic'? Our experience
wholly drawn from the psychic realm. (In this
of music tells us that it is a force of some kind,
connection we must not forget that our
for which the physical/acoustical manifestation
language, which conforms to our mode of
thought provides a vocabulary for physical is transparent. It has nothing to do with the
phenomena and for psychic phenomena, but expression of feeling because these dynamic
none for phenomena that belong to neither qualities appear even when nothing is thought to
class: a source of frequently insuperable difficul- be expressed, namely when a scale is played.
ties in all investigations that do not readily fit (Since we are now imbuing a scale with meaning
into the traditional pattern of thought.) But it may be necessary to change our view about its
how, without falling back upon the old belief low musical status and confer on it an inherently
in the world soul or in a God in nature, we are metaphysical expressive power.)
to conceive feelings outside of a consciousness,
and a seeing, hearing, and touching of feelings
(to say nothing of other complications), we
T conclude, we have noticed when
discussing embodied meaning that
cannot at first see. In this situation, music shows
us the way out.19 there is an obvious difference between
language and music. In language, liere is
the word, there is what it means. But the musical
He then takes the opening theme of Beethoven's note and its meaning are far more intimately
Ninth Symphony as an illustration: connected; so the particular state of tension
which we perceive, let us say, in the leading note
When it appears for the first time in the Ninth or seventh degree of a musical scale (in the
Symphony, it is played by the lower strings. The context of a key) does not exist outside that note.
tones of the celli and double basses in this We are therefore left with a mystery, namely how
passage - especially by contrast with what has can music take place where things/bodies exist
preceded - have a very definite emotional and at the same time be transcendental to the
character: it could be called a character of space in which things/bodies move. It may be
solemn repose. The two components, then, are instructive to recall, at this point, one of the few
present - the physical, the acoustical tone and remarks Whitehead made about music. When
the psychic, the emotional tone; but the melody,
confessing to not understanding Beethoven's
the music, as we know, is in neither of these.
last quartets, he expressed the consciousness
What we hear when we hear melody is simply
not FO, G, A, etc., plus 'solemn repose', tone plus of the grandeur of their 'surrounding immensities
emotion, physical plus psychic, but, with that of thought'. He must surely have meant that,
and beyond it, a third thing, which belongs to when you listen to a masterpiece, you have a
neither the physical nor the psychic context: sense that you are in the presence of infinitude.
3, 4, 5 - a pure dynamism, tonal dynamic But for Beethoven to conjure up this extra-
qualities. It is not two components, then, which ordinary phenomenon was essentially a technical
make up musical tone, but three. The words we exercise whereby he had to choose between one
use to describe this third component - words musical concept and others. But these infinitudes
such as force, equilibrium, tension, direction - of possibility or unrealised possibilities which
are significantly such as neither of the two sides provide choice have an important place in White-
claims for itself alone and, consequently, may
head's system in a category called 'conceptual
well refer to a separate realm between the two,
a realm of pure dynamics. What makes a reversion', a subject for a later discussion, and
musical tone is so much the work not of the one deserving careful thought since it seems to be
physical and not of the psychic component the clue to the possibility of a 'hybrid' prehension
but of the third, a purely dynamic component, of God. Whitehead's original approach to this
that, compared with the latter, the two others awesome subject may provide a starting point for
appear to sink to the function of trigger and after- further exploration. Whitehead emphasises God's
effect: a physical process sets off the dynamic immanence in the world in three ways, and these
phenomenon; the latter reverberates in a psychic provide cornerstones for new avenues of enquiry.
process. Firstly, God supplies every entity with its basic
So greatly is our thinking under the spell of
conceptual aim. Secondly, He is present with the
the two-worlds scheme! Perhaps the sterility
entity throughout its concrescence in its world.
of traditional aesthetics is owing to the fact that
Thirdly, as the entity prehends God, so is He
it has never escaped from this schema; that it
Richard Elfyn an influence on it, and His own consequent
continually swings like a pendulum between a
Jones is a Senior nature is duly affected. As Zuckerkandl has
Lecturer in physical and a psychic component of art work
Music at Cardiff and art experience, in a vain attempt to compre- suggested at the very end of his book, our con-
University. hend the phenomena of art from the narrow clusions are but indicators for further study.

52 THE MUSICAL TIMES / WINTER 2000

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