Is BEAUTY worth Saving?

Is BEAUTY worth Saving?

Today I received an email informing me that the Post Carbon Institute’s Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg had passed away. Perhaps because he started his career being a musician he answered this question that I think we all ask: “Why bother saving “civilization”?  His answer: Beauty.

“Beauty—from the spare, honest beauty of a Zen temple or a shakuhachi flute, to the over-the-top ornate beauty of an Italian Renaissance cathedral or a Puccini opera. Aesthetics are a product of time and place. But the human response to beauty, and the urge to create it, are instinctive and transcend humanity itself. We know this because other animals are also obsessed with beauty. During the 1940s, English musicologist Len Howard devoted herself to studying the music of wild birds. According to Theodore Barber’s account of her work (in his marvelous book, The Human Nature of Birds),

She became personally acquainted with many and knew some for their entire lives. . . . Her intimate study of bird songs led to . . . surprising conclusions:

1. Birds, like humans, enjoy their songs. They take pleasure in singing, and they enjoy hearing even their territorial rivals sing.

2. Birds not only convey messages and express feelings and emotions in their songs, but at times they sing simply because they are happy.

3. [Birds of the same species] can be reliably identified by their unique variations of the species’ song. In fact, conspecific birds apparently differ in musical talent as much as humans. This unexpected variability is due to the individual bird’s interpretation of the theme, his technical ability in executing it, his “style” of delivery, and the quality or timbre of his voice. Some very poor singers are found in every songbird species. . . . There are also very superior musicians among songbirds. For instance, over a period of a few days, a talented blackbird creatively and spontaneously composed the opening phrase of the Rondo in Beethoven’s violin concerto. (He had not previously heard it.) During the remainder of the season he varied the interpretation of the phrase; “the pace was quickened toward the end . . . a rubato effect that added brilliance to the performance.”

Of course, it’s a long way from a bird’s song to a performance of Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony; the latter is a lot more complicated and expensive to produce, and requires a lot of cooperation. Music and the other arts came to be developed to extremes of complexity largely as a result of the process of professionalization—which again can only be understood in terms of anthropology and history.

Hunter-gatherers had music, but it was relatively simple—as simple and beautiful in its way as a birdsong. With more intensive means of food production—farming—we were able to produce food surpluses that could be stored. That enabled the construction of cities and full-time division of labor. For the first time in the human story, we see writing, money, and far more sophisticated weapons and other tools. We also see full-time artists and musicians.[1]

We all love the beautiful. Before civilization all that we could do is admire the beauty of Nature. That is all well and good and I certainly go out of my way to immerse myself in Nature’s beauty. But man made beauty also feeds me soul, but in a different way. I can’t say what the difference is, but I see it as a compliment to the beauty of nature. I love hearing a loon calling over the lake but I admit that Bach’s viola concertos feeds my soul even more deeply. For me that makes Beauty worth saving: Beauty is food for my soul.

So, what can you do when asked: “Why is civilization worth saving?” you can say: beauty. I will do all I can to save Beauty. Beautiful buildings. Beautiful paintings. Beautiful carvings. Beautiful gardens. Beautiful clothing. Because Beauty is not just fluff – it has power and majesty and LIFE in it and helping LIFE to flourish is a life task worth devoting your life to.

In conclusion, why not listen to some beautiful music? Listen to Richard Heinberg playing Paganini’s “Sonata Concertata For Guitar And Violin”. [reference 1]

Reference

1. https://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-12-28/post-carbon-music/?mc_cid=4bca7f2677&mc_eid=310c241da7