The Foreground and Background (Inner) Dimensions (Forms) of a Musical Work

The perception of form as a scheme intersects with the principle of musical form as a process, a becoming. An aesthetic object is divided into a foreground (Vordergrund) that is given in reality, and a background (Hintergrund) that is unreal (N. Hartmann; J. Böhme). What exists (the sensory shape) is the possibility of the path which leads to the perception of what does not yet exist—the essence of the work (A. Maceina, V. Daujotytė). The appearing of the external is a unity belonging to the consciousness of the internal (E. Husserl). The Aristotelian form is the Platonic idea (J. Ortega y Gasset). The insight into the work’s idea is unattainable without the requisite abilities, that is, experience (Vydūnas): the aesthetic value of a work of art depends on the correct interaction between the foreground and the background (A. Šliogeris), and on the appropriateness of the means of expression for the perceived idea of the work. Expression is the externalisation of the inside (i.e., indicated by the prefix “ex”). An “unapparent connection” is stronger than one which is obvious (Heraclitus; A. Adomėnas): the former still has to be made “apparent” through perception and expression.