Aesthetics of music () is a branch of
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
that deals with the nature of
art
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
,
beauty
Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...
and
taste
The gustatory system or sense of taste is the sensory system that is partially responsible for the perception of taste (flavor). Taste is the perception produced or stimulated when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor ...
in music, and with the creation or appreciation of beauty in music. In the pre-modern tradition, the aesthetics of music or musical aesthetics explored the mathematical and cosmological dimensions of rhythmic and harmonic organization. In the eighteenth century, focus shifted to the experience of hearing music, and thus to questions about its beauty and human enjoyment (''
plaisir
Plaisir () is a commune located in the heart of the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the center of Paris.
It borders among others on Élancourt (south), Tr ...
'' and ''
jouissance
''Jouissance'' is a French term meaning "enjoyment", which in Lacanianism is taken in terms both of rights and property, and of sexual orgasm. The latter has a meaning partially lacking in the English word "enjoyment". The term denotes a transgre ...
'') of music. The origin of this philosophic shift is sometimes attributed to
Baumgarten in the 18th century, followed by
Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemolo ...
.
Aesthetics is a sub-discipline of
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
. In the 20th century, important contributions to the aesthetics of music were made by
,
Jerrold Levinson,
Roger Scruton
Sir Roger Vernon Scruton (; 27 February 194412 January 2020) was an English philosopher and writer who specialised in aesthetics and political philosophy, particularly in the furtherance of traditionalist conservative views.
Editor from 1982 t ...
, and
Stephen Davies. However, many musicians,
music critics
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...
, and other non-philosophers have contributed to the aesthetics of music. In the 19th century, a significant debate arose between
Eduard Hanslick
Eduard Hanslick (11 September 18256 August 1904) was an Austrian music critic, aesthetician and historian. Among the leading critics of his time, he was the chief music critic of the ''Neue Freie Presse'' from 1864 until the end of his life. H ...
, a music critic and
musicologist
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
, and composer
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
regarding whether instrumental music could communicate emotions to the listener. Wagner and his disciples argued that instrumental music could communicate emotions and images; composers who held this belief wrote instrumental
tone poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...
s, which attempted to tell a story or depict a landscape using instrumental music. Although history portrays Hanslick as Wagner's opponent, in 1843 after the premiere of Tannhäuser in Dresden, Hanslick gave the opera rave reviews. He called Wagner, “The great new hope of a new school of German Romantic opera.” Thomas Grey, a musicologist specializing in Wagnerian opera at Stanford University argues, “On the Beautiful in Music was written in riposte of Wagner's polemic grandstanding and overblown theorizing.” Hanslick and his partisans asserted that instrumental music is simply patterns of sound that do not communicate any emotions or images.
Since ancient times, it has been thought that music has the ability to affect our
emotions
Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definition. ...
,
intellect
In the study of the human mind, intellect refers to, describes, and identifies the ability of the human mind to reach correct conclusions about what is true and what is false in reality; and how to solve problems. Derived from the Ancient Gree ...
, and
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
; it can assuage our loneliness or incite our passions. The
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
philosopher
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
suggests in ''The Republic'' that music has a direct effect on the soul. Therefore, he proposes that in the ideal regime, music would be closely regulated by the state (Book VII). There has been a strong tendency in the aesthetics of music to emphasize the paramount importance of compositional structure; however, other issues concerning the aesthetics of music include
lyricism
Lyricism is a quality that expresses deep feelings or emotions in an inspired work of art.
Often used to describe the capability of a Lyricist.
Description
Lyricism is when art is expressed in a beautiful or imaginative way, or when it has an ...
,
harmony
In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...
,
hypnotism
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
,
emotiveness,
temporal dynamics,
resonance
Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscillatin ...
, playfulness, and
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
(see also
musical development
In music, development is a process by which a musical idea is communicated in the course of a composition. It refers to the transformation and restatement of initial material. Development is often contrasted with musical variation, which is a s ...
).
18th century
In the 18th century, music was considered so far outside the realm of aesthetic theory (then conceived of in visual terms) that music was barely mentioned in
William Hogarth
William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like s ...
