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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010235499 | ML3830 B42 2009 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Music has extraordinary power to move us, but how and why does it affect us? What is going on, emotionally, physically and cognitively when listeners have strong emotional responses to music? This is a highly readable, original and philosophically important book for anyone who has ever been moved by music.
Author Notes
JEANETTE BICKNELL teaches philosophy in Toronto, Canada. She has written widely on aesthetics and philosophy of music.
Reviews 1
Choice Review
Many philosophers have recently come to the conclusion that one needs to draw on cognitive science to understand why music moves people. This book can be seen as a contribution to the literature that seeks to naturalize philosophy of music, but Bicknell (independent scholar) adds a twist of her own. She argues that, besides the natural, psychological facts that other philosophers have stressed, one needs to understand music as a social phenomenon to explain how it moves people. Bicknell is particularly interested in the social factors that make possible the experience of music as sublime. She neglects the specific structural and sonic features of musical performances and instead investigates music in general and its role in people's social lives. Many writers on music have overlooked this social dimension. Even if some of the details of Bicknell's story are open to doubt, Bicknell is almost certainly right to stress that part of the explanation as to why music moves people will be a social one. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and faculty. J. O. Young University of Victoria
Table of Contents
| Preface |
| Acknowledgements |
| The Tears if Odysseus History: Music Gives Voice to the Ineffable Tears, Chills and Broken Bones |
| The Music Itself Explaining Strong Responses to Music (I) Explaining Strong Responses to Music (II) The Sublime Revisited Conclusion: Values |
| References |
| Index |
