Philosophy of music (Philosophy)

Un’ intervista in sette domande ai musicologi Paolo Emilio Carapezza, Amalia Collisani e Heinz-Klaus Metzger; ai compositori Giovanni Damiani e Federico Incardona; all’organizzatore dei “Quaderni perugini di musica contemporanea” “, Alfonso Fratteggiani e a Marcello Giordano, giovane palermitano non professionalmente musicista.

U radu se razmatraju stavovi koje američki estetičar Teodor Grejsik (Theodore Gracyk) izlaže u knjizi 'Listening to Popular Music' o načinu na koji popularna muzika može predstavljati simbol za određeni odnos čoveka prema društvu. U radu pokušavam da pokažem da u šestom poglavlju pomenute knjige nije uspostavljen jasan teorijski odnos između Grejsikovih teza o odgovarajućem slušalačkom pristupu popularnoj muzici i njegovih predloga o tome kakve društvene vrednosti simbolizuje popularna muzika. U cilju traženja odgovarajućeg rešenja za ovaj problem, u radu povezujem Grejsikove stavove iz šestog poglavlja sa njegovim tezama o odnosu između estetskih i političkih vrednosti iz drugog poglavlja pomenute knjige.

The article presents the ideas of Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995), especially the idea of sonic object, and discusses them in the context of philosophical and literary inspirations. The argument is based on Treatise on musical objects (1966) and the comments given by contemporary scholars and composers: Michel Chion, Hugues Dufourt and Carlos Palombini among them. The four modes of listening derived from the French dictionary as well as the attempt to grasp the content of auditory experience are discussed in the context of phenomenology. The notion of sonic object and the search for the new language of sound description prove to be closely linked to literary concepts. The contexts
of Schaeffer’s reflection include the philosophical ideas by Descartes and Husserl, prose by Rabelais and poetry by Ponge as well as Heidegger’s reflection on technology. All the arguments prove that the idea of sonic object is complex and dynamic. It implies
not only sound recordings and their transformations but also the conscious attempt to grasp the content of auditory experience, the interaction of sound with listener and the sophisticated, changeable relation with the object of cognition.

In her article "Technology and music: ethical and moral issues", Fol focuses on three technological innovations that present moral-vs. ethical value conflicts causing massive changes to the music profession: 1) the ability to send money easily in a fast and reliable way through the internet, with the entire transaction taking no more than a few clicks; 2) the emergence of paid "calls for scores", announced on easy-to-design simple websites; and 3) reliable online sound file streaming. Fol examines how the fast-paced technological development has allowed for the mental separation of the illegal consumption from its effects-namely the impossibility of professionals to make a living and the consequent decline of the music profession. Fol discusses the issues from different philosophical viewpoints on morality and proposes a moral code for independent professional musicians.

This is a collection of twenty-seven of Theodor Adorno's essays on music, some newly translated for this volume (twelve translated into English for the first time by Susan Gillespie). The essays are grouped into four sections, each preceded by Richard Leppert's commentary: "Locating Music: Society, Modernity, and the New"; "Culture, Technology, and Listening"; "Music and Mass Culture"; and "Composition, Composers, and Works." Leppert has also contributed an introductory essay that is both biography and introduction to "the intellectual tradition within which Adorno's thought developed" (vii). The earliest of the essays dates from 1927, the latest from 1969 (the year of Adorno's death).
Essays in Philosophy, Vol. 4 No. 2, June 2003

