Music and Ethical Responsibility

Music and Ethical Responsibility argues that musical experience involves encounters with others, and ethical responsibilities arise from those encounters.

Jeff R. Warren (Author)

9781107043947, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 April 2014

213 pages, 5 b/w illus.
25.5 x 18 x 1.5 cm, 0.6 kg

'… it has altered my perceptions of musical experience and perhaps it will challenge yours as well.' Erik W. Goldstrom, The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians

Discussions surrounding music and ethical responsibility bring to mind arguments about legal ownership and purchase. Yet the many ways in which we experience music with others are usually overlooked. Musical experience and practice always involve relationships with other people, which can place limitations on how we listen to and act upon music. In Music and Ethical Responsibility, Jeff R. Warren challenges current approaches to music and ethics, drawing upon philosopher Emmanuel Levinas's theory that ethics is the responsibilities that arise from our encounters with other people. Warren examines ethical responsibilities in musical experiences including performing other people's music, noise, negotiating musical meaning, and improvisation. Revealing the diverse roles that music plays in the experience of encountering others, Warren argues that musicians, researchers, and listeners should place ethical responsibility at the heart of musical practices.

Introduction
1. Meaning and ethics in music
2. Experiencing music
3. Framing elements of musical experience
4. Improvisation and ethical responsibility
5. Musical improvisation as festival
6. Music, proximity, ethics
7. Ethical responsibility and other people's music
Conclusion: ethical responsibility in musical experience.

Subject Areas: Music reviews & criticism [AVC], Theory of music & musicology [AVA], Performance art [AFKP]