The Transcendent Quality of a Musical Work

Aesthetic expression has a transcendent meaning in relation to everything which an artist creates. Expression as exteriorisation (J. Derrida). Transcendence is moving from a reality which is sensorily experienced “on this side” to a reality “on the other side” (J. Girnius). Transcendence is the essential structure of subjectivity: a person themselves is “existing transcendence” (M. Heidegger). Musical expression is—by converting the text of the work into sound, transcendence—the stepping over into a different form of the work’s being. This presupposes a rational basis of transcendence: it is the product of the thinking of being (A. Šliogeris). The adaptation of the ideas of a broader sphere (e.g., of the humanities) for the purposes of one’s own special activity (e.g., musical performance) is also an act of transcendence, and is effective in activating the imagination, the understanding of the work and musical hearing. The knowledge, abilities and values stored in a person’s experience reflect the identity of the semantic subject: a person’s experience is a system of individual meanings (Ž. Jackūnas, R. Pavilionis).