Table Of ContentMusical Understandings
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Musical
Understandings
and Other Essays on
the Philosophy
of Music
Stephen Davies
1
3
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Contents
Introduction 1
1. ArtisticExpressionandtheHardCaseofPureMusic 7
2. MusicandMetaphor 21
3. Cross-culturalMusicalExpressiveness:TheoryandtheEmpiricalProgram 34
4. EmotionalContagionfromMusictoListener 47
5. OnceAgain,ThisTimewithFeeling 66
6. MusicalMeaninginaBroaderPerspective 71
7. MusicalUnderstandings 88
8. TheExperienceofMusic 129
9. Cos`ı’sCanonQuartet 140
10. PerceivingMelodies 151
11. MusicalColorsandTimbralSonicism 160
12. VersionsofMusicalWorksandLiteraryTranslations 177
13. ProfundityinInstrumentalMusic 188
References 200
Index 215
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Introduction
The essays in this book cover a spread of topics in the philosophy of music: the
expression of emotion in music and the listener’s response to this (Chapters 1 to 4),
the listener’s, performer’s, analyst’s, and composer’s perception and understanding of
music (Chapters 5 to 10), the ontology of musical works (Chapters 11 and 12), and
musicalprofundity(Chapter13).Asismadeapparentinthefollowingsummary,there
aremanyconnectionsandcommonissueslinkingthesevarioustopics.
Some of the material is new. In a number of cases, related articles have been
combined and adapted, thereby allowing a more comprehensive, unified treatment
oftheissues.ThecenterpieceofthebookisthelongChapter7,themajorityofwhich
ispublishedinEnglishforthefirsttimehere.
****
Ihavelongbeeninterestedintheexpressionofemotioninmusic,whichisthetopic
addressed in Chapters 1 and 2. When they think about the topic, many people start
with the observation that music cannot literally express emotion, because, being
insentient, it cannot experience emotion. Two conclusions are regularly thought to
followfromthistruism.Attributionsofemotion tomusic—suchas,‘theslowmove-
ment of Beethoven’s Eroica is sad’—must be metaphorical. Second, if we are not to
abandon the idea that music expresses emotion, we should be able to find
someone who experiences the emotion that, somehow, finds expression in the
music. The candidatesare the composer, the performer, and the listener. Or alterna-
tively,acurrentlypopularpositionamongphilosophersofmusicisthatwehypothesize
a persona as existing in and controlling the music, which is then heard as expressing
the persona’s feelings. In Chapter 1, I argue against these attempts to explain the
music’s expressiveness by connecting it to emotions felt by composers, listeners, and
hypotheticalpersonas.
Moreover,Ithinkthetwoconclusionsjustmentionedarefalse.Mypositiveaccount
ofhowmusicisexpressivemakesapparentwhythisisso.Wecanbeinterestedinthe
outwardshowofemotion,whatIcall‘emotioncharacteristicsinappearances,’without
regardtofeltemotions.Forinstance,Imightsaythatsomeonecutsasadfigure,andin
this way refer to his appearance, without believing he feels as he looks. And it is
not only to sentient creatures that we attribute emotion characteristics. The bearing
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MUSICAL UNDERSTANDINGS
ofatreemightbedescribedasproudbecauseitresembleshowproud-lookingpeople
carry themselves. I think that when music is heard as expressive of emotion, this is
because weexperienceitsmovementassimilartohuman comportmentsthat present
appearancesstampedwithexpressivecharacter.Becausethefocusisonemotionsworn
byappearancesbutnotnecessarilyfelt,thereisnoneedtofindsomeonewho,through
their connection with the music, feels the emotion the music expresses. In addition,
because this use of emotion-words to describe appearances is standardly listed in
dictionaries, I see no reason to regard the usage as metaphorical. Admittedly, there is
anextensionfromtheprimarycase,inwhichsuchwordsrefertoaffectiveexperiences,
butsomethingclosetotheprimarymeaningispresentinthenewuse,withwhichitis
polysemouslyconnected.
Onefeature that distinguishesmetaphorand homonymy(aswhenaword,suchas
‘bank,’has morethan onemeaning)from polysemy (as when aword, such as ‘high,’
seemingly retains its meaning across many domains: height, number, temperature,
salary, and musical pitch) is that the same polysemous uses tend to occur in different
languages.Andindeed,peopleofmanydifferentculturesregardmusicasexpressiveof
emotion. Inevitably, this invitesone to consider the extent to which musical expres-
siveness is cross-culturally recognizable. In Chapter 3, I first explore the theoretical
backgroundtothisquestionandoutlinethekindofresearchprogramthatmighttestit.
I then review the experimental work done already by psychologists on the topic.
Thoughtheirresultsaresuggestive,Iconcludethat,atthisstage,theempiricaldataare
solimitedandthemethodologiessofrequentlycompromisedthatitisnotpossibleto
settlethequestion.