's treatise ''
The Analysis of Beauty
''The Analysis of Beauty'' is a book written by the 18th-century artist and writer William Hogarth, published in 1753, which describes Hogarth's theories of visual beauty and grace in a manner accessible to the common man of his day.
The "Li ...
''. He considered
dance
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
beautiful (closing the treatise with a discussion of the minuet), but treated music important only insofar as it could provide the proper accompaniment for the dancers.
However, by the end of the century, people began to distinguish the topic of music and its own beauty from music as part of a mixed media, as in opera and dance.
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...
, whose ''
Critique of Judgment
The ''Critique of Judgment'' (german: Kritik der Urteilskraft), also translated as the ''Critique of the Power of Judgment'', is a 1790 book by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Sometimes referred to as the "third critique," the ''Critique o ...
'' is generally considered the most important and influential work on aesthetics in the 18th century, argued that instrumental music is beautiful but ultimately trivial. Compared to the other fine arts, it does not engage the understanding sufficiently, and it lacks moral purpose. To display the combination of genius and taste that combines ideas and beauty, Kant thought that music must be combined with words, as in song and opera.
19th century
In the 19th century, the era of
romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
in music, some composers and critics argued that music should and could express ideas, images, emotions, or even a whole literary plot. Challenging Kant's reservations about instrumental music, in 1813
E. T. A. Hoffmann argued that music was fundamentally the art of instrumental composition. Five years later,
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
's ''
The World as Will and Representation
''The World as Will and Representation'' (''WWR''; german: Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, ''WWV''), sometimes translated as ''The World as Will and Idea'', is the central work of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. The first edition ...
'' argued that instrumental music is the greatest art, because it is uniquely capable of representing the metaphysical organization of reality. He felt that because music neither represents the phenomenal world, nor makes statements about it, it bypasses both the pictorial and the verbal. He believed that music was much closer to the true nature of all things than any other art form. This idea would explain why, when the appropriate music is set to any scene, action or event is played, it seems to reveal its innermost meaning, appearing to be the most accurate and distinct commentary of it.
Although the Romantic movement accepted the thesis that instrumental music has representational capacities, most did not support Schopenhauer's linking of music and metaphysics. The mainstream consensus endorsed music's capacity to represent particular emotions and situations. In 1832, composer
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
stated that his piano work
Papillons
''Papillons'' (French for "butterflies"), Op. 2, is a suite of piano pieces written in 1831 by Robert Schumann when he was 21 years old. The work is meant to represent a masked ball and was inspired by Jean Paul's novel ' (''The Awkward Age'').
...
was "intended as a musical representation" of the final scene of a novel by
Jean Paul
Jean Paul (; born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, 21 March 1763 – 14 November 1825) was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories.
Life and work
Jean Paul was born at Wunsiedel, in the Fichtelgebirge mountain ...
, ''
Flegeljahre''. The thesis that the value of music is related to its representational function was vigorously countered by the
formalism
Formalism may refer to:
* Form (disambiguation)
* Formal (disambiguation)
* Legal formalism, legal positivist view that the substantive justice of a law is a question for the legislature rather than the judiciary
* Formalism (linguistics)
* Scient ...
of
Eduard Hanslick
Eduard Hanslick (11 September 18256 August 1904) was an Austrian music critic, aesthetician and historian. Among the leading critics of his time, he was the chief music critic of the ''Neue Freie Presse'' from 1864 until the end of his life. H ...
, setting off the "War of the Romantics."
This fight, according to
Carl Dahlhaus
Carl Dahlhaus (10 June 1928 – 13 March 1989) was a German musicologist who was among the leading postwar musicologists of the mid to late 20th-century. A prolific scholar, he had broad interests though his research focused on 19th- and 20th- ...
, divided aestheticians into two competing groups: On the one side were formalists (e.g., Hanslick) who emphasized that the rewards of music are found in appreciation of musical form or design, while on the other side were anti-formalists, such as
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
, who regarded musical form as a means to other artistic ends. Recent research, however, has questioned the centrality of that strife: "For a long time, accounts of aesthetic concerns during that century have focused on a conflict between authors who were sympathetic to either form or content in music, favouring either ‘absolute’ or ‘programme music’ respectively. That interpretation of the period, however, is worn out." Instead,
Andreas Dorschel
Andreas Dorschel (born 1962) is a German philosopher. Since 2002, he has been professor of aesthetics and head of the Institute for Music Aesthetics at the University of the Arts Graz (Austria).
