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	Non disponible
ISBN 13	9780801481512
ISBN 10	0801481511
Titre	Musical Meaning and Expression
Auteur	Stephen Davies
État	Non disponible
Type de reliure	Paperback
Éditeur	Cornell University Press
Année de publication	1994-06-03
Nombre de pages	400
Note de couverture	La photo du livre est présentée à titre d'illustration uniquement. La reliure, la couverture ou l'édition réelle peuvent varier.
Note	Non disponible