The Aesthetics of MusicWhat is music, what is its value, and what does it mean? In this exciting new book, Roger Scruton offers a comprehensive account of the nature and significance of music from the perspective of modern philosophy. The book starts from the metaphysics of sound. Scruton distinguishes sound from tone, analyzes rhythm, melody, and harmony, and explores the various dimensions of musical organization and musical meaning. Taking on various fashionable theories in the philosophy and theory of music, he presents a compelling case for the moral significance of music, its place in our culture, and the need for taste and discrimination in performing and listening to it. Laying down principles for musical analysis and criticism, the book ends with a theory of culture, and a devastating demolition of modern popular music. |
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Common terms and phrases
acoustical Adorno aesthetic aesthetic experience aesthetic interest aesthetic value argued argument atonal music authentic performance Bach Bach's banal bars Beethoven Brahms cadence Chapter character chord classical cliché colour composer concept Concerto context criticism dance describe diatonic scale distinction dominant emotion Eroica Symphony example experience of music expression feeling Fifth Symphony foreground function gestures harmony hear heard Heinrich Schenker human identify identity intentional object J. S. Bach kind language listener major meaning melodic line melody merely metaphor middleground minor motif move Mozart musical experience musical movement musical surface nature Nevertheless organization perception performance philosophers phrase piano piece of music pitch pitch-class polyphony precisely prelude question relations representation response rhythm rhythmic rules Schenker Schenkerian analysis Schoenberg semantic sense sentimental sequence serial sound subdominant suggestion Symphony syntax taste theme theory things tonal language tonal music tones tonic tradition triad Violin voice Well-Tempered Clavier