Background
Andreas Dorschel was born in 1962 ...
places the tension between music's sensual immediacy and its intellectual mediations centre stage for 19th century aesthetics: "Music seems to touch human beings more immediately than any other form of art; yet it is also an elaborately mediated phenomenon steeped in complex thought. The paradox of this ‘immediate medium’, discovered along with the eighteenth-century invention of ‘aesthetics’, features heavily in philosophy's encounters with music during the nineteenth century.
..It seems more fruitful now to unfold the paradox of the immediate medium through a web of alternative notions such as sound and matter, sensation and sense, habituation and innovation, imagination and desire, meaning and interpretation, body and gesture."
20th century
A group of
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
writers in the early 20th century (including the poet
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
) believed that music was essentially pure because it didn't represent anything, or make reference to anything beyond itself. In a sense, they wanted to bring poetry closer to Hanslick's ideas about the autonomous, self-sufficient character of music. (Bucknell 2002) Dissenters from this view notably included
Albert Schweitzer
Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schwei ...
, who argued against the alleged 'purity' of music in a classic work on
Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
. Far from being a new debate, this disagreement between modernists and their critics was a direct continuation of the 19th-century debate about the autonomy of music.
Among 20th-century composers,
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
is the most prominent composer to defend the modernist idea of musical autonomy. When a composer creates music, Stravinsky claims, the only relevant thing "is his apprehension of the contour of the form, for the form is everything. He can say nothing whatever about meanings" (Stravinsky 1962, p. 115). Although listeners often look for meanings in music, Stravinsky warned that these are distractions from the musical experience.
The most distinctive development in the aesthetics of music in the 20th century was that attention was directed at the distinction between 'higher' and 'lower' music, now understood to align with the distinction between
art music
Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJacques Siron, ...
and
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
, respectively.
Theodor Adorno
Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor.
List of people with the given name Theodor
* Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher
* Theodor Aman, Romanian painter
* Theodor Blueger, ...
suggested that culture industries churn out a debased mass of unsophisticated, sentimental products that have replaced more 'difficult' and critical art forms that might lead people to actually question social life.
False needs are cultivated in people by the culture industries. These needs can be both created and satisfied by the capitalist system, and can replace people's 'true' needs: freedom, full expression of human potential and creativity, and genuine creative happiness. Thus, those trapped in the false notions of beauty according to a capitalist mode of thinking can only hear beauty in dishonest terms (citation necessary).
Beginning with
's work in the 1970s,
analytic philosophy
Analytic philosophy is a branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United Sta ...
has contributed extensively to the aesthetics of music. Analytic philosophy pays very little attention to the topic of musical beauty. Instead, Kivy inspired extensive debate about the nature of emotional expressiveness in music. He also contributed to the debate over the nature of authentic performances of older music arguing that much of the debate was incoherent because it failed to distinguish among four distinct standards of
authentic performance
Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of classical music, which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of the musical era in which ...
of music (1995).
21st century
In the 21st century, philosophers such as
Nick Zangwill have extended the study of aesthetics in music as studied in the 20th century by scholars such as
Jerrold Levinson and
. In his 2014 book on the aesthetics of music titled ''Music and Aesthetic Reality: Formalism and the Limits of Description'', Zangwill introduces his realist position by stating, "By 'realism' about musical experience, I mean a view that foregrounds the ''aesthetic properties'' of music and our experience of these properties: Musical experience is an awareness of an array of sounds and out the sound structure and its aesthetic properties. This is the content of musical experience."
Contemporary music in the 20th and 21st centuries has had both supporters and detractors.
Theodor Adorno
Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor.
List of people with the given name Theodor
* Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher
* Theodor Aman, Romanian painter
* Theodor Blueger, ...
in the 20th century was a critic of much popular music. Others in the 21st century, such as Eugene W. Holland, have constructively proposed jazz improvisation as a socio-economic model, and Edward W. Sarath has constructively proposed jazz as a useful paradigm for understanding education and society.
