Horn Harmonies

Victoria Patterson
Alexis Lee
World Literature II
February 18, 2011
 
 
What Did Voltaire Think About the Arts?
            During the age of the Enlightenment, the era of reason, old customs and accepted beliefs were challenged by new ways of understanding science, society, and government. However, those aspects were not the only areas of life that went through radical changes and questioning. All types of the fine arts were questioned and criticized as the philosophers of the age began to favor rationality, science and religious freedom over the intolerance of earlier time periods. One influential philosopher of this time was Voltaire, a French writer and historian who had fresh opinions that not only shaped the ideals of new governments and societies but also influenced arts such as painting, literature and music. During Voltaire’s lifetime, 1694-1778, Neoclassical practices of logical form and composition permeated music and art. However, through analysis of Voltaire’s work Candide, one can see that Voltaire had even surpassed the ideals of the Enlightenment era in the area of art and music. Candide, which is said to be Voltaire’s “most famous work”, reveals Voltaire’s astonishingly avant garde philosophy on the arts through the pessimist and perfectionist Pococurante (Hanning 308).
            During Candide’s visit with the senator Pococurante in the 25th chapter, Candide’s Classical standpoint on visual art is challenged by Pococurante’s criticism. As they walk through the art gallery of the senator’s home, Candide is “surprised by the beauty of the pictures” (Voltaire 82). Pococurante, hearing this remark, begins to counter Candide’s observation with negative critiques about the paintings. He begins by saying “They give me no pleasure; the colour has gone very dark” (Voltaire 82). The fact that Pococurante brings up the aspect of color, or lack thereof, of the artwork is very significant. In the Neoclassic era, “sculpture is the quintessential visual art of the period… as it is based on form” instead of color (Hanning 405). Classicists believed that form was the most logical way to depict an “ideal beauty” and color was placed as not very useful (Hanning 309). However, if we think of the era of Romanticism in visual art, Romantics replaced sculpture with painting as the primary art form. The reason being that Romantics believed “color the most efficient way to express emotions and accent what was important in the piece” (Hanning 405). Color added a certain fantastic or extreme quality to the art, allowing the viewer to connect more emotionally with the content of the piece itself. After Pococurante wishes more color for the picture, he goes on to say, “the faces are not sufficiently rounded and do not stand out enough” (Voltaire 82). This statement is just as important as the last. In Classical art, logic was utilized to achieve an overall effect with the piece being formed or painted. In other words, the big picture was much more important than the small details. However, Pococurante is asking for more detail in the faces of the painted subjects. This is a primarily Romantic ideal for during Romanticism detail was very important to the arts because “individuality and expression of the self” became more fashionable (Hanning 399). Romantics did not want all of the subjects of their works to have the same facial expression like the Classicists did because Romanticism focused on “novelty and exoticism” (Hanning 407). After pointing out the shortcomings of the facial features of the subjects, Pococurante then says, “the draperies have not the least resemblance to material… I shall only like a picture when it makes me think of nature itself; and there are none of that kind” (Voltaire 82). During the period of Romanticism, a revival in nature inspired artwork occurs. “Artists look to the natural world to inspire them” for subjects to paint and they “experiment heavily with light, color and detail in order to achieve a fantastical and dramatic representation of nature” while in the same respect keeping it recognizable (Hanning 409). Romantics pushed boundaries in order to escape from the “logical severity” and “restraint” of the Enlightenment (Hanning 308). Throughout Voltaire’s work Candide, the main character is portrayed as being naïve by the people he meets. If Candide represents the masses and Pococurante represents the philosophies of Voltaire, and we can tie the former to Classicism and the latter to Romanticism, it is completely evident that Voltaire was not only an Enlightenment thinker. In fact, we can infer from this information that Voltaire was some 100-200 years ahead of even the newest ideas concerning the fine arts of the day.
