Philosophy of music

The Philosophy of music is the study of big questions about music and what it means to us. It asks things like what music really is, how it connects to our feelings, and how it relates to language and history. This idea started in the 19th century and became a special subject of study in the 1980s.

Many smart people have helped us understand the philosophy of music. These include philosophers, music critics, musicologists, music theorists, and other scholars. They all explore how music shapes our world and what it tells us about life.

Philosophical issues

Definition of music

Main article: Definition of music

People often describe music as organized sound, but this idea is too wide because many organized sounds, like speech or animal noises, are not music. Music has special parts like melody (pitches that follow one after another), harmony (groups of pitches that form chords), rhythm, meter, and timbre (the “color” of a sound). Some modern types of music, like noise music, musique concrète, and ambient music, use sounds that are not traditional melodies or rhythms. These new styles challenged older ideas about what music should be.

Absolute music vs program music

Main articles: Absolute music and Program music

In the late 