Musical Understandings and Other Essays on the Philosophy of Music

Musical Understandings presents an engaging collection of essays on the philosophy of music, written by Stephen Davies - one of the most distinguished philosophers in the field.

He explores a range of topics in the philosophy of music, including how music expresses emotion and what is distinctive to the listener's response to this expressiveness; the modes of perception and understanding that can be expected of skilled listeners, performers, analysts, and composers and the various manners in which these understandings can be manifest; the manner in which musical works exist and their relation to their instances or performances; and musical profundity.

As well as reviewing the work of philosophers of music, a number of the chapters both draw on and critically reflect on current work by psychologists concerning music. The collection includes new material, a number of adapted articles which allow for a more comprehensive, unified treatment of the issues at stake, and work published in English for the first time.

Book Details

• Author: Stephen Davies
• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• eBook ISBN: 9780191619458, 0191619450
• Print ISBN: 9780199608775, 0199608776