Yes, art can certainly be defined. but watch the context, the cultural and historical period. Is it art or arts ? Which art ?
See also Horace, the Roman poet, his ” sheen and seen! ” .
See also the crafts . etc. Clear the decks.
Or are we attempting a definition now and here? In this 21 st. c. ?
Then where exactly we do the defining is also important. eg. Take Ireland and contemporary , composed music. Alas, I do insist that in Ireland still today there is hardly a concept, any attempted definition, a way of defining Irish musical works – composed by real Irish composers – as art, indeed as Irish art and on a level with eg. Irish poetry, film, painting etc. ( Sure I was going on about this decades ago )
So what are the causes of this curious prejudice, this Irish exclusion of Irish composed music from Irish arts, I wonder ? Dogma ? Lazy thinking? Could it be the general lack of experiencing New Irish Music played, sung, sounding , is that it ? Mull this over.
There have in the past been many definitions of art, of musical composition. It´s also worth reflecting on some of the things we still today may define composing Irish music as: it is ” sicut fumus” , like smoke, ethereal. It is a temporal art, indeed THE time-art par excellence. Time-bending, stretching, sculpting, stitching, overlapping, deluding, defying, conquering. ( See Gabriel Rosenstock´s ” Buailim bob ar bhás! ” ) Composing is mythic hope, it´s utopian, fighting the good fight. If “cinis aequat omnia”, still a Frank Corcoran composition will yell and shout and erect its own resistance to John Montague´s ” Sea of history / Upon which we all turn / Turn and thrash / And disappear… ” Music keens, protests, praises a fightin´ transcendence which potentially lives beyond the grave.
Certainly, music can be defined. Art can be defined. Irish contemporary music fights its corner , defining Ireland, Irish art, Irish artists.
FRANK CORCORAN