Virtual Time, Music, and the Sublime

Abstract

Introduction In this essay, I utilize the song “She Weeps Over Rahoon” arranged by Eric Whitacre (2008) to demonstrate how Langer’s expressivism can be understood to fulfil Burke’s account of the sublime such that certain music is aesthetically experienced as an instance of the sublime. I focus on Langer’s concept of virtual time, where the listening experience of music is unique from chronological time, in that it is multidimensional and accessible for our complete comprehension (Langer, 1953). I will first give an account of Langer and Burke’s philosophies, and subsequently apply them to “She Weeps Over Rahoon,” originally a poem by James Joyce wri!en in 1913 (see Appendix) inspired by a woman visiting her lover’s grave in Rahoon, Ireland, to demonstrate how the objective experience of listening to music can elicit the same affective responses as the sublime and be transcendental for the listener.