Chamber Music Is Intimate How?

T  hese four kinds of intense experience—longing, rapture, doubt, and the sense that one is in touch with the source of all value—these define the romantic vision of love.”
  —  John Armstrong, Conditions of Love, p. 3.

There is a new book by Diane Jeske at University of Iowa that helps to explain what we mean when we talk about intimacy in chamber music and why it matters.

There are many aspects or facets of ‘intimacy’, of course. Some have to do with a spontaneity of ‘discourse’ between the parts, and the fact that there is no ‘conductor’ imposing a singular will over the production. Other facets have to do with the intensity of affect, the solitariness/autonomy of gestures rendered by each part, or a certain ‘enclosedness’ of ensemble such that the musical dialogue is amongst individuals addressing each other—as contrasted with broader expository addresses in symphonic and other musical forms.

Most chamber music manifests a strong connection/touch between the parts, or evokes a solidarity or ‘belonging’ in ensemble—reveals inter-relationships that have social duties of continuing and maintaining continuity among the members; of promising to complete a coherent and satisfying musical statement; of exposing mutual secrets; and of maintaining parity in valuing and trusting each other. In chamber music, we see recursive/fractal generation of meaning through durative and enduring sequences of interactions that arise out of individual players’ discharge of their ‘moral duty’ in ensemble.

The intimacy in chamber music also usually connotes a ‘protectedness’ or security, relative freedom from fear and uncertainty, and the relative absence of conflicts with regard to values. Microcosm.

In essence, the intimacy is a result of an ethics of care and sharing—and Diane Jeske’s recent writings significantly extend the philosophical theory of so-called ‘ethics of care’.

Why is the intimacy of chamber music so attractive these days? I suppose it is because the world has become a big globalized hotel, quite detached and impersonal and commodified. And so we crave, more than in earlier times, face-to-face contact and belonging. Post-modern intimacy is about identity. Post-modern life is atomizing and impoverished of self-revelation (and impoverished of ‘other-revelation’ as well). Relationships are a process of self-revelation. Intimate music enables us to witness the artists (and the composer) engaging in the process of mutual self-revelation. Besides deriving pleasure from the results, we vicariously enjoy seeing (hearing) that the process can still in fact be done. We enjoy learning or being reminded of some of the ways in which we ourselves might do it.

The whole human experience is a giant quest for harmony amid persistent, dysharmonious forces. We realize that our quest is something like Sisyphus’s—the stone we strive to roll up the hill keeps on rolling back down. We are attracted to the intimacy of chamber music, in part, because it nourishes and informs and enlivens our quest, which we cannot undertake or sustain alone.

A necessary condition of our undertaking it together with others (family, friends, acquaintances) is that the friends each care about the other, and do so for her/his own sake. Although many accounts of friendship do not analyze such mutual caring any further, among those that do there is considerable variability as to how we should understand the kind of caring involved in friendship. Caring about someone for her/his sake involves both sympathy and action on the friend’s behalf. That is, friends must be moved by what happens to their friends to feel the appropriate emotions: joy in their friends’ successes, frustration and disappointment in their friends’ failures, and so on. Friends must normally be disposed to advance the other’s good for her own sake and not out of any ulterior motive. This is inherent in chamber music compositions’ structure, and it is what we witness in performance that leads us to say the music is ‘intimate’.

The relationship of friendship differs from other interpersonal relationships, even those characterized by mutual caring, such as relationships among colleagues: friendships are, in some sense, ‘deeper’ relationships. The question facing any philosophical account is how that characteristic intimacy of friendship is to be understood. The intimacy of friendship takes the form of a commitment friends have to each other as unique persons, a commitment in which the friend’s successes become occasions for joy; her judgments may provoke reflection or even deference; her behavior may encourage emulation or an endorsing response in a subsequent phrase, and so on.

