Philosophers on Music

Experience, Meaning, and Work

Edited by Kathleen Stock

Philosophers on Music: Experience, Meaning, and Work presents significant new contributions to central issues in the philosophy of music, written by leading philosophers working in the analytic tradition. The issues tackled include: the question of what sort of thing a work of music is; the nature of the relation between a musical work and versions of it; the nature of musical expression and its contribution to musical experience; the relation of music to metaphor; the nature of musical irony; the musical status of electro-sonic art; and the nature of musical rhythm. Aestheticians, musicologists, music practitioners, and those interested in philosophy generally will find the papers in this volume rewarding reading.

Philosophers on Music

Experience, Meaning, and Work

Edited by Kathleen Stock

A Clarendon Press Publication

Description

Philosophers on Music: Experience, Meaning, and Work presents significant new contributions to central issues in the philosophy of music, written by leading philosophers working in the analytic tradition.

Music is an increasingly popular object of reflection for professional philosophers, as it raises special questions not only of relevance to music practitioners, theorists, and philosophers of art, but also of wider philosophical interest to those working in metaphysics, the philosophy of emotion, and the philosophy of language, among other areas. The wide range of contributors to this volume reflects this level of interest. It includes both well-known philosophers of music drawing on a wealth of reflection to produce new and often startling conclusions, and philosophers relatively new to the philosophy of music yet eminent in other philosophical fields, who are able to bring a fresh perspective, informed by that background, to their topic of choice.

The issues tackled in this volume include what sort of thing a work of music is; the nature of the relation between a musical work and versions of it; the nature of musical expression and its contribution to musical experience; the relation of music to metaphor; the nature of musical irony; the musical status of electro-sonic art; and the nature of musical rhythm. Together these papers constitute some of the best new work in what is an exciting field of research, and one which has much to engage philosophers, aestheticians, and musicologists.

Philosophers on Music

Experience, Meaning, and Work

Edited by Kathleen Stock

A Clarendon Press Publication

Preface
Acknowledgements
List of musical examples
Introduction, Kathleen Stock
Section 1: Musical Ontology
1. Sounds, instruments and works of music, Julian Dodd
2. Doing Justice to Musical Works, Michael Morris
3. Versions of musical works and literary translations, Stephen Davies
Section 2: Musical Expression
4. Expression in Music, Derek Matravers
5. Explaining Musical Experience, Paul Boghossian
6. Persona Sometimes Grata: on the appreciation of expressive music, Aaron Ridley
Section 3: Musical Meaning
7. Can Music Function as a Metaphor of Emotional Life?, Jenefer Robinson
8. The Structure of Irony and how it Functions in Music, Eddy Zemach and Tamara Balter
Section 4: New Issues
9. Music and Electro-sonic Art, Gordon Graham
10. Thoughts on Rhythm, Roger Scruton
Index of subjects

Philosophers on Music

Experience, Meaning, and Work

Edited by Kathleen Stock

A Clarendon Press Publication

Author Information

Kathleen Stock is a Reader in Philosophy at the University of Sussex. She works primarily in the philosophy of fiction, art, and imagination.

Contributors:

Kathleen Stock
Julian Dodd
Michael Morris
Stephen Davies
Derek Matravers
Paul Boghossian
Aaron Ridley
Jenefer Robinson
Eddy Zemach and Tamara Balter
Gordon Graham
Roger Scruton

Philosophers on Music

Experience, Meaning, and Work

Edited by Kathleen Stock

A Clarendon Press Publication

Reviews and Awards

"This book is a welcome addition to the debates in this lively field, and there are many fine musical examples as well. This volume will encourage creative thinking and foster new appreciation of music in the Western classical tradition, as well as appreciation of some of the more modern music that is a response to it." --Phil Jenkins, Metapsychology

"...interesting...an extended, detailed and sophisticated consideration..."--Gary Iseminger, Mind