Constructive reception
Eugene W. Holland has proposed jazz improvisation as a model for social and economic relations in general. Similarly, Edward W. Sarath has constructively proposed jazz improvisation as a model for change in music, education, and society.
Criticism
Simon Frith
Simon Webster Frith (born 1946) is a British sociomusicologist and former rock critic who specializes in popular music culture. He is Tovey Chair of Music at University of Edinburgh.
Career
As a student, he read PPE at Oxford and earned ...
(2004, p. 17-9) argues that, "'bad music' is a necessary concept for musical pleasure, for musical aesthetics." He distinguishes two common kinds of bad music: the Worst Records Ever Made type, which include "Tracks which are clearly incompetent musically; made by singers who can't sing, players who can't play, producers who can't produce," and "Tracks involving genre confusion. The most common examples are actors or TV stars recording in the latest style." Another type of "bad music" is "rock critical lists," such as "Tracks that feature sound gimmicks that have outlived their charm or novelty" and "Tracks that depend on false sentiment
.. that feature an excess of feeling molded into a radio-friendly pop song."
Frith gives three common qualities attributed to bad music: inauthentic,
nbad taste (see also:
kitsch
Kitsch ( ; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly-eccentric, gratuitous, or of banal taste.
The avant-garde opposed kitsch as melodramatic and superficial affiliation with ...
), and stupid. He argues that "The marking off of some tracks and genres and artists as 'bad' is a necessary part of popular music pleasure; it is a way we establish our place in various music worlds. And 'bad' is a key word here because it suggests that aesthetic and ethical judgements are tied together here: not to like a record is not just a matter of taste; it is also a matter of argument, and argument that matters" (p. 28). Frith's analysis of popular music is based in sociology.
Theodor Adorno
Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor.
List of people with the given name Theodor
* Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher
* Theodor Aman, Romanian painter
* Theodor Blueger, ...
was a prominent philosopher who wrote on the aesthetics of popular music. A
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
, Adorno was extremely hostile to popular music. His theory was largely formulated in response to the growing popularity of American music in Europe between World War I and World War II. As a result, Adorno often uses "jazz" as his example of what he believed was wrong with popular music; however, for Adorno this term included everyone from
Louis Armstrong
Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...
to
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...
. He attacked popular music claiming that it is simplistic and repetitive, and encourages a fascist mindset (1973, p. 126). Besides Adorno, Theodore Gracyk provides the most extensive philosophical analysis of popular music. He argues that conceptual categories and distinctions developed in response to art music are systematically misleading when applied to popular music (1996). At the same time, the social and political dimensions of popular music do not deprive it of aesthetic value (2007).
In 2007 musicologist and journalist
Craig Schuftan
Craig Schuftan (born 1974) is an ARIA Music Awards, ARIA award-winning author, broadcaster, radio producer from Sydney, Australia. He is the author of three books (''The Culture Club'' and ''Hey! Nietzsche! Leave Them Kids Alone!'', and "Entertain ...
published ''The Culture Club'', a book drawing links between
modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
art movements and popular music of today and that of past decades and even centuries. His story involves drawing lines between
art
Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.
There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
, or
high culture
High culture is a subculture that emphasizes and encompasses the cultural objects of aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteem as exemplary art, and the intellectual works of philosophy, history, art, and literature that a society cons ...
, and pop, or
low culture
In sociology, the term Low culture identifies the forms of popular culture that have mass appeal, which is in contrast to High culture, which has a limited appeal to a smaller proportion of the populace. Culture theory proposes that both high ...
.
A more scholarly study of the same topic, ''Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde'', was published five years earlier by philosopher Bernard Gendron.
See also
*
Aesthetics
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...
*
Culturology Culturology or the science of culture is a branch of social sciences concerned with the scientific understanding, description, analysis, and prediction of cultures as a whole. While ethnology and anthropology studied different cultural practices, su ...
*
List of aesthetic principles of music
*
Music and emotion
Research into music and emotion seeks to understand the psychological relationship between human affect and music. The field, a branch of music psychology, covers numerous areas of study, including the nature of emotional reactions to music, how ...
