music, freedom, and metaphysics 169mythology (for example in the conclusion ofDie Meistersinger).^3 The
decline of Hegelianism also has to do with a related sense, shared by
the early Wagner, that philosophy and theology contribute to perpet-
uating indefensible social conditions. Both are regarded as failing to
engage with the demands of sensuous human existence and so as failing
to appreciate the effects of abstract ideas on the real social world. This
criticism is often linked to the notion that metaphysical systems involve
an inversion, in which the source of metaphysical ideas in concrete
social practices and in the interaction of human beings with material
reality is not recognised. Ideas are therefore mistakenly thought of as
prior to what gives rise to them in real terms.
InThe Essence of Christianity( 1841 ) Ludwig Feuerbach argues that the
power of Christ as an example of virtue is misunderstood if it is seen as
deriving from an abstract quantity, called ‘virtue’, that is exemplified by
Christ. Similarly, ‘the power of religious music is not the power of reli-
gion, but the power of music’ (Feuerbach 1956 : 1 , 229 ). Feuerbach uses
music to counter the idea that religious ideas possess an autonomous
ability to influence people. Music’s power must be understood in other
ways: ‘Music is the language of feeling – the note is the sounding feeling
(‘das laute Gefuhl ̈ ’), the feeling that communicates itself’ (ibid.: 38 ). If,
as Schleiermacher claimed, feeling is the organ of religion, then ‘Feel-
ing is themost noble, themost excellent,i.e.thedivinein man. How could
you hear the divine through feeling if feeling were not itself of a divine
nature?’ (ibid.: 47 ). A concrete human practice like music therefore
takes on a vital role in the affective constitution of human beings, and
this role is independent of how the practice may be conceptualised in
metaphysical terms.
In theEconomic and Philosophical Manuscripts( 1844 ) Marx observes
that ‘only via the objectively unfolded wealth of human being [‘Wesen’,
literally ‘essence’] is the wealth of subjectivehumansensuousness, is a
musical ear, an eye for beauty of form, in short, are senses that are capa-
ble of human enjoyment, which confirm themselves as human essential
powers, partly developed, partly created’ (Marx 1968 : 541 ). At much
the same time as Feuerbach and the other ‘Young Hegelians’ question
metaphysics, in the name of the need to correct the inversion of the
relationship between ideas and human social reality, the status of music
3 However, it is important to keep in mind the differences of the kind of cultural nationalism
with regard to music present inDie Meistersingerfrom later forms of cultural and political
nationalism.