Nasuprot aktuelnim studijama iz filozofije muzike, prema kojima je elektronska muzika izvršila potpunu reviziju tradicionalnih muzičkih pojmova, među kojima su i pojmovi kompozitora i interpretarora, u ovom radu izložiću tezu prema kojoj ele ktron ska muzika ne odbacuje sasvim tradicionalnu muzičku koncepciju. Razmatrajući različita izražajna sredstva, kojima se koriste stvaraoci klasične i elektronske muzike, dolazim do zaključka da je u elektronskoj muzici zvučni zapis, odnosno sam zvuk, osnovna jedinica građe muzičkog dela, a ne ton kao temelj klasične muzike. Iz tog razloga, kompozitor elektronske muzike je muzički producent. S obzirom na to da se delatnost disk-džokeja zasniva na kreiranju disk-džokej seta, koji se sastoji od gotovih elektronskih muzičkih numera, pri čemu se nad tim numerama izvode intervencije nalik promeni tempa, tumačenju raspoloženja numere i slično, ova delatnost se približava delatnosti interpretatora klasične muzike. Takođe, sličnost sa interakcijom kompozitora i inter pretatora klasične muzike potvrđuje i to što producenti prilagođavaju elektronsku numeru disk-džokejevom izvođenju.
Ključne reči: elektronska muzika, zvučni zapis, producent, disk-džokej, stvaralac, interpretator.


Many studies in philosophy of music claim that electronic music has completely revised the traditional musical concepts, such as the composer or performer. In this paper we will try to explain that electronic music does not entirely reject these traditional concepts. Taking into consideration the units of expression creators of classical and electronic music use, we conclude that the sound recording, and therefore sound itself, is the primary creative element of electronic music - not the tone, as is the case in classical music. Consequently, a composer of electronic music is a music producer. A DJ creates a DJ set which includes the pieces of electronic music that could be altered in terms of the tempo, mood, etc., which is the same as the classical performance. Also, the electronic piece is made to be adequately used in a DJ performance, like in the case of classical music notation and performance.
Keywords: electronic music, sound recording, producer, DJ, composer, performer.

Abstract

In many traditional cultures there are sophisticated rituals which make possible the expression of the sacred through music and sound. These traditional rituals and sacred ceremonies have their own discipline, local control and economies of organization. But increasingly this local control is being eclipsed by the control of the global media, the internet and the music industry. Today we can understand music and sacred sound as a commodity orchestrated by the flows of capital. Now various forms of sacred music and the chanting of Buddhist mantras can be disseminated through audio and video clips through the internet to destinations far from the traditional performance venues and sacred spaces. This expands the access to the sacred sounds from many cultural traditions, but at the same time, it often engages the listener at a merely individual level, isolating them from the deeper religious initiation and discipline and the wider religious community. I will approach this problem by touching upon the role of sacred sound in traditional culture. I will then examine the desire for the recovery of sacred sound and the way it sets the backdrop for the relationship between Nietzsche to Wagner. Finally, I wish to consider popular music and whether the consumption of music on an individual level can allow access to sacred sound. Humanity in the information age exists in a space of disconnection between older experiences of the sacred orchestrated by cultural traditions and new experiences of the sacred orchestrated by the flows of capital. And while the older sacred disciplines are increasingly in decline, we need to ask whether our information age opens new possibilities; whether our fragmented consumption of myths and sacred experiences can lead to new insights and reflections.

The author proposes and defends the following five provisi that help
define beauty in art: 1) Beauty is not essential for an artwork to be an artwork;
2) Beauty and aesthetics are not identical notions; 3) Taste does not define beauty;
4) Morality is immaterial to beauty; 5) The ontology of an artwork is distinct from
a person’s emotional response to it. Fol follows her preamble by defining and defending
six criteria that, when taken as an ensemble, establish a standard for beauty
in an artwork on a sliding scale: 1) Containing at least five art properties and five
craft properties from a provided list; 2) Directed intentionality vs. randomness
of action(s); 3) Engaged experience that exceeds mere satisfaction of experience;
4) Recognizable, not necessarily definable patterns of manufacture: aka, style;
5) Potential for symbolic interpretation vs nothing but face value; 6) Nested levels
of intent.
Keywords: Beauty in an artwork, conditions for beauty, definition of beauty, ontology
of beauty, philosophy of beauty, aesthetics

