Musical Meaning and Expression by Stephen Davies

Musical Meaning and Expression by Stephen Davies

We talk not only of enjoying music, but of understanding it. Music is often taken to have expressive import—and in that sense to have meaning. But what does music mean, and how does it mean? Stephen Davies addresses these questions in this sophisticated and knowledgeable overview of current theories in the philosophy of music. Reviewing and criticizing the aesthetic positions of recent years, he offers a spirited explanation of his own position. Davies considers and rejects in turn the positions that music describes (like language), or depicts (like pictures), or symbolizes (in a distinctive fashion) emotions. Similarly, he resists the idea that music's expressiveness is to be explained solely as the composer's self-expression, or in terms of its power to evoke a response from the audience. Music's ability to describe emotions, he believes, is located within the music itself; it presents the aural appearance of what he calls emotion characteristics. The expressive power of music awakens emotions in the listener, and music is valued for this power although the responses are sometimes ones of sadness. Davies shows that appreciation and understanding may require more than recognition of and reaction to music's expressive character, but need not depend on formal musicological training.

Comprehensive, interesting, and important

* The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism *

The issue most successfully addressed is one's ability to make general conclusions about the response to music, which by its very nature is highly personal.

* Choice *

Stephen Davies is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of Definitions of Art, also from Cornell.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780801481512
ISBN 10	0801481511
Title	Musical Meaning and Expression
Author	Stephen Davies
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cornell University Press
Year published	1994-06-03
Number of pages	400
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable