On the beautiful in music, or the emotional fly in the musical ointment

Musical Times

Volumn 149, Issue 1902, 2008, Pages 39-45

  Huss, Fabian Gregor ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 57749137843     PISSN: 00274666     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/25434516     Document Type: Review

References (11)

1. See Peter Kivy: Music alone (Ithaca, 1990) for a discussion of the relativity of 'absoluteness' in music
2. Leonard B. Meyer is a notable exception; see Emotion and meaning in music (Chicago, 1956), particularly chapter VIII, 'Note on image processes, connotations, and moods'
3. For discussions of this subject, see, for instance, Peter Kivy: The corded shell (Princeton, 1980)
4. Peter Kivy: New essays on musical understanding (Oxford, 2001)
5. Jenefer Robinson, ed.: Music and meaning (Ithaca, 1997)
6. Stephen Davies: Musical meaning and expression (Ithaca, 1994)
7. Patrick N. Juslin: 'From mimesis to catharsis: expression, perception, and induction of emotion in music', in Dorothy Miell, Raymond MacDonald & David J. Hargreaves, edd.: Musical communication (Oxford, 2005)
8. Kurt Lewin: Field theory and social science (London, 1952)
9. Many studies based on music cognition/perception research do not conclusively reflect the nature of the emotions music arouses, and most create unnatural listening situations without taking the influences these produce into account. Already Eric Graebner pointed out fundamental problems in music perception research in his review in Music Analysis 6/1-2 (1987) of John A. Sloboda's The musical mind: the cognitive psychology of music (London, 1985)
10. and Malcolm Budd's Music and emotion: the philosophical theories (London, 1985), many of which still apply. While much music perception and cognition research has been illuminating, assumptions basic to some research methods and their evaluation would perhaps require radical revision
11. Peter Kivy: New essays on musical understanding. Although he approaches the subject from a different angle, Kivy reaches many similar conclusions to those outlined here