Bob Dylan has spent a lifetime despising the nineteen-sixties - all the while being held up everywhere as its avatar. This comic tale of mistaken identity is the the story of his life. No matter what he says - let alone what he sings - it seems to make no difference. When he wrote a percussive-pulsating one chord rant-chant against living in a 'Political World' in 1989, it was dismissed by critics - sub-standard Dylan, they said. What they were really saying was: no, we don't believe you. You are a protest singer at heart. You don't really loath politics, whatever you might say or do. So books continue to be written about him as if he was a nineteen sixties political radical playing loquacious-hipster king to Joan Baez's platitudinous-remonstrating queen. No matter how much he might excoriate this notion of his marvelous biography, Chronicles, Volume One - one of the great pieces of American literature, on a par with Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Angie March - it changes nothing. Left-liberal writers still compulsively lionize him in their own image - and their feckless children, who populate the modern media machines, regurgitate the same risible clichés about him.

In this article I argue that alternative music can change the world when it migrates from the realm of music to that of ideas. I take the example of My Chemical Romance, and I break down the claim that it changed the world of their fans firstly through a "change of language", by using the structuralist tool of intertextuality, and secondly through a "change of hearts", by building on the cathartic usage of emotions, both for themselves and their fanbase. I also explore the dangers intricate in the process, and I discuss a sample of accusations they were subjected to from the media. Rezumat: În acest articol îmi propun să arăt că muzica alternativă poate schimba lumea, atunci când trece din domeniul muzical în cel al ideilor. Folosesc exemplul formației My Chemical Romance. În ce privește asumpția că aceștia au schimbat lumea propriilor fani, descriu două aspecte: "o schimbare de limbaj", folosind procedeul structuralist al intertextualității; respectiv "o schimbare a inimilor", bazată pe folosirea catarctică a emoțiilor, atât a celor proprii cât și ale fanilor lor. De asemenea,

I dive into Nietzsche's first book and try to understand his view on Greek dramatic tragedy and the role of music in the ancient art form.
I also contrast his view with a Hegelian view of music. The role of the ancient Chorus is also discussed. I also address the destablizing and positive aspects of Socrates on Nietzsche's philosophy of music. The influence of Schopenhauer is also addressed. I also sketch the history of Ancient Tragedy and how it evolved out of the east and dating back to the time of Homer and other famous Greek poets noted by the author.
In my view "Birth of Tragedy" is a highly underrated book by Nietzsche.

Mit Beiträgen von:

GUNTER SCHOLTZ
ECKHARD ROCH
MAX HAAS
FRANK HENTSCHEL
FADLOU SHEHADI
GERNOT GRUBER
RUDOLF FLOTZINGER
CHRISTOPH ASMUTH
FRITHJOF RODI
ANDREAS GROSSMANN
BARBARA R. BARRY
RUDOLPH BOCKHOLT
ADOLF NOWAK
WILFRIED GRUHN
AKIRA TAMBA
HANS-JÜRGEN FEURICH
JöRG-PETER MITTMANN

This article deals with the philosophical idea of worldmaking pursued through techné, meaning the fusion of the technical means of artistic creation, theorizing, and analysis, but specifically occurring in a feedback loop involving introspection and computation (cybernetic phenomenology). The discussion ranges over a wide variety of topics, including (1) the history of music theory from Ancient Greece to the present (including a rebuttal to Daniel Chua’s (2001) account of music history); (2) emergent properties in music arising from self-organization (explored through the Ancient Chinese abstract strategy board game go); (3) the ontology of musical qualities (properties) and categories (including their relation to visual, tactile, and olfactory qualities and categories). 
Various repertoires, artists, and philosophies are referenced. The essay analyzes aspects of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, Carter’s String Quartet No. 5, and Lachenmann’s Kinderspiel.  Connections to the author’s own previous analytical and theoretical work are also discussed in relation to his interactive algorithmic audio-visual works (such as Fluxations and FluxNOISations). The techné of these is discussed in terms of logistics as well as aesthetic influences, including Wagner, Liszt, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Crawford, Babbitt, Carter, Xenakis, Parker, Reich, Ligeti, Truax, Oliveros, Kandinsky, Miro, Pollock, Pollock, Hofmann, Rothko, Louis, Frankenthaler, Moholy-Nagy, Newman, Richter, and Brakhage.  The essay touches on philosophical ideas of Bergson, Whitehead, Deleuze, Harman, and Bogost, and more fully engages the philosophies of Nelson Goodman and Hannah Arendt in connection with artistic creation as relating to the theorizing and analysis of artistic works.     