My interest in the work of psychologists and cognitive scientists on music is not
confinedtoChapter3.ItisalsoamajorthemeinChapters4,10,and11.Inmyview,
philosophersneedtoinformtheirtheorizingwithrelevantempiricaldata,ratherthan
relying exclusively on their intuitions and personal experience. At the same time,
however, they need not uncritically accept all that is presented as scientific fact. In
defending my views, I sometimes cite the work of psychologists, but on other occa-
sionsIalsorejectorquestionthefindingstheysometimesdrawfromtheirwork.
Chapter4continuesthediscussionofmusicandemotion,consideringthelistener’s
reactiontomusic’sexpressiveness.Acommonresponsetomusic’sexpressivenessisone
thatmirrorsit;sadmusicisliabletomakepeoplesadandhappymusictocheerthem
up.OnerespectinwhichthisresponseisphilosophicallyinterestingIargue,isthatit
providesacounterexampletothecognitivetheoryoftheemotions.Accordingtothis
theory,emotionsaretobecharacterizedprimarilyintermsofthebeliefsthatgowith
them: if I fear for myself I must believe that something threatens me or my interests;
ifIenvysomeoneImustbelievetheyhavesomethingIdonothaveandImustdesire
to possess that thing. By contrast, when I am saddened bysad music I usually do not
believeofitwhatwouldnormallymakeitafitobjectforsadness:thatitisunfortunate
or regrettable. The mirroring response is aroused via a kind of affective contagion,
I claim. In defending my view against some recent criticisms, I go on to distinguish
3
INTRODUCTION
attentionalfromnon-attentionalmusicalcontagion.Thelistenerfocusesonthemusic
and its expressive character in the first case, whereas in the second she might be
unawareofbackgroundmusicandofitseffectsonher.Psychologistswhohavestudied
music-to-listener emotional contagion typically consider the non-attentional type.
Andtheirmodelsofhumanface-to-faceemotionalcontagiontendtoreducetostories
aboutthecausalprocessesinvolved.Attentionalmusicalcontagioncannotinvolvethe
same causal routes, but that is a reason for seeking more abstract models of the
phenomenon, not for doubting that the listener’s reaction to music often involves
affectiveosmosis.
Chapter5turnstotheperformer’sroleincommunicatingwhatthemusicexpresses.
I am skeptical that the performer arouses the appropriate emotion within herself or
simulatesdoingso.Rathersheplaysthenotesaswrittenandcraftsherinterpretationto
sculpttheexpressivepotentialpresentinthosenotes.Wetalkoftheimportanceofthe
performer’sfeelingthemusicnotbecauseplayinginvolvesemotionbutratherbecause
thekindofskillthatmakessensitiveplayingpossibleisoftenpracticalandinarticulable.
The wider topic of how music is to be understood is first broached in Chapter 6,
whichistheonlychaptertohavebeenco-authored.Theprimaryaimistodistinguish
variousapproachestomusicalmeaningadoptedbythelistener.Webeginwithformal
meaning,whichinvolvesthelistener’strackingthestructureofthemusic.Weoppose
accountsthatmodelthisprocessonthatofgraspinglinguisticorsemiologicalmeaning.
Theformalprogressofmusicisbestexplainedintermsofreasonslikethosethatjustify
human actions. What we call ‘experiential formal meaning’ is an even more funda-
mental,non-discursivekindofmeaninginmusic,experiencedasthepatternoftension
andreleasegeneratedbytheunfoldingofthemusicalfabric.‘Meaning-for-the-subject’
concerns the personal, idiosyncratic significance music can possess for the individual
listener.‘Meaning-for-us’isthesharedmeaningmusichasmorewidelyforallhuman
beings.
ThekeystoneforthiscollectionisthelongChapter7,whichextendsthediscussion
ofmusicalunderstandingtotakein,aswellasthelistener,theperformer,analyst,and
composer.Inthefirstplacethelistenerhastolocatetheworkthatishertargetamong
all the sounds contiguous with it, including simultaneous soundings of other works.
Andshemustheartheworkasmusic:forinstance,shehearstheclosureinacadence,
recognizesamelodywhenitisrepeated,isawareoftheexpressivevivaciousnessofan
upbeatphrase.Thislevelofcomprehensionisattainedviaculturalabsorption,without
formaltraining,butifshewishestorefineherresponsetomusicthelistenerislikelyto
takeinstruction,forinstance,byreadingaboutmusic’shistory.Aswell,shewilllearnto
distinguishwhatisattributabletotheworkandwhattotheperformer’sinterpretation
of it. I argue (against Jerrold Levinson) that the listener’s understanding should go
beyond noting the coherence of its progress moment-to-moment to encompass a
concernforitsbroaderstructure.AndIrejecttheview(presentedbyMarkDeBellis)
that ear training necessarily affords a kind of understanding and appreciation that is
otherwiseunattainable.
