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Since the beginning of the eighteenth century, the philosophy of art has been engaged in the project of defining fine arts by finding out what they have in common. Peter Kivy's purpose is to trace the history of that enterprise and argue that the definitional project has been unsuccessful, with absolute music as the continual stumbling block. His fruitful change of strategy entails exploring the differences among the arts instead of engaging in an obsessive quest for sameness. He presents five case studies in both literature and music.
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.
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.
What makes a musical work profound? What is it about pure
instrumental music that the listener finds attractive and
rewarding? In addressing these questions, Peter Kivy continues his
highly regarded exploration of the philosophy of musical
aesthetics. He considers here what he believes to be the most
difficult subject of all "just plain music; music unaccompanied by
text, title, subject, program, or plot; in other words, music
alone."
The concept of genius intrigues us. Artistic geniuses have
something other people don’t have. In some cases that something
seems to be a remarkable kind of inspiration that permits the
artist to exceed his own abilities. It is as if the artist is
suddenly possessed, as if some outside force flows through him at
the moment of creation. In other cases genius seems best explained
as a natural gift. The artist is the possessor of an extra talent
that enables the production of masterpiece after masterpiece. This
book explores the concept of artistic genius and how it came to be
symbolized by three great composers of the modern era: Handel,
Mozart, and Beethoven. Peter Kivy, a leading thinker in musical
aesthetics, delineates the two concepts of genius that were already
well formed in the ancient world. Kivy then develops the argument
that these concepts have alternately held sway in Western thought
since the beginning of the eighteenth century. He explores why this
pendulum swing from the concept of the possessor to the concept of
the possessed has occurred and how the concepts were given
philosophical reformulations as views toward Handel, Mozart, and
Beethoven as geniuses changed in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and
twentieth centuries.
How are we to assess the current popularity of period instruments
and early-music performance? For musicians and audiences alike, the
"historical authenticity" movement has increasingly influenced the
performance of classical music. It has given us, claims Peter Kivy,
"new and rewarding ways of listening to our musical reportory (as
well as silly, vulgar, and unrewarding ones)." He believes that
theory now overrules the ear in arguing for and justifying
particular aesthetic decisions. In his customary engaging style,
Kivy here mounts a philosophical inquiry into the desirability of
using or re-creating historical performance. "Authenticity has
become so widely accepted," he writes, "that why it should be
accepted has become an unasked, indeed a forgotten question among
the converted." In "How to Be Authentic," the first section of his
book, he examines four different kinds of authenticity; in the
second part, "Why to Be Authentic," he suggests how to evaluate
them. Discussing issues that he cares about passionately, Kivy
provides ammunition for both camps—those who follow authentic
performance practice and those who do not. It is his hope that this
book provides the groundwork for dialogue between mucisians and
philosophers. "I look forward to that," he says, "and to being,
when it comes, in the thick of things."
Once Upon a Time is a collection of essays in the philosophy of
literature with two central themes: the significance of story
–telling for us and the question of whether the novel, perhaps
the art form most closely associated with story-telling, is a
legitimate source of human knowledge. Leading philosopher of art
Peter Kivy explores why human beings are so enthralled by being
told stories and whether story-telling is a significant source of
knowledge. Starting with a study of Aristotle's Poetics, Kivy then
undertakes a critical discussion of Noel Carroll's suggestion that
our interaction with the artists of the past is a kind of
"conversation." He goes on to defend the thesis that one of the
legitimate artistic pleasures we take in novel-reading is the
acquiring of knowledge and, furthermore, that the silent reading of
a novel is a kind of performance, making the novel one of the
performing arts. The volume concludes with a chapter about jokes,
and, in particular, whether it is immoral to tell or be amused by
an "immoral" joke. This volume of essays is a must-read for anyone
seriously interested in literature and the conceptual problems it
may raise for philosophers.