Contact the author at jmailman@alumni.uchicago.edu
Download the article through JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7757/persnewmusi.54.1.0005
or http://tinyurl.com/zdvkllr

Due to the 20th century mathematical and scientific developments of Georg Cantor, Max Karl Planck, Albert Einstein, and Werner Heisenberg, concepts once relegated to obscurity, such as irrationality, infinity, insolvability, and chaos, were brought to mainstream attention, ultimately changing the course of technological and scientific development into the 21st century. Before these seminal thinkers, concepts like numerical irrationality and infinity were considered by many to be worthless if not amoral; such attitudes can be found persisting back to the ancient Greeks under the Pythagoreans. Interestingly, the aesthetic of irrationality follows a similar historical trajectory, mostly finding relegation in peripheral movements and specific artists before the 20th century. However, the 20th century has seen the greatest and longest persisting resurgence in mathematically irrational thought within the arts. This paper compares the visual and musical experiments in irrationality, incommensurability, and infinity in the works of MC Escher and Conlon Nancarrow during the early and mid-twentieth century, showing a correlation between contemporary mathematical and physical innovations and specific aesthetic pursuits in art and music.

Electroacoustic music occupies a curious position within the arts. On the one hand, it appears to be aligned with the plastic arts, such as painting and sculpture; composers often refer to the haptic, kinaesthetic and even proprioceptive nature of their compositional acts in terms of crafting, moulding and sculpting sounds in the studio. On the other hand, electroacoustic music appears be aligned with the performing arts, such as drama, dance and most forms of instrumental music; the proliferation of diffusion systems and the increasing sophistication of tools for real-time spatialisation lend credence to associations with traditional notions of performance practice. This paper seeks to demystify this ostensible paradox. It starts considering an ontological distinction that holds between the plastic arts and the performing arts, goes on to consider whether electroacoustic music is ontologically similar to one or the other, and concludes with the following point: electroacoustic music may be characterised by either plasticity or performance but, in many cases, it falls between these polarities. This observation may help to explain why some philosophers, aestheticians and musicologists have struggled to accept electroacoustic music whilst enabling one to identify where the unique value of this exciting and uncompromising art-form resides.

Nel presente saggio, dedicato al fenomeno dell’improvvisazione, confluiscono alcuni motivi chiave della filosofia di Vladimir Jankélévitch, dal presque rien allo stato di verve al tema della morte.  Il testo si concentra sugli esempi di Liszt, di Chopin e della musica francese e russa dei primi decenni del Novecento. L’edizione, proposta in traduzione italiana, è accompagnata da due scritti di Arrigo Cappelletti e di Silvia Peronaci.