*
Musicology
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
*
Music history
Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical point of view.
In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history o ...
*
Music psychology
Music psychology, or the psychology of music, may be regarded as a branch of both psychology and musicology. It aims to explain and understand musical behaviour and experience, including the processes through which music is perceived, created, r ...
*
Music theory
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...
*
Music therapy
Music therapy, an allied health profession, "is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music th ...
*
Sociomusicology
Sociomusicology (from Latin: ''socius'', "companion"; from Old French ''musique''; and the suffix ''-ology'', "the study of", from Old Greek λόγος, ''lógos'' : "discourse"), also called music sociology or the sociology of music, refers to bo ...
*
Philosophy of music
Philosophy of music is the study of "fundamental questions about the nature of music and our experience of it".Andrew Kania,The Philosophy of Music, ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Spring 2014 edition, edited by Edward N. Zalta. The ph ...
Footnotes
References
* Adorno, Theodor W. ''Essays on Music''. Richard Leppert (ed.) Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
* Adorno, Theodor W. ''Philosophy of Modern Music''. Anne G. Mitchell and Wesley V. Blomster (trans.) New York: Seabury Press, 1973.
* Appen, Ralf von (2007). "On the aesthetics of popular music." ''Music Therapy Today'' Vol. VIII (1), 5-25. Online
Music Therapy Today* Appen, Ralf von (2007). ''Der Wert der Musik. Zur Ästhetik des Populären.'' Bielefeld: Transcript.
* Bucknell, Brad (2002). ''Literary Modernism and Musical Aesthetics''.
Cambridge, UK
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
Press. .
* Dahlhaus, Carl (1982). ''Esthetics of Music''.
Cambridge, UK
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
Press.
* Davies, Stephen. ''Musical Meaning and Expression''. Ithaca & London:
Cornell University Press
The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University; currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, making it the first university publishing enterprise in th ...
, 1994.
* Davies, Stephen. ''Musical Works and Performances: A Philosophical Exploration''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001.
* Frith, Simon. "What is Bad Music" in Washburne, Christopher J. and Derno, Maiken (eds.) (2004). ''Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate''. New York: Routledge. .
* Gendron, Bernard. ''Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
* Gracyk, Theodore. ''Listening to Popular Music: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Led Zeppelin''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2007.
* Gracyk, Theodore. ''Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock''. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996.
* Kant, Immanuel. ''Kritik der Urteilskraft, Kants gesammelte Schriften,'' Volume 5, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1902–. Translated as ''Critique of the Power of Judgment''. Paul Guyer (ed.), Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews (trans.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
* Kivy, Peter. ''Authenticities: Philosophical Reflections on Musical Performance''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995. .
* Kivy, Peter. ''Sound Sentiment: An Essay on the Musical Emotions Including the Complete Text of the Corded Shell''. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.
* Levinson, Jerrold. ''Music, Art, and Metaphysics''. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1990; 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011.
* Plato, ''The Republic''. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Oxford University Press: 1894
* Scruton, Roger. ''The Aesthetics of Music''. Oxford University Press, 1997. .
* Schopenhauer, Arthur. ''The World as Will and Representation''. Dover. Volume I, . Volume II, .
* Sorce Keller, Marcello. ”Originality, Authenticity and Copyright”, ''Sonus'', VII (2007), no. 2, pp. 77–85.
* Sorce Keller, Marcello. “Why is Music so Ideological, Why Do Totalitarian States Take It So Seriously: A Personal View from History, and the Social Sciences”, ''Journal of Musicological Research'', XXVI (2007), no. 2-3, pp. 91–122
* Stravinsky, Igor, with Robert Craft, ''Expositions and Developments''. New York: Doubleday, 1962.
Further reading
* Alperson, Philip (ed.), ''What is Music?''. New York, NY: Haven, 1987.
* Appelqvist, Hanne. “Form and Freedom: The Kantian Ethos of Musical Formalism.” The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics No. 40 (2010–2011), 75–88.
