Aims

The aim of this course is to give students an overview of some of the major developments in the history of Music Philosophy and a consequent understanding of the main issues in the field. This overview is designed to give them the distance necessary for a deeper critical appreciation of musical art.

Main themes

Students will study the main trends in Music Philosophy from Antiquity to the present day. They will acquire fundamental notions of aesthetics and musical criticism. Key terms in Music Philosophy will be defined and explained (notions of beauty, taste, musical pleasure, emotion, style, active listening, time, imitation etc).

Content and teaching methods

Through a range of philosophical texts, writers, theoreticians and musicians, students will be introduced to the history of Music Philosophy. Key concepts in the field of Aesthetics (such as Ontology, time and space, languages, reason-emotion and mimesis) will be defined during the course and summarized at a later stage, giving students an opportunity to develop their own critical vocabulary and apply this in a study of a work and/or period chosen by them.

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