The text presents three related claims. (1) Music as a topic of philosophy alters key philosophical concepts; (2) In spite of their vast cultural, historical and contextual differences, all forms of music share the effect of a transformation of perception: ranging from subtle and subliminal to the (rare) experience of ecstatic world- and self-transformations; (3) Strictly speaking, we do not perceive sounds. Rather, a) our hearing-physiology translates frequencies (impulses) of more than 18 Hz into pitch and thus temporal events into quasi-spatial perceptions. Compositions containing very deep sounds (e.g. in cathedrals or in night-clubs) stage exactly this physiological conversion: with potentially ‘transcendence’-like effects. b) We hear simple frequency-ratios such as 1:2, 2:3, 3:4 etc. as (relative) consonances and more complex ones as (relative) dissonances. Thus, c) musical compositions make laws of physical behaviour of matter affectively perceptible. This allows for the occasional impression of musical revelations: regarding the universe, its laws, and our place in it.
Der Text präsentiert drei miteinander verbundene Thesen. (1) Philosophie der Musik modifiziert philosophische Grundbegriffe. (2) Eine gemeinsame Eigenschaft in der Vielfalt der Musikformen liegt im Effekt einer Wahrnehmungsveränderung: oft subtil, unterschwellig und zuweilen als ekstatisch erlebte Selbst- und Welt-Transformation. (3) Strenggenommen nehmen wir nicht Töne wahr, sondern a) unsere Hör-Physiologie wandelt Schwingungsfrequenzen ab circa 18 Hz in Tonhöhen um und damit Zeit-Organisation in ein Raum-Äquivalent. (Musik mit tiefen Tönen an der Grenze zur Wahrnehmung, etwa mittels großer Orgelpfeifen in Kathedralen oder Ton-Anlagen in Nachtclubs, inszeniert genau diesen physiologischen Umschlag, mit potentiellen Transzendenz-Effekten.) b) Wir nehmen einfache Frequenzverhältnisse wie 1:2, 2:3 etc. als (relativ) konsonant wahr, komplexere Verhältnisse als (relativ) dissonant. Die Folge: c) Musikhören verbindet uns mit physikalischem Verhalten von Materie, einschließlich unserer selbst. Hierin gründen rare, musikalisch herausgehobene Eindrücke von Erkenntnis und Enthüllung: das Universum betreffend und unsere Stellung in ihm.

phenomenon and experience of listening, philosophical hermeneutics, the hermeneutics of education/transformative relationships, philosophy-music-education, philosophy of music, the hermeneutics of philosophy, education as a form of listening-being, tact, taste, sound, the hermeneutics of question, hermeneutics of listening, the art of life, hermeneutic and antique dialectics, mousike, dance (movement), choreia, body, child,, wor(l)d... 

The book is devoted to the analysis of the complex phenomenon of listening, with its own specific dynamics. Listening, understood as a way of being in the world, requires an acouological education, in which the logic of creative participation calls for a being with others that is responsible, inspiring, tasteful and that overcomes “reductionisms” in a translational way.

The publication is intended for those interested in the phenomenon of listening, the philosophy of education, contemporary pedagogy, philosophical hermeneutics, as well as the philosophy of music. It could become a source of inspiration for counselling, relations (also in the therapeutic dimension), and communication scholars and professionals.

This article explores the ideological content of (political) folk songs in apartheid South Africa. The FAK Sangbundel (songbook) found its way into countless Afrikaner homes, churches, organisations and schools, and became unanimous with Afrikaner culture and nationalism, imprinting certain beliefs and ideas on society. Johann Visagie's Figurative Semiotics theory serves to expose hidden ideological elements in discourse or, in this case, folk song texts. Within the semiological field different themes (symbols, metaphors, models, myth, narrative, irony, etc.) are analysed but in this specific theory, the distinction between the individual themes is not as important as identifying the figurative expressions present in ideological discourse. Although these themes are labelled as 'metaphors', it is only a collective expression to refer to the individual semiological themes involved in an analysis. Despite the fact that Figurative Semiotics theory was not originally designed to be used within the field of musicology, it is not considered to be a hindrance in terms of this investigation because of the fact that the musical nature of the songs does not lend itself to a detailed analysis of musical parameters, but rather displays conformist, stereotyped musical formats. Through application of Visagie's theory on the song texts, and, where possible, on musical parameters of the songs, an acute awareness of the musical dimension within an ideological environment was established and it is indeed the simplicity of the folk songs that so uniquely contributes to the effortless transferral of ideology-politcal content and values to masses of people, thereby contributing to the underlying and sometimes hidden ideological deep structures found in political folk song texts.

Phänomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins, die von Edmund Husserl verarbeitet wurde, nimmt eine ehrenvolle Stelle in der philosophischen Literatur ein. Sie versucht die grosse Veränderlichkeit der Erlebnisse, die die Umwelt in uns erweckt, zu ordnen. Die Reaktion, die in der Literatur über Musik als einer Zeitkunst erzielt wurde, ist völlig verständlich (trotzdem aber noch nicht genügend). Meine Studie bemüht sich die Konzeptionen der musikalischen Zeit, die in der musikphänomenologischen Literatur zu Grundbeiträgen wurden, zu beurteilen. Die Theorien von Alfred Schütz, David Lewin und Juda Lochhead führen diese Akzente aus – eine organische Anknüpfung an Husserl und Festlegungen der Zeitspezifität, eine detailierte Beschreibung der Wahrnehmungsmusikqualitäten in ihrer komplizierten Verknüpfung, Zeitausprägung von umfangreichen Musikflächen und eine mehrdimensionale Einstellung. Alle diese Theorien vervollständigen sich in Erfassung der subjektiv empfindenden Zeit und weisen auf Begrenzungen des phänomenologischen Diskurses über die Musikzeit hin.

Frédéric Bisson, Comment bâtir un monde. Le Gai Savoir de Gustav Mahler, Louvain-la-Neuve, Les Éditions Chromatika, 2011. (978-2-930517-32-2 ; 196 p. ; 17 €)

Exercice spontané de métaphysique, la Troisième Symphonie de Gustav Mahler nous enseigne comment bâtir un monde. Archétype de l’art symphonique mahlérien, son premier mouvement est tendu entre le grand style romantique, dont Mahler est l’ultime dépositaire, et les « banalités » populaires qui le corrompent de l’intérieur. Quel est le sens de ce contraste entre le haut et le bas ? Le programme le figure comme un mouvement d’élévation, de la Terre vers le Ciel. Mais cette signification cosmologique surcode une puissance politique, directement exprimée par l’idiome musical. Cette puissance inconsciente, couvant dans la situation minoritaire de Mahler, est celle d’un devenir ambigu de la Symphonie, à la fois singulier et universel, humoristique et effroyable. À l’occasion du centenaire de sa mort, ce livre de philosophie constitue ainsi un hommage à la pensée musicale de Mahler.

Frédéric Bisson, agrégé de philosophie, est professeur au lycée Gambier de Lisieux. Il a publié sur Whitehead et le renouveau rythmologique. Membre du collectif de rédaction de la revue Multitudes, il travaille sur les croisements de la culture savante et de la culture pop.

Alexander systematises the physiology of auditory perception by exploiting the concept of a change that takes no time at all to occur, thus avoiding a potential incoherence in Aristotle's own account which had identified the activity of hearing as simultaneously both complete and incomplete.

The field of interactive music systems (IMSs), beginning in the 1980s, is still relatively young and fast moving. The field of music theory-analysis, during the same period (since 1980), has undergone a major transformation in terms of technological innovations, flexibility, and breadth. The two fields have not really caught up with each other. It will be interesting to see what arises as they do — especially as both fields have become more concerned with the role of the body and embodied cognition. Framed in terms of contrasting epistemological orientations, this essay considers some relevant developments in IMSs, music cognition, and music theory and analysis, leading up to the present.  The most popular approaches to music cognition and to IMS design are rationalist (Ashby 2010), exploiting the ‘correct’ embodiments of music (Godøy 2004, Leman 2007, Paine 2009) based on affordances (Gibson 1977, Kelso 1998). This essay, however, advocates a pragmatist (Ashby 2010) approach inspired by music analysis and exploiting the potential of kinesthetic learning (associative learning). Prompted by a progressive approach to music analysis, theory, perception, and cognition (Dubiel 1999, Mailman 2007), interactive music technology can also be constructive, flexible, and progressive, by exploiting kinesthetic learning from immersion in new and unusual motion-to-sound mappings derived from dynamic formal processes in analysed music. In this way, immersive interactive systems offer an opportunity systematically to learn new associations based on principles theorised in response to analysis. Experience of these systems essentially ‘rewires the brain’, thereby exemplifying what Korsyn (2004) has attributed to Lewin’s (1986, 1987) approach to music perception: the ironist approach, as formulated by Rorty (1989). Thus a pragmatist ironist experimental (PIE) approach is articulated. Rather than committing to any particular ways music is already embodied, this approach acknowledges the flexible nature of embodied musical experience. It forges and uses interactive music technologies continually to redescribe and therefore reform how music is embodied, thereby disembodying to re-embody music, expanding how music is heard, contemplated and experienced.

