Music is the 'pure' art par excellence. It says nothing and has nothing to say. Never really having an expressive function, it is opposed to drama, which even in its most refined forms still bears a social message and can only be 'put over' on the basis of an immediate and profound affinity with the values and expectations of its audience. The theatre divides its public and divides itself. The Parisian opposition between right-bank and left-bank theatr, bourgeois theatre and avant-garde theatre, is inextricably aesthetic and political. Pierre Bourdieu
About This Quote

Although it is often thought that music can be used to express anything, this is not the case. When people listen to music, their body language tells the tale of how they are feeling. Understanding this, composer Ludwig van Beethoven was well known for expressing himself through his music. He was known for creating very poignant works for his listener’s reaction.

If you were to listen to his piece "Ode To Joy" and see the way the audience jumps up and down at certain points of the song, you would know how much he desired to express himself through his music. He was not thinking about what message he wanted to get across to his listeners but rather what kind of reaction he wanted them to have when listening to his piece.

Source: Distinction: A Social Critique Of The Judgement Of Taste

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More Quotes By Pierre Bourdieu
  1. I would simply ask why so many critics, so many writers, so many philosophers take such satisfaction in professing that the experience of a work of art is ineffable, that it escapes by definition all rational understanding; why are they so eager to concede without...
  2. Music is the 'pure' art par excellence. It says nothing and has nothing to say. Never really having an expressive function, it is opposed to drama, which even in its most refined forms still bears a social message and can only be 'put over' on...
  3. Thus, for an adequate interpretation of the differences found between the classes or within the same class as regards their relation to the various legitimate arts, painting, music, theatre, literature etc., one would have to analyse fully the social uses, legitimate or illegitimate, to which...
  4. The mind is a metaphor of the world of objects.
  5. Male domination is so rooted in our collective unconscious that we no longer even see it.
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