* Bertinetto, Alessandro. "Il pensiero dei suoni. Temi di filosofia della musica". Milano: Bruno Mondadori, 2012.
* Bowman, Wayne D. ''Philosophical Perspectives on Music''. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
* Bucknell, Brad. ''Literary Modernism and Musical Aesthetics'' New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
*Budd, Malcolm. ''Music and the Emotions: The Philosophical Theories''. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1985.
* Davies, Stephen. ''Musical Meaning and Expression'', Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994.
* Davies, Stephen. ''Musical Works and Performances: A Philosophical Exploration''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
* Fubini, Enrico. ''History of Music Aesthetics'' Translated by Michael Hatwell. London: Macmillan Press, 1990.
*Goehr, Lydia. 'The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works. An Essay in the Philosophy of Music' Oxford, 1992/2007.
* Gracyk, Theodore. "The Aesthetics of Popular Music," ''The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', June, 2008, http://www.iep.utm.edu/m/music-po.htm.
* Gracyk, Theodore. "Adorno, Jazz, and the Aesthetics of Popular Music," ''The Musical Quarterly'' 76 no. 4 (Winter 1992): 526-42.
* Gracyk, Theodore. ''On Music''. Thinking In Action Series. New York: Routledge, 2013.
* Hamilton, Andy. ''Aesthetics and Music'' New York: Continuum International Publishing, 2001.
*Hanslick, Eduard (1885/1957). ''Vom Musikalisch-Schönen. Tr. The Beautiful In Music''. Bobbs-Merrill Co (June 1957). . (Classic statement of an aesthetics of music based on the notion of 'form'.)
* Hausegger, Friedrich von. ''Die Musik als Ausdruck''
887 ed. Elisabeth Kappel and Andreas Dorschel. Vienna - London - New York: Universal Edition, 2010 (Studien zur Wertungsforschung 50). . (Contra Hanslick, Hausegger makes expression the central issue of an aesthetics of music.)
* Higgins, Kathleen M. ''The Music of Our Lives''. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1991.
* Juslin, Patrik N., and John A. Sloboda. ''Handbook of Music and Emotion: Theory, Research, Applications.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
*Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra. "The ''Magic'' of Music: Archaic Dreams in Romantic Aesthetics and an Education in Aesthetics." ''Philosophy of Music Education Review'' 13 no. 1 (Spring 2005): 77-94.
* Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra. "In Search of the Sense and the Senses: Aesthetic Education in Germany and the United States." ''Journal of Aesthetic Education'' 39 no. 3 (Fall 2005): 104-116.
* Kivy, Peter. The Corded Shell: Reflections on Musical Expression. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980.
* Kivy, Peter. ''New Essays on Musical Understanding''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. .
* Lippman, Edward. ''A History of Western Musical Aesthetics''. University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
* Meyer, Leonard. ''Emotion and Meaning in Music.'' Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1956.
* Seashore, Carl. In Search of Beauty in Music; A Scientific Approach to Musical Aesthetics. New York: Ronald Press Co., 1947.
* Sessions, Roger. The Musical Experience of Composer, Performer, ListenerNew York: Atheneum, 1966.
* Sorgner, S. L./Fuerbeth, O. (ed.) "Music in German Philosophy: An Introduction". Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2010.
* Sorce Keller, Marcello. ''What Makes Music European. Looking Beyond Sound''. Latham, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 2011.
*
Thakar, Markand. ''Looking for the 'Harp' Quartet: An Investigation into Musical Beauty''. University of Rochester Press, 2011.
* Zangwill, Nick. "Against Emotion: Hanslick Was Right About Music," '' British. Journal of Aesthetics'', 44 (Jan. 2004), 29–43.
External links
The Aesthetics of Popular Music (on-line encyclopedia entry)"On the aesthetics of popular music" by Ralf von AppenThe Philosophy of Music (on-line encyclopedia entry)PhilosophyOfMusic.orgedited by
Dustin Garlitz
*"Philosophy of Music," ''Oxford Bibliographies Online'', 5-Jul-2011. http://oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/view/document/obo-9780199757824/obo-9780199757824-0061.xml
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aesthetics Of Music
Philosophy of music
Music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...