The Fine Art of Repetition: Essays in the Philosophy of 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.

Preface; Introduction; PART I: I. Mattheson as philosopher of art; II. Mainwaring’s Handel: its relation to English aesthetics; III. Charles Burney, music critic; IV. Kant and the Affektenlehre: what he said, and what I wish he had said; V. Mozart and monotheism: an essay in spurious aesthetics; VI. Child Mozart as an aesthetic symbol; VII. Something I\'ve always wanted to know about Hanslick; VIII. What was Hanslick denying?; IX. Charles Darwin on music; X. Herbert Spencer and a musical dispute; PART II: XI. The fine art of repetition; XII. Platonism in music: a kind of defense; XIII. Platonism in music: another kind of defense; XIV. Orchestrating platonism; XV. Opera talk: a philosophical ‘phantasie’; XVI. How did Mozart do it?: living conditions in the world of opera; XVII. How did Mozart do it?: Replies to my critics; XVIII. Live performances and dead composers: on the ethics of musical interpretation; XIX. On the concept of the ‘historically authentic’ performance; XX. Paul Robinson’s Opera and Ideas; XXI. From ideology to music: Leonard Meyer’s theory of style change; XXII. Music and liberal education; XXIII. A new music criticism?; XXIV. Is music an art?