            After Pococurante and Candide discuss the shortcomings of visual art, Pococurante then treats Candide to a private concert. Candide “thought the music delicious” while Pococurante had something very different to say about the music he had heard (Voltaire 82). “This noise… is amusing for half an hour; but if it lasts any longer, it wearies everybody although nobody dares to say so” (Voltaire 82). By saying that the music is boring the reader realizes that Pococurante is bringing up the same lack of emotion and connection in the music as was in the painting in the earlier paragraph. He then goes on to say, “Music nowadays is merely the art of executing difficulties and in the end that which is only difficult ceases to please,” or in other words, Neoclassic musical composition focused too much on writing in difficult notes and passages and much too little time putting actual substance into the music (Voltaire 82). Pococurante, or shall we say Voltaire, is extremely ahead of his time in pointing this out. Difficulty in music just for the sake of being difficult takes away a certain emotional connection that the listener needs in order to relate to the performer and composer. Pococurante was calling for not exactly simpler music, but music with more substance in it. Romantic music met these expectations by having embellishments and difficult passages, but at the same time placing them to where they tap into emotions of the individual. The idea of more vivid color and contrast in visual artwork also can be carried over to differences in Neoclassical music and Romantic music. Color is not only a visual aspect, after all, it is also an aural effect. “Tone color” is a parallel with the word “timbre” which was experimented with greatly in the Romantic era of music (Hanning 410). Composers added new “color” to their symphonies mainly with new instrumentation such as contrabassoon, bass clarinet, piccolo, English horn, and a much wider range of percussion instruments just to name a few (Hanning 425). Even in the musical respect, color was very limited during the time of the Enlightenment, and Pococurante is left desiring more. A looser interpretation of form is also drawn to parallel musical art of the age of Romanticism. “Symphonies are made longer and movements between them are blurred, cadenzas are put in more ambiguous areas of concertos, and instrumentation was tampered with” (Hanning 441). In this respect, form was made more experimental and individuality was showcased more effectively between composers. Once again, Pococurante calls for new ways of creating art from outside the boundaries of the Classical era of logic and form, and his desires are not met until the Romantic period takes place long after his life is over. Voltaire is very obviously using Pococurante to represent that part of himself that desires for a more emotional, exotic, and novel aspect of art in all forms whether it be visual or aural.
          One hears from every source that Voltaire was “one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers of the day” (Hanning 308). Though this may be true, by studying the character of Pococurante in his work Candide, and at the same time knowing that “Voltaire identifies himself with the senator,” one can assume that Voltaire was actually far ahead of even the most enlightened of his contemporaries (“Summary and Analysis”). The Enlightenment is defined as “the belief in the perfectibility of things by logic” (Hanning 310). However, by inferring Voltaire’s philosophy on the arts through Pococurante, such as emotion, color, detail and individuality, Voltaire fits in more with the era of Romanticism, which is described as “a reaction to the rationalist ideals of the Enlightenment” (Hanning 404). During the Enlightenment, “the power of reason crumbles, as is evident through the chaos of the time, and is counteracted by challenging the restraint of the classic era” (Hanning 405). Voltaire once stated, “It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work. We must feel and be affected by it” (Genn). Voltaire was very obviously a parallel to Pococurante, as a Romantic trapped in the time of Classicism. Voltaire “expresses his boredom in such a placid life” through Pococurante’s unsatisfied nature as he longs for more emotion when he gazes upon art or when he listens to music (“Summary and Analysis”). Voltaire begs the world for deeper meaning in art, and the world answers him with the romantic era much later in time. Everyone knows that Voltaire was one of the most influential Enlightenment philosophers of the day, but I will take a step further and say not until Romanticism, roughly 100-200 years later, would Voltaire’s philosophy match his contemporaries.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Works Cited
Genn, Robert. “Voltaire Art Quotes.” www.quote.robertgenn.com. The Publisher’s Keys, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2011.
Hanning, Barbara. Concise History of Western Music. 4th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print.
Voltaire. Candide. Random House, 1928. Print.
“Summary and Analysis: Chapters XXIV-XXVI.” www.cliffsnotes.com. Wiley Publishing, 2000-2011. Web. 17 Feb. 2011.

vintagememoir:

Giving your heart away is never an easy thing but trying to give your heart away to another when it already belongs to someone else is impossible…

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take up arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing, end them.

People are funny creatures…

The most beautiful of all people,

most of the time are the most self-concious..

While the people that are the most proud of their beauty

usually have none to flaunt.

The most beautiful are often the most humble

while those that are not so beautiful

are usually the most vain.

Why is that? Am I the only one who notices this??

All these gorgeous people,

people that are beautiful on both the inside and the outside

they can’t see it when they look in the mirror.

No matter how many times you tell them,

they still view themselves with disappointment.

I wish they could look at themselves through my eyes.

Or God’s eyes.

Then they could understand.

Then they would see how stunning they truly are.