In the emergence of the practices of so-called 'experimental music' we will list some topoi that are central to understanding the evolution of these actions in the 20th and early 21st centuries: discursive language and its relationship with the sublime; noise; non-cochlear music; amplification; the suspension of the concept of the subject; dislocation and searchability.

Die Hauptfrage, die ich in diesem Aufsatz diskutieren will, lautet: Welcher ist der ästhetische Rahmen bzw. welche sind die ästhetisch-normativen Voraussetzungen für das richtige Verständnis und die richtige Evaluation von Jazz? Oder, wenn man diese Frage genauer artikulieren möchte: Wie ist die Frage nach den Kriterien einer Jazzästhetik zu stellen, um der Jazzpraxis gerecht zu werden? Meine These lautet: Die Jazzästhetik ist eine Ästhetik der gelungenen Performanz. Sie ist nicht eine mutmaßliche Ästhetik der Unvollkommenheit, wie einige Autoren glauben.

Musik mit Worten beschreiben heisst immer, so etwas wie eine Wunde schlagen, eine Kluft bilden. Dies rührt her aus einem Verlust, einem Verletzen: aus jenem Riss, der mit dem Über-Setzen zwischen einem vorweisenden und einem verweisenden Symbolsystem einhergeht, zwischen einem, das zeigt, und einem, das spricht. Jede Verbindung zwischen dieser Klangstruktur und diesem beschreibenden Wort ist fragil, alternativehaltig, und selbst die besten Argumente für sie verlieren nie ganz ihren werbenden Charakter. So haben gerade die starksten Texte zur Musik ein unübersehbar künstlerisches Element. (Auszug)

Denis Diderot’s Le Neveu de Rameau contains many intriguing passages that reference music and musical matters—from mimed performances and popular folk tunes to musical theories and broader aesthetic debates on the imitative functions of music. In this essay, I argue that the title character, Rameau’s Nephew, performs a kind of ‘musical dialogue’, which brings to life Diderot’s musical metaphors for human physiology, emotion, and cognition, present in his other writings. The Nephew performs music not only to touch readers through their many senses (i.e. reader’s sensibility) but also to intone—to give musical form to—Diderot’s ideas of human physiology and understanding (i.e. a philosophy of sensibility). The Nephew transforms the dialogue into an interactive multimedia experience. His musical passages, I believe, are intended to demonstrate the influence of sound (and sight) on physical feelings and emotions. The Nephew’s imagined music then activates for these readers voluntary responses as well as involuntary reactions. In addition to the interactive function of the Nephew’s musical reference, his medleys also serve as a dynamic three-dimensional model of human cognitive and physiological processes, thus setting philosophical dialogue to music and translating into sound Diderot’s theories of human experience and understanding.

Tribute to Dr. José Vicente González Valle, Scientific Researcher, who was director of the Department of Musicology (Milá y Fontanals Institution) of the CSIC in Barcelona (1988-1998), as well as director of the editorial collection “Monumentos de la Música Española” (Spanish Music Monumenta), and of Anuario Musical (Revista de Musicología del CSIC), on the occasion of his 65th birthday and his retirement. This article reviews his vital trajectory, his musicological production and areas of interest, as a preamble to a full issue of the magazine dedicated to his personality and intellectual concerns, in which appears different contributions by colleagues and specialists in musicological matters, related to him in a way other.

Homenaje al Dr. José Vicente González Valle, Investigador Científico, que fuera director del Departamento de Musicología (Institución Milá y Fontanals) del CSIC en Barcelona (1988-1998), además de director de la colección editorial “Monumentos de la Música Española” y de Anuario Musical (Revista de Musicología del CSIC), con ocasión de su 65 cumpleaños y de su jubilación. Este artículo repasa su trayectoria vital, su producción musicológica y áreas de interés, como preámbulo a un número completo de la revista dedicado a su personalidad e inquietudes intelectuales, en el que escriben colegas y especialistas en asuntos musicológicos, relacionados con él de un modo u otro.