Customer Reviews

Introduction to a Philosophy of Music

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Coming from the prospective of one with undergraduate degrees in both music and philosophy I was very eager to flip through this book. It certainly is an introduction: (1) Kivy assumes the reader to have little or no background in either music or philosophy, (2) Kivy aims for breadth rather then depth (not to say there isn't depth), and (3) the overall level of difficulty, in terms of comprehension, is fairly minimal. This is certainly a kind of book I would recommend to someone as a first reading...even one who has had much experience in each of the areas (philosophy and music) seperately. The book has suggestions for further reading for those so motivated. Not that I am sufficiently knowledgable for one to place much credence in the following, but I agreed with a majority of the arguments Kivy professed to be in-line with (where I felt the most disagreement was with extended formulist's argument that music contains no representation of emotions. Kivy considers some opposing arguments but it seems to me there is more to chew on. I have a feeling though that the distance between the two ideas could be brought closer together with a more detailed account of what emotions are).
Four stars instead of five for two reasons: (1) I would hesitate to give an introductory work in any field five stars and (2) there were certain stylistic aspects of the writing that put me off slightly (a small matter of taste and not by any means a substancial criticism).

If you want an introduction to the philosophy of music, this is the best book available. To some degree, that's because there are no real alternatives. The writing is clear and it really does give an overview of the issues that philosophers discuss, but that means it concentrates on "pure" music (instrumental music of the European classical tradition). The ONLY discussion of music with words is the chapter on opera. If you don't already know a lot about opera, you'll be lost following that chapter. Compared to most philosohers, Kivy has a very informal writing style.

Excellent introduction for practically anyone. Kivy doesn't presume any prior musical or philosophical training on the reader's part, so this is highly readable. If you are new to the field, whether you are a philosopher, a musician, or neither (I am a philosophy student with some music training), you will still find something of interest in this book --- Kivy tackles philosophically interesting issues that all music lovers must have wondered about at some point or other. Whether you agree with what he says, he writes clearly and makes thought-provoking, intelligent points.

The book was in very good shape and it arrived in a very timely manner. I would purchase from this company again.

This book was used as a text in my philosophy of music class. The professor chose the text because she knew that we would be opposed to his views. He barely deals with vocal music at all, claiming that it is not "pure music" because it has text. When dealing with opera, he feels the "problem with opera" is the fact that it is not cyclical. He mentions that when opera was first introduced that emotions were thought to be cyclical, and opera to the best of it's ability tried to accomidate that. However, it the mid 18th century that was discovered not to be the case and it was realized that emotions are linear. Just because the history of music has cyclical background does not mean that with this discovery it should remain as such. Linear and cyclical writing are tools used by a composer to convey certain emotions or to help define an event. Overall I felt Kivy was too verbose. If I were not a music major, I would have found it hard to truly understand what he was talking about