The Fine Art of Repetition
Essays in the Philosophy of Music

This collection of essays from Peter Kivy span a period of some thirty years and focus on a richly diverse set of issues providing an enjoyable and insightful introduction to the philosophy of art and music.

Peter Kivy (Author)

9780521435987, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 February 1993

384 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.56 kg

"Peter Kivy is the leading authority in the philosophy of music as practiced in the Anglo-American or 'non-speculative' tradition in philosophy. He is, to a large extent, responsible for rejuvenating, over the last 20 years, the discipline of music aesthetics through his many papers and books on the topis." Douglas Dempster, Music Theory On-Line

Peter Kivy is the author of many books on the history of art and, in particular, the aesthetics of music. This collection of essays spans a period of some thirty years and focuses on a richly diverse set of issues: the biological origins of music, the role of music in the liberal education, the nature of the musical work and its performance, the aesthetics of opera, the emotions of music, and the very nature of music itself. Some of these subjects are viewed as part of the history of ideas, others as current problems in the philosophy of art. A particular feature of the volume is that Kivy avoids the use of musical notation so that no technical knowledge at all is required to appreciate his work. The essays will prove enjoyable and insightful not just to professionals in the philosophy of art and musicologists, or to musicians themselves, but also to any motivated general reader with a deep interest in music.

Preface
Introduction
PART I: I. Mattheson as philosopher of art
II. Mainwaring's Handel: its relation to English aesthetics
III. Charles Burney, music critic
IV. Kant and the Affektenlehre: what he said, and what I wish he had said
V. Mozart and monotheism: an essay in spurious aesthetics
VI. Child Mozart as an aesthetic symbol
VII. Something I've always wanted to know about Hanslick
VIII. What was Hanslick denying?
IX. Charles Darwin on music
X. Herbert Spencer and a musical dispute
PART II: XI. The fine art of repetition
XII. Platonism in music: a kind of defense
XIII. Platonism in music: another kind of defense
XIV. Orchestrating platonism
XV. Opera talk: a philosophical 'phantasie'
XVI. How did Mozart do it?: living conditions in the world of opera
XVII. How did Mozart do it?: Replies to my critics
XVIII. Live performances and dead composers: on the ethics of musical interpretation
XIX. On the concept of the 'historically authentic' performance
XX. Paul Robinson's Opera and Ideas
XXI. From ideology to music: Leonard Meyer's theory of style change
XXII. Music and liberal education
XXIII. A new music criticism?
XXIV. Is music an art?

Subject Areas: Philosophy: aesthetics [HPN]