I realize that the philosophical theory of care and intimacy may not interest all CMT readers. But in response to a couple of emails that complained about what the writers felt was “nebulous, vague, lazy” use of the word ‘intimacy’ as an attribute of chamber music, I thought I’d gather together here a few of the recent references that address the topic in crisp, analytical fashion (links below). I don’t dispute that the term ‘intimate’ may be over-used or lazily used. And I don’t dispute that other musical forms besides chamber music can also exhibit qualities of intimacy.

I do, though, think that ‘intimacy’ is a descriptor that’s valid—characteristic of most of what we regard as ‘chamber music’. Scholarly music theory analyses of inter-part exchanges provide plenty of evidence for the validity of ascribing intimacy to chamber music in terms of an ethics of care, which provides reasons for the exchanges, as Diane Jeske shows—and which uncovers the mechanics of why the compositions ‘work’ as they do, to enable us to perceive the musical discourse and sharing as embodiments of ‘intimacy’. Thanks for your comments, and for your interest in this topic!

C  hamber music is the most intimate kind of music. Intimate means personal, close, emotionally revealing and honest. In chamber music, each player plays alone and yet together with others. How can you play alone and yet together? It’s very much like basketball where the players have their own special and unique roles, and yet teamwork is vital at every moment. But unlike sports where the players are trying to win against opponents, in chamber music there is nothing to work against and everything to work for. The goal is to bring to life a work of musical art.”
  —  Bruce Adolphe, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, 2006.

• CMA. Chamber Music Defined
  
• Friends of Chamber Music - The Intimate Voice of Classical Music
  
• Annis D. The meaning, value, and duties of friendship. Amer Philosophical Quarterly 1987; 24:349–56.
  
• Armstrong J. Conditions of Love: The Philosophy of Intimacy. Norton, 2003.
  
• Badhwar N. Friends as ends in themselves. Philosophy & Phenomenological Research 1987; 48:1–23.
  
• Badhwar N, ed. Friendship: A Philosophical Reader. Cornell Univ, 1993.
  
• Clement G. Care, Autonomy, and Justice: Feminism and the Ethic of Care. Westview, 1996.
  
• Cocking D, Kennett J. Friendship and the self. Ethics 1998; 108:502–27.
  
• Cocking D, Oakley J. Indirect consequentialism, friendship, and the problem of alienation. Ethics 1995; 106:86–111.
  
• Gilbert M. Sociality and Responsibility: New Essays in Plural Subject Theory. Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.
  
• Groenhout R. Connected Lives: Human Nature and an Ethics of Care. Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
  
• Halling S. Intimacy, Transcendence, and Psychology: Closeness and Openness in Everyday Life. Macmillan, 2007.
  
• Hankivsky O. Social Policy and the Ethic of Care. Univ BC, 2004.
  
• Held V. The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global. Oxford Univ, 2005.
  
• Jeske D. Rationality and Moral Theory: How Intimacy Generates Reasons. Routledge, 2008.
  
• Jeske D. Friendship and reasons of intimacy. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 2001; 63: 329-46.
  
• Diane Jeske page at University of Iowa
  
• Kasulis T. Intimacy or Integrity: Philosophy and Cultural Difference. Univ Hawaii, 2002.
  
• Larrabee M. An Ethic of Care: Feminist and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Routledge, 1992.
  
• Noddings N. Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education. 2e. Univ California, 2003.
  
• Pettersen T. Comprehending Care: Problems and Possibilities in The Ethics of Care. Lexington, 2008.
  
• Slote M. The Ethics of Care and Empathy. Routledge, 2007.
  
• Snyder J. Flying Lessons: The Psychology of Intimacy and Anxiety. AuthorHouse, 2005.
  
• Tronto J. Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care. Routledge, 1993.
  
• Tuomela R. The Importance of Us: A Philosophical Study of Basic Social Notions. Stanford Univ, 1995.
  
• Ulrich H. Chamber Music: The Growth & Practice of an Intimate Art. Reprint, 1948.
  
• Whiting J. Impersonal friends. Monist 1991; 74:3–29.
  
• Zelizer V. The Purchase of Intimacy. Princeton Univ, 2005.