Themes in the Philosophy of Music

by Stephen Davies

Overview

Representing Stephen Davies's best shorter writings, these essays outline developments within the philosophy of music over the last two decades, and summarize the state of play at the beginning of a new century. Including two new and previously unpublished pieces, they address both perennial questions and contemporary controversies, such as that over the 'authentic performance' movement, and the impact of modern technology on the presentation and reception of musical works. Rather than attempting to reduce musical works to a single type, Davies recognizes a great variety of kinds, and a complementary range of possibilities for their rendition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199280179
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/07/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 6.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Stephen Davies teaches philosophy at the University of Auckland. His primary research interest is in the philosophy of art, especially music.

Table of Contents

IntroductionONTOLOGY1. John Cage's 4'33. Is it Music? 2. Ontologies of Musical Works3. Transcription, Authenticity, and Performance4. The Ontology of Musical Works and the Authenticity of their PerformancesPERFORMANCE5. Authenticity in Musical Performance6. So, You Want to Sing with the Beatles? Too Late!7. What is the Sound of One Piano Plummeting?EXPRESSION8. The Expression of Emotion in Music9. Is Music a Language of the Emotions? 10. Contra the Hypothetical Persona in Music11. Philosophical Perspectives on Music's ExpressivenessAPPRECIATION12. The Evaluation of Music13. Musical Understandings and Musical Kinds14. Attributing Significance to Unobvious Musical Relationships15. The Multiple Interpretability of Musical Works

Editorial Reviews

"A collection of important and well-known essays by an influential philosopher of music... Davies is fascinating on his home turf, which is the analytic philosophy of the musical arts, and those who are tempted by or subscribe to this worldview should invest in this book immediately."— British Journal of Aesthetics1

From the Publisher