語言與能量之間：從克拉尼的音圖看音樂的能量化在一八〇〇年前後歐洲音樂美學史的意義

Ernst Florens Chladni's mystic sound figures produced from his wondrous experiment were first publicized in his 1787 ”Entdeckungen uber die Theorie des Klanges (Discoveries on the Theory of Sound)” presented to the Royal Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. These figures showed variations of sprinkled sand patterns surrounding the nodal points on a vibrating metal plate, which prompted the Paris Academie des sciences to offer a prize for their explanations. Chladni's figures also stimulated more than a few contemporaneous speculations to proclaim them as visual representations of nerve and brain vibrations. Recent historical research on human senses henceforth designates Chladni's Klangfiguren as visualized sounds that demonstrate the synesthetic trend around the turn of the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, there is one crucial aspect yet to be fully evaluated. Namely, these Klangfiguren were also interpreted as audible nervous and bodily energies turned visible; they were, following different theoretical contexts at that time, regarded as mediated representation of electricity. By tracing several ”natural-scientific” interpretations of Chladni's sound figures around the year 1800, this paper argues that viewing music as forms of energy has implications far richer than an obscure page in the history of science. In order to view music as energy, it is necessary to regard musical substance to be divided as abstract, measurable units. This interpretation suggests a transformation of music aesthetics from one associated with language to another related to ”the aesthetics of instrumental music” that has arguably been termed as ”absolute music” in the following two centuries. This paper regards interpretations of Chladni as important historical documents that call for a reassessment of the historical turn of ”abstract music” as a quantifiable form of energy that signifies the affirmation of musical modernity.