Authors: Stephen Davies
ISBN-13: 9780199280179, ISBN-10: 0199280177
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: July 2005
Edition: New Edition
Stephen Davies teaches philosophy at the University of Auckland. His primary research interest is in the philosophy of art, especially music.
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 Including two new and previously unpublished pieces, they address both perennial questions and contemporary controversies, such as that over the 'authentic performance' movement, and the impact of modern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.
Pt. 1 | Ontology | |
1 | John Cage's 4' 33" : is it music? | 11 |
2 | Ontologies of musical works | 30 |
3 | Transcription, authenticity, and performance | 47 |
4 | The ontology of musical works and the authenticity of their performances | 60 |
Pt. 2 | Performance | |
5 | Authenticity in musical performance | 81 |
6 | So, you want to sing with the Beatles? : too late! | 94 |
7 | What is the sound of one piano plummeting? | 108 |
Pt. 3 | Expression | |
8 | Is music a language of the emotions? | 121 |
9 | The expression of emotion in music | 134 |
10 | Contra the hypothetical persona in music | 152 |
11 | Philosophical perspectives on music's expressiveness | 169 |
Pt. 4 | Appreciation | |
12 | The evaluation of music | 195 |
13 | Musical understanding and musical kinds | 213 |
14 | Attributing significance to unobvious musical relationships | 233 |
15 | The multiple interpretability of musical works | 245 |