Philosophy of Music: Issues
Code
711021063
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Ciências Musicais
Credits
6
Teacher in charge
Maria Manuela Toscano
Weekly hours
4
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
By the end of the curricular unit students should:
a) Ponder about relevant concepts and postulates in the philosophical thought, especially after Wagner;
b) Be able to question and to offer original explanations and critical arguments, in a sustained and clear aesthetical oral and written discourse;
c) Cross the field of Music Aesthetics with other philosophical, artistic and cultural problems;
d) Be able to grasp intertextual and intermedial phenomena;
e) Identify elements of continuity, change and disruption of values throughout the history of philosophical and musical thought;
f) Acquire sensitivity to possible worlds of artistic and existential meaning summoned by the encounter with the work, in its various levels.
Prerequisites
Preceding module: Philosophy of Music Foundations
Subject matter
1. History of the Philosophy of Music from fin-de-siècle to contemporaneity.
1.1. Moments in Wagner´s musical and aesthetical thought.
1.2. Introduction to Nietzsche´s Birth of Tragedy\".
1.3. Effects of the \"synthesis of arts\" in Modernity. Symbolism.
2. The aesthetic experience: encounters with the work.
2.1. The artwork as configuration: Aristotle, Goethe, Hanslick, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Kandinsky, Debussy, Klee, Pareyson, Maldiney, Dahlhaus, Deleuze.
2.2. The aesthetic experience as an ineffable event - encounter with the expressive dimension: Nietzsche, Jankélévitch, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Langer, Benjamin.
2.3. The eloquence of materials and the wake of perception, embodiment, gesture, voice: Deleuze, Herr.
2.4. Artistic creation and the quest for beauty: Plato, Plotin, Schopenhauer, Baudelaire, Debussy, Steiner.
2.5. The act of performance as a criative, forming gesture and an expressive disclosure of the work: Brelet, Bernac, Barenboim, Fassina, Berger.
Bibliography
Audi, P. (2003). Livresse de lart: Nietzsche et lesthétique. Paris: Librairie Générale Française.
Bowman, W. (1998). Philosophical Perspectives on Music. Oxford: OUP.
Brelet, G. (1951). Linterprétation créatrice. Essai sur lexécution musicale. Paris: PUF.
Heidegger, M. (1986). Lorigine de loeuvre dart. Chemins qui ne mènent nulle part. Paris: Gallimard.
Herr, S. (2009). Geste de la voix et théâtre du corps. Paris: LHarmattan.
Jaeger, S. M. (2006). Embodiment and Presence. Staging Philosophy: Intersections of Theater, Performance and Philosophy. Ann Arbor, MI: UMP, 122-141.
Pareyson, L. (1988). Teoria della formatività. Milano: Bompiani.
Magee, B. (2001). Wagner and Philosophy. London: Penguin Books.
Renaud, I. (1985). Communication et Expression chez Merleau-Ponty. Lisboa: UNL.
Sauvagnargues, A. ( 2005). Deleuze et lart. Paris, PUF.
Steiner, G. (2002). Grammars on Creation. London: Faber and Faber.
Teaching method
Theoretical lectures. Students are encouraged to participate in an active, original and critical way. In-depth interpretation of previously prepared texts and its discussion is welcome and developed. Comparative hearing of music performances and analyis of pictorial works, establishing connections between theory and praxis are made. If posssible, there will be workshops with invited specialists about links between philosophical themes and art works.
Evaluation method
Participation during lectures (20%); written or oral presentations in classes about a combined topic and its collective discussion (40%); a written test (40%).