[Jazz and Objectivism]

"Romantic Realism" is the term Ayn Rand used to describe her own work. She used "Romantic" to describe art affirming the power of volition - i.e. of human efficacy. She considered herself a Romantic in this sense, and also a Realist because all her fiction is set in a real world context.

I agree, it's incredibly odd. Even if we grant the very dubious claim that jazz emerged historically from racism, that in no way proves its aesthetic inferiority. But the content of that PDF is irrelevant to the question of whether aesthetics is a field open to rational discourse.

You can read the gist of what Ayn Rand had to say about music here. To my knowledge, she didn't write about jazz. As I said, genres of music are optional values, so attempting to prove, for example, that someone who prefers jazz to classical music is in some way deficient is a doomed effort.

Interesting. This is a quote from that site, I assume quoting her:

"Until a conceptual vocabulary is discovered and defined, no objectively valid criterion of esthetic judgment is possible in the field of music . . .

No one, therefore, can claim the objective superiority of his choices over the choices of others. Where no objective proof is available, it’s every man for himself—and only for himself."

It does leave me wondering what a conceptual vocabulary means...

[Jazz and Objectivism]

Like all forms of music, jazz is an optional value which may or may not appeal to a particular Objectivist. I think I remember reading somewhere that Leonard Peikoff enjoys some form of jazz, though I don't recall the details.

Why do you think this?

Lyndon Larouche is a rather strange person. Living on a college campus, I've run into his cronies multiple times - usually while they're yelling inanities at passing students and generally being obnoxious. His ideas have no connection to Objectivism, other than being antithetical to it.

There's a whole section of the forum devoted to Aesthetics. Music is of particular interest to me. I've heard that Ayn Rand had some ideas, something about "Romantic Realism" or something like that. If you read the PDF I linked to, I think you will find a rather odd attempt to "rationalize" the superiority of classical music, particularly the three "B" - Bach Beethoven and (B)Mozart, etc.

The basic premise is that Jazz was played by blacks because they were not allowed to play in Symphony Orchestras, thus depriving them of the opportunity to play superior music.

The writing is an attempt to make a "rational" argument about the alleged superiority of one type of music over another. So, since there is a section devoted to Aesthetics in Objectivism, it seems like it might have something to say about music. I'm just curious what precisely.

[Jazz and Objectivism]

I'm just curious about what objectivism has to say about Jazz, if anything.

I think it can be very odd to bring esthetics into some sort of rational discussion.

I'm not an Objectivist, btw.

These booklets, from a group by Lyndon Larouche, were dropped in large quantities on the steps of the New England

Conservatory of Music, where I was a student at the time. I still have the paper copy.

It's a rather strange attempt to somehow fit music into some sort of platonic idealism.

http://wlym.com/PDF-77-85/CAM8009.pdf

Food for thought.

R