Introduzione: “Aures colere”. L’ascolto musicale per l’educazione estetica

Giulio Sforza

doi:10.18778/2450-4491.18.02

Authors

Giulio Sforza Università degli Studi Roma Tre

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2450-4491.18.02

Keywords:

philosophy of music, listening to music, aesthetic education

Abstract

The author discusses the significance of listening to music from a philosophical-metaphysical perspective. He emphasizes the role of aesthetic education in spiritual development. The author refers to the writings of Anunzio, Baudelaire, Nietzche, who described music as a revelation of the Absolute. In the author’s view, music is a way of practicing philosophy which encompasses both the spheres of intellect and emotions. Listening to music is a process that teaches sensitivity, combining kinesthetic, intellectual, and aesthetic pleasures. The educational value of this process lies in its ability to stimulate the potential of mental abilities. The metaphysical potential of listening to music is revealed when an individual is intellectually, emotionally, and sensually prepared for experiencing the mystery hidden in the primal sound – Urklang. In the second part the author writes about scientific meetings and seminars organized by him in the years between 1984 and 2003. Its topics were related to different aspects of engaging with literature, theater, and as a consequence – music, taking into consideration its individual as well as universal character.

Author Biography

Giulio Sforza, Università degli Studi Roma Tre

Giulio Sforza is a renowned artist who combines pedagogy with philosophy and musicology. For many years he worked at the Terza Universita di Roma, serving as head of the Department of General Pedagogy. He has written numerous monographs, including: La funzione didattica. Spunti per un discorso sul metodo come epistema (1976), Educazione e sinistra: tra conformismo e liberazione (with E. Laurenzano) (1977), Metaproblematico e pedagogia. Motivi marceliani (1978), L’educazione estetica oggi (1991), Musica in prospettiva europea: educazione musicale comparata (with M. T. Luciani) (1996), Vitam impendere pulchro. Percorsi di educazione estetica (2007).

He also edited several collections of essays, including Musica ed ecologia in prospettiva estetica (1997). He organized many international academic conferences under the joint title “Giornate Internazionali Intineranti”, attended by both artists and scholars. He also published several poetry books. In 2020–2023 he published two extensive volumes of his virtual diaries entitle Dis-Incanti. Professor Gulio Sforza has participated many times in conferences organized at the University of Lodz. He published several articles in edited volumes on art and education published by Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego. In 2011, in honor of many years of academic collaboration, the Senate of the University of Lodz granted professor Sforza the medal “Universitatis Lodzienzis Amico / Friend of the University of Lodz.”