THE SENSE OF BEAUTY: A FIRST APPROXIMATION It is generally
acknowledged that during the first half of the eighteenth century a
profound change was wrought in the theory of art and natural
beauty. To this period we owe the establishment of the modem system
of the arts. 1 In England, the notion of a separate and autonomous
disci pline devoted solely to art and to beauty came into being
through the concept of "aesthetic disinterestedness. " 2 In
addition, emphasis in the theory of art shifted from object to
subject - from the work of art to the perceiver and critic. Focal
point for this change was the sense of beauty which, in concert
with the moral sense of the British school, represented a dominant
force in Enlightenment value theory. It is Francis Hutcheson who,
more than anyone else, can be thought of as the founder and
principal spokesman of this philosophical coterie. If the aesthetic
sense was instrumental in the transfer of interest, in the
philosophy of art, from object to perceiver, the aesthetic and
moral senses together were no less important in a parallel
transference of value judgment from the rational to the sensate."
Once Upon a Time is a collection of essays in the philosophy of
literature with two central themes: the significance of story
–telling for us and the question of whether the novel, perhaps
the art form most closely associated with story-telling, is a
legitimate source of human knowledge. Leading philosopher of art
Peter Kivy explores why human beings are so enthralled by being
told stories and whether story-telling is a significant source of
knowledge. Starting with a study of Aristotle's Poetics, Kivy then
undertakes a critical discussion of Noel Carroll's suggestion that
our interaction with the artists of the past is a kind of
"conversation." He goes on to defend the thesis that one of the
legitimate artistic pleasures we take in novel-reading is the
acquiring of knowledge and, furthermore, that the silent reading of
a novel is a kind of performance, making the novel one of the
performing arts. The volume concludes with a chapter about jokes,
and, in particular, whether it is immoral to tell or be amused by
an "immoral" joke. This volume of essays is a must-read for anyone
seriously interested in literature and the conceptual problems it
may raise for philosophers.
Sounding Off brings together a selection of essays on philosophy of
music written by Peter Kivy--the leading expert on the subject. The
essays fall into four groups, corresponding to Kivy's major
interests. Part I contains two essays on the nature of musical
genius. In Part II, three essays take up the subject of
authenticity in performance, and explore what Kivy terms "the
authenticity of interpretation." Part III contains four essays
concerning the much discussed issues of musical representation and
musical meaning. Finally, Part IV consists of three essays on the
"pure musical parameters": these are essays on "music alone" or
"absolute music"--music as the pure, formal structure of
(sometimes) expressive sound. Eight of the eleven essays presented
here are previously unpublished, and the book includes two
appendices which provide Kivy's responses to criticism.
Antithetical Arts constitutes a defence of musical formalism
against those who would put literary interpretations on the
absolute music canon. In Part I, the historical origins of both the
literary interpretation of absolute music and musical formalism are
laid out. In Part II, specific attempts to put literary
interpretations on various works of the absolute music canon are
examined and criticized. Finally, in Part III, the question is
raised as to what the human significance of absolute music is, if
it does not lie in its representational or narrative content. The
answer is that, as yet, philosophy has no answer, and that the
question should be considered an important one for philosophers of
art to consider, and to try to answer without appeal to
representational or narrative content.
Music, Language, and Cognition is the third collection of Peter
Kivy's seminal papers in the philosophy of music. In essays which
span his earliest work in the field and his more recent
contributions to journals, anthologies, and conference proceedings,
Kivy considers the origin of music, the medium of expression in
opera, the role of music in film, the nature of an "ideal"
performance, and the question of whether absolute music has a
meaning, among other issues. Rich with critical analysis and
informed by the history of both philosophy and music, this volume
will be of interest to anyone who likes not only to listen to
music, but to think about it as well.
Now reissued with substantial new material, The Seventh Sense is the definitive study of the aesthetic theory of the great eighteenth-century philosopher Francis Hutcheson, and its huge influence on British aesthetics. Peter Kivy's book is a seminal work on early modern aesthetics, and has been much in demand since going out of print some years ago; this new edition brings the book up to date with the addition of seven essays that Kivy has written on the subject since 1976.
Philosophy of music has flourished in the last thirty years, with great advances made in the understanding of the nature of music and its aesthetics. Peter Kivy has been at the centre of this flourishing, and now offers his personal introduction to philosophy of music, a clear and lively explanation of how he sees the most important and interesting philosophical issues relating to music. Anyone interested in music will find this a stimulating introduction to some fascinating questions and ideas.
Peter Kivy presents a selection of his new and recent writings on the philosophy of music, a subject to which he has for many years been one of the most eminent contributors. In his distinctively elegant and informal style, Kivy explores such topics as musicology and its history, the nature of musical works, and the role of emotion in music, in a way that will attract the interest of philosophical and musical readers alike.
In his new concluding chapter, Peter Kivy advances his argument on
behalf of a distinctive intellectual and musical character of opera
before Mozart. He proposes that happy endings were a musical -- as
opposed to a dramatic -- necessity for opera during this period and
that Mozart's Idomeneo is properly enjoyed and judged only when
listeners axe attuned to its seventeenth and eighteenth-century
forebears.
How are we to assess the current popularity of period instruments
and early-music performance? For musicians and audiences alike, the
"historical authenticity" movement has increasingly influenced the
performance of classical music. It has given us, claims Peter Kivy,
"new and rewarding ways of listening to our musical repertory (as
well as silly, vulgar, and unrewarding ones)". He believes that
theory now overrules the ear in arguing for and justifying
particular aesthetic decisions. In his customary engaging style,
Kivy here mounts a philosophical inquiry into the desirability of
using or re-creating historical practices in performance. In "How
to Be Authentic", the first section of his book, he examines four
different kinds of authenticity; in the second part, "Why to Be
Authentic", he suggests how to evaluate them. Discussing issues
that he cares about passionately, Kivy provides ammunition for both
camps - those who follow authentic performance practice and those
who do not. It is his hope that his book provides the groundwork
for dialogue between musicians and philosophers.
Music, Language, and Cognition is the third collection of Peter
Kivy's seminal papers in the philosophy of music. In essays which
span his earliest work in the field and his more recent
contributions to journals, anthologies, and conference proceedings,
Kivy considers the origin of music, the medium of expression in
opera, the role of music in film, the nature of an "ideal"
performance, and the question of whether absolute music has a
meaning, among other issues. Rich with critical analysis and
informed by the history of both philosophy and music, this volume
will be of interest to anyone who likes not only to listen to
music, but to think about it as well.
"The Corded Shell: Reflections on Musical Expression", published in
1980 and now out of print, was concerned with the question of how
music comes to have the emotional properties that have been
perceived in it and ascribed to it since antiquity. In that book,
Peter Kivy argued that music possesses expressive properties, not
as powers to arouse emotions in us but, rather, as perceived
qualities of the music itself. In "Sound Sentiment", he augments
his previous work with four entirely new chapters. Incorporating
the complete, corrected text of "The Corded Shell", Kivy brings his
earlier arguments up to date in light of recent work in the field,
and discusses and answers various criticisms. Author note: Peter
Kivy is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and Associate
Editor of the "Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism". He
received the Deems Taylor Award of ASCAP for "The Corded Shell".
Since the beginning of the 18th century the philosophy of art has
been engaged on the project of trying to find out what the fine
arts have in common and, thus, how they might be defined. Peter
Kivy's purpose in this book is to trace the history of that
enterprise and argue that the definitional project has been
unsuccessful. He offers a fruitful change of strategy: instead of
engaging in an obsessive quest for sameness, let us explore the
differences between the arts. He presents five case studies, three
from literature, two from music. With its combination of historical
and analytic approaches this is a book for a wide range of readers
in philosophy, literary studies, music, and non-academic readers
with interests in the arts.
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