Fictionalism about musical works

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton Killin
Keyword(s):  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
Philosophical Naturalism ◽  
Philosophy Of Music ◽  
Musical Practice ◽  
Western Art ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
Work Concept

AbstractThe debate concerning the ontological status of musical works is perhaps the most animated debate in contemporary analytic philosophy of music. In my view, progress requires a piecemeal approach. So in this article I hone in on one particular musical work concept – that of the classical Western art musical work; that is, the work concept that regulates classical art-musical practice. I defend a fictionalist analysis – a strategy recently suggested by Andrew Kania as potentially fruitful – and I develop a version of such an analysis in line with a broad commitment to philosophical naturalism.

Analytic Philosophy of Music

2020 ◽  
pp. 64-88
Author(s):  
David Davies
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Philosophy Of Art ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Philosophy Of Music ◽  
Musical Performances ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
Historical Tradition

Analytic philosophy of music is identified in terms of its being oriented towards, and drawing upon resources available in, a particular historical tradition. A brief historical overview of contemporary analytic philosophy of music is provided, beginning with the work of Goodman and Wollheim in philosophy of art more generally. Treatments of two central themes are explored in greater depth: the nature of musical expression, and the ontological status of musical works and the relationships in which they stand to musical performances. Platonist and materialist musical ontologies are surveyed, as is the significance of authentic performance in the classical paradigm. In the final section, actual and possible engagements between analytic philosophy of music and studies of music in other philosophical and disciplinary traditions are considered. Traditions discussed include phenomenology, “performance” philosophy, cognitive science, and musicology. Particular attention is paid to the importance of grounding philosophical reflections on music in the diversity of musical practice.

Phonographischer Text, Interpretation und Aufführungsmaterial als kritisch edierbarer Sachzusammenhang

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-30
Author(s):  
Andreas Münzmay ◽  
Christine Siegert
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Critical Edition ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
Text Interpretation ◽  
Musical Practice ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
Different Types ◽  
First Time

Abstract The article discusses possibilities and specific problems of including audio material in the realm of scholarly music editions. From this perspective, the authors propose to include the sounding manifestation of music both into the notion of the musical ‚work‘ and of the musical ‚text‘. The outcome of this thought experiment which considers music as performative art, Beethoven’s and other classical composers’ own wider notions of musical works as musical practice, phonographic recordings as text, different types of music as different types of data, programmed concordances as specific feature of digital editions, and musical interpreters as authors of musical interpretations is a theoretical model that for the first time makes record productions the object of scholarly critical edition.

The Language-Character of Music: Some Motifs in Adorno

1991 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Paddison
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
Western Art ◽  
Precise Meaning ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
Internal Relations ◽  
Dynamic Context

Questions concerning Western art music's relation to language can be seen to arise directly from the most fundamental paradox of so-called ‘autonomous’ or ‘absolute’ musical works: that they seem to say something, the precise meaning of which remains concealed. It is the aim of this article to explore the ‘linguisticality’ of autonomous music – its similarity to, and yet difference from, language – through a close reading of certain motifs in the work of T. W. Adorno. Crudely stated, Adorno identifies the fundamental polarity underlying autonomous music's ‘language-character’ (Sprachcharakter) as that between the internal relations of the hermetically sealed musical work and the external social relations of music's production, reproduction, distribution and consumption. It is the tension between these extremes which generates music's dynamic context or ‘complex of meaning’ (Sinnzusammenhang). Implicit in the approach taken here, therefore, is the argument that linguistic (or indeed any other) theories applied to music make sense only in the context of a larger cultural theory.

The Normativity of Musical Works

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 1-135
Author(s):  
Alessandro Arbo
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Copyright Infringement ◽  
Ontological Status ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
Social Object ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
The World ◽  
Musical Ontology ◽  
Normative Value

Abstract The cases of copyright infringement that occasionally crop up in the world of music raise many interesting questions: what do we mean when we talk about the identity of a musical work and what does such an identity involve? What in fact are the properties that make it something worth protecting and preserving? These issues are not only of legal relevance, they are central to a philosophical discipline that has seen considerable advances over the last few decades: musical ontology. Taking into account its main theoretical models, this essay argues that an understanding of the ontological status of musical works should acknowledge the irreducible ambivalence of music as an “art of the trace” and as a “performative art.” It advocates a theory of the musical work as a “social object” and, more specifically, as a sound artefact that functions aesthetically and which is based on a trace informed by a normative value. Such a normativity is further explored in relation to three primary ways of conceiving and fixing the trace: orality, notation and phonography.

The Musical Discourse of Servitude

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry White
Keyword(s):  
Johann Sebastian Bach ◽  
George Frideric Handel ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Imperial Court ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
Musical Discourse ◽  
Work Concept ◽  
Musical Genres ◽  
Church Service ◽  
Late Works

The Musical Discourse of Servitude examines the music of Johann Joseph Fux (ca. 1660–1741) in relation to that of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Its principal argument is that Fux’s long indenture as a composer of church music in Vienna gains in meaning (and cultural significance) when situated along an axis that runs between the liturgical servitude of writing music for the imperial court service and the autonomy of musical imagination which transpires in the late works of Bach and Handel. To this end, The Musical Discourse of Servitude constructs a typology of the late Baroque musical imagination which draws Fux, Bach, and Handel into the orbit of North Italian compositional practice. This typology depends on two primary concepts, both of which derive and dissent from Lydia Goehr’s formulation of the “work-concept” in The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works (1992), namely, the “authority concept” and a revised reading of the “work-concept” itself. Both concepts are engaged through the agency of two musical genres—the oratorio and the Mass ordinary—which Fux shared with Handel and Bach respectively. These genres functioned as conservative norms in Fux’s music (most of Fux’s working life was spent in writing for the church service), but they are very differently engaged by Bach and Handel. To establish a continuity between Fux, Bach and Handel, and between the servitude of common practice and the emerging autonomy of a work-based practice in the early eighteenth-century musical imagination are the principal objectives of this study.

Authorship in the Age of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-M. Deltorn ◽  
Franck Macrez
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Specific Contribution

A new generation of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) creative tools are now at the disposal of musicians, professionals and amateurs alike. These new technical intermediaries allow the production of unprecedented forms of compositions, from generating new works by mimicking a style or by mixing a curated ensemble of musical works to letting an algorithm complete one’s own creation in unexpected directions or by letting an artist interact with the parameters of a neural network to explore fresh musical avenues. Unsurprisingly, this new spectrum of algorithmic compositions question both the nature and the degree of involvement of the creator in the musical work. As a consequence, the issue of authorship and, in particular, the assessment of the specific contribution of a (human) creator through the algorithmic pipeline may require special scrutiny when AI and ML tools are used to produce musical works.

scholarly journals Methodical Expediency of Enrichment of Repertoire of the Beginning Pianist in Educational Institutions of the People’s Republic of China

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 126-137
Author(s):  
Kang Yunyu
Keyword(s):  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Compositional Techniques ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Piano Repertoire ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
Effective Performance ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
Russian Composers ◽  
Selection Of

The article deals with the activity of the teacher-musician on the choice of educational piano repertoire. Currently, in China, this practice is based almost exclusively on the empirical experience of teachers and is largely random, does not have sufficient methodical support. They use rather standard, so-called basic musical repertoire, especially at the initial level of piano training in the genre of a program play. At the same time, the individuality of the student, his personal qualities, promising musical development, genre and style diversity of works, certain methodological indications for study, motivational readiness are not adequately taken into account. There is an urgent need to expand the children’s piano repertoire in China, primarily through the musical works of composers from other countries, for example, the easy plays of Russian composers of the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The article shows a specific example of the educational repertoire in children’s educational programs with effective performance of young musicians at concerts. Actions of the teacher-musician at the choice of this or that musical work inevitably actualize personal-creative and reflexive qualities, skills of the methodological analysis. The introduction of young musicians to the performance of music from other eras and national schools, familiarity with different compositional techniques and directions, painstaking individual selection of each play has a pronounced methodological, educational and motivational effect.

Following Gesture Following: Grounding the Documentation of a Multi-Agent Music Creation Process

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 59-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Boutard ◽  
Catherine Guastavino
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Creative Process ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
Multi Agent ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Do So

The documentation of electroacoustic and mixed musical works typically relies on a posteriori data collection. In this article, we argue that the preservation of musical works having technological components should be grounded in a thorough documentation of the creative process that accounts for both human and nonhuman agents of creation. The present research aims at providing a ground for documentation policies that account for the creative process and provide relevant information for performance, migration, and analysis. To do so, we analyzed secondary ethnographic data from a two-year creation and production process of a musical work having a focus on gesture following. Using grounded theory, we developed a conceptual framework with different levels of abstraction and consequent levels of transferability to other creative contexts. Finally, we propose several paths for grounding a subsequent documentation framework in this conceptual framework.

The Oxford Handbook of Time in Music

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
Musical Practice ◽  
Musical Time ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Nature Of Time ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Profound Insight

As the art that calls most attention to temporality, music provides us with profound insight into the nature of time, and time equally offers us one of the richest lenses through which to interrogate musical practice and thought. In this volume, musical time, arrayed across a spectrum of genres and performance/compositional contexts is explored from a multiplicity of perspectives. The contributions to the volume all register the centrality of time to our understanding of music and music-making and offer perspectives on time in music, particularly though not exclusively attending to contemporary forms of musical work. In sharing insights drawn from philosophy, music theory, ethnomusicology, psychology of performance and cultural studies, the book articulates a range of understandings on the metrics, politics and socialities woven into musical time.

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