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Music as an art / Roger Scruton.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: London : Bloomsbury Continuum, 2018Copyright date: ©2018Description: 263 pages : music ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781472955715
  • 1472955714
Subject(s):
Contents:
Part I, Philosophical investigations. When is a tune? ; Music and cognitive science ; Music and the moral life ; Music and the transcendental ; Tonality ; German idealism and the philosophy of music -- Part II, Critical explorations. Franz Schubert and the Quartettsatz ; Rameau the musician ; Britten's dirge ; David Matthews ; Reflections on Deaths in Venice ; Pierre Boulez ; Film music ; The assault on opera ; Nietzsche on Wagner ; The music of the future ; The culture of pop.
Summary: Roger Scruton is a polymath. He has written authoritatively on a huge range of subjects from the environment to wine, from cosmology to the Middle East. He is also an accomplished musician (organ and piano) and a composer of works including an opera and a song cycle. This is Scruton's second major work on music for Bloomsbury--the first being Understanding Music (Continuum, 2009). In this new book he turns again to the meaning of tonality and sound. His abstract, somewhat mystical, argument on these topics includes slashing attacks on Marxist reductionism, the authenticity of Early Music, on rival aestheticians such as Adorno and on sentimentality and cliché in any form.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 780.1 S435 Available 33111009297330
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

As Scruton argues in this book, in earlier times, our musical culture had secure foundations in the church, the concert hall and the home; in the ceremonies and celebrations of ordinary life, religion and manners. Yet we no longer live in that world. Fewer people now play instruments and music is, for many, a form of largely solitary enjoyment. As he shows in Music as an Art , we live at a critical time for classical music, and this book is an important contribution to the debate, of which we stand in need, concerning the place of music in Western civilization.

Music as an Art begins by examining music through a philosophical lens, engaging in discussions about tonality, music and the moral life, music and cognitive science and German idealism, as well as recalling the author's struggle to encourage his students to distinguish the qualities of good music. Scruton then explains--via erudite chapters on Schubert, Britten, Rameau, opera and film--how we can develop greater judgement in music, recognizing both good taste and bad, establishing musical values, as well as musical pleasures.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-249) and index.

Roger Scruton is a polymath. He has written authoritatively on a huge range of subjects from the environment to wine, from cosmology to the Middle East. He is also an accomplished musician (organ and piano) and a composer of works including an opera and a song cycle. This is Scruton's second major work on music for Bloomsbury--the first being Understanding Music (Continuum, 2009). In this new book he turns again to the meaning of tonality and sound. His abstract, somewhat mystical, argument on these topics includes slashing attacks on Marxist reductionism, the authenticity of Early Music, on rival aestheticians such as Adorno and on sentimentality and cliché in any form.

Part I, Philosophical investigations. When is a tune? ; Music and cognitive science ; Music and the moral life ; Music and the transcendental ; Tonality ; German idealism and the philosophy of music -- Part II, Critical explorations. Franz Schubert and the Quartettsatz ; Rameau the musician ; Britten's dirge ; David Matthews ; Reflections on Deaths in Venice ; Pierre Boulez ; Film music ; The assault on opera ; Nietzsche on Wagner ; The music of the future ; The culture of pop.

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