Musical Meaning and Expression

By: Stephen Davies

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Paperback | 1 June 1994

At a Glance

Paperback
432 Pages

Age
18+

Dimensions(cm)
23.5 x 15.24 x 3.18

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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.

Industry Reviews

"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 "Comprehensive, interesting, and important."-Jenefer Robinson, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 1999.

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Arts & Entertainment Music Theory of Music & Musicology

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Non-Fiction Arts & Entertainment Music Theory of Music & Musicology

Preface	p. ix
And Language	p. 1
Music and Pictures	p. 51
Music and Symbols	p. 123
The Feelings of the Composer and the Listener	p. 167
The Expression of Emotion in Music	p. 201
The Response to Music's Expressiveness	p. 279
Musical Understanding	p. 321
Works Cited	p. 381
Index	p. 405
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Musical Meaning and Expression

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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