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Critique of Pure Music
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Critique of
Pure Music
James O. Young
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1
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To the Fellows of the Spinnakers Academy
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Preface
F ormalism is the view that music is appreciated as pure form. On this view,
music is not about anything, it does not represent and it has no content. At
any rate, it has no weighty content. Some music may represent birdsong,
bells, and a few other sounds, but it does not provide insight into the emo-
tional lives of humans or other profound matters. Certainly it is not appre-
ciated as the source of such insight. Prominent defenders of formalism (of
one variety or another) have included Monroe Beardsley, Malcolm Budd,
and Nick Zangwill, as well as the most infl uential contemporary philoso-
pher of music, Peter Kivy. Other philosophers of music have been, without
endorsing formalism, formalism’s fellow travellers in that they are sceptical
about the view that music has content. Stephen Davies is the most distin-
guished of these philosophers. Th is essay is designed to prove that formalism
is false. (My opponents could, perhaps, best be described as anti-contentists
and my view as contentism, but these terms seem awkward. My opponents
will be described as formalists. My own view will be called anti-formalism.)
Signifi cant numbers of musical works, including some of the greatest mas-
terpieces, are appreciated for their content.
W hile many philosophers have favoured formalism, or doubted that
music has content, many musicians, music critics and ordinary music lovers
have always believed that music can provide deep insight into the interior
lives of humans. A recent book about Monteverdi, for example, contains this
passage in the course of a discussion of Th e Coronation of Poppea :
Th e languishing ‘dying away’ of Nerone’s vocal line on ‘aff etti miei’ extends over
four bars. Th ree succeeding bars are left for the accompanimental instruments to
bring this sequence to a musical period. Th e eff ect is one of great psychological
insight: the human voice and words can no longer express the depths of Nerone’s
contentment. 1
S imilarly, Hermann Abert praises Mozart for his ‘true psychological
insight’ 2 in his treatment of Donna Elvira, and Winton Dean speaks of
1 Mark Ringer , O pera’s First Master: Th e Musical Dramas of Claudio Monteverdi
( Plompton Plains, N.J. : Amadeus Press , 2006 ), p. 303 .
2 Hermann Abert , W.A. Mozart , trans. Stewart Spencer ( New Haven, C.T. : Yale University
Press , 2007 ), p. 1101 .
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viii Preface
Handel’s ‘penetrating insight into human nature’.3 Th e phrases ‘psycho-
logical insight’ and ‘psychological depth’ are used repeatedly to describe
the achievements found in a wide range of compositions. Even the songs
of Bruce Springsteen are described as providing ‘psychological insight’ 4
while the music of Led Zeppelin is said to have ‘psychological depth’. 5
A ll of the examples just given are of music with lyrics, but it is equally
easy to fi nd statements to the eff ect that instrumental music provides psy-
chological insight. (In Chapter 4 I will argue that music with and without
lyrics both have content in much the same way.) Many of these statements
are by distinguished composers. Schumann admired the ‘psychological’
element of Schubert’s compositions. Schumann wrote, with particular ref-
erence to Schubert’s four-hand Rondeau, Op. 107, that ‘nobody’s composi-
tions are such a psychological puzzle in the course and connection of their
ideas as Schubert’s, with their a pparently logical progressions . . . What a
diary is to those who jot down all their passing emotions, his music paper
was to Schubert’.6 Aaron Copland writes that, with Beethoven, ‘music lost
a certain innocence but gained instead a new dimension in psychological
depth’.7 Shostakovich held that his symphonies are about matters such as
Stalin’s character.
F ormalists believe that anyone who speaks of music as having psycho-
logical depth or as providing psychological insight is confused. From the
formalists’ perspective, music is not the sort of thing that could provide
psychological insight: patterns of sound can no more provide insight
than the patterns of colour in a kaleidoscope can. Kivy calls the psycho-
logical depth of music an ‘illusion’.8 Davies is similarly sceptical about the
view that music can provide psychological insight. He shares ‘with Kivy
the view that music is not profound as a result of revealing deep truths
3 Winton Dean , Handel and the Opera Seria ( Berkeley, C.A. : University of California
Press , 1969 ), p. 24 .
4 S cott C alef, ‘A Little of the Human Touch: Knowledge and Empathy in the Music of
Bruce Springsteen’, in Randall E. Auxier and Doug Anderson (eds.), Bruce Springsteen and
Philosophy ( Chicago, I.L. : Open Court , 2008 ), p. 225 .
5 Edward Macan , ‘Bring Back the Balance’, in Scott Calef (ed.), Led Zeppelin and
Philosophy: All Will be Revealed ( Chicago, I.L. : Open Court , 2009 ), p. 199 .
6 Robert Schumann , Early Letters of Robert Schumann, Originally Published by his Wife ,
trans. May Herbert ( London : George Bell and Sons , 1888 ), p. 81 .
7 Aaron Copland , C opland on Music ( Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday , 1960 ), p. 39 .
8 Peter Kivy, Osmin’s Rage: Philosophical Refl ections on Opera, Drama, and Text (Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1999), p. 268. In this passage he is speaking specifi cally about
opera, but he believes that no music can provide psychological insight.
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Description:Why do we value music? Many people report that listening to music is one of life's most rewarding activities. In Critique of Pure Music, James O. Young seeks to explain why this is so. Formalists tell us that music is appreciated as pure, contentless form. On this view, listeners receive pleasure, o
