The Understanding of Music as the Discovery of the Other: The Dialogue With Mario Azevedo

Abstract

Introduction. We offer the materials which acquaint the Ukrainian reader with the thoughts of the musicologist Mario Azevedo (Portugal). Their content concerns the actual problem of understanding music through cognition of the Other in the culture of our time. The relevance of studying the concepts of “The World and the Other” has deep roots in the history of music and in the science about it. The discussion of the concept of the Other is presented in the form of an internal dialogue of various scientific ideas and within the text it is structured in sections: on the unreliability and hypertrophy of the world, the tangibility of the Other-in-me, the world of the Other. Results and Discussion. Thus, the problem of understanding the world through the concept of the Other indicates the relationship between philosophy and music in the modern world. It is clear that its realization took place not only in the post-Soviet humanities, but also in the practice of musicians from the various countries of Western Europe. The dichotomy “The World and the Other” responds to the challenges of our time by asserting the rights of the Other. The songs of the peoples of the world as a result of the multiplicity of national manifestations can and should create different relationships. If the Being is communication (John Zizioulas), then the Other is surely a Friend, a personality. The philosophical analytics of the concepts “The World – I”; “The World – the Other” outlines the circle of musical cognitive science, equally important for Portuguese and Ukrainian scholars. As a result, a conclusion was made about the need to build a different ethics and aesthetics, aimed at understanding the Other, about the need to hear the otherness of the world. The other opens up the possibility of an event – a change that takes place in our political life and contributes to changes in ourselves. That’s the motivation which is needed – just to hear the Other! In the other world, we could avoid the attraction to hegemonic models and smile more at the sounds of otherness. We live in a world where access to sameness is already used in many cultures, which feel excluded, marginal. Music is when we open up ourselves to each other, says Mario Azevedo. In his text, the scientist created an intellectual “tension”, by stating the thesis of the dangers of globalization. As a result of the principle of ethnocentrism, the study of the identity and diversity of the ethno-cultural landscape within the East-West radius is becoming increasingly popular. Multiculturalism contributes to the understanding of the foundations of foreign cultural traditions and the identification of universal musical experience. The process of musical cognition turns into a chain of events sanctified by the Gift of selfless relations with the Other, through Love and Joy of understanding. Conclusions. The meaning of music is to open more and more friends in the world of otherness through the experience of communication. Music as a language of human communication teaches how it is possible to exist without conflicts – on the basis of respect and recognition of the Other. And this opinion is able to put an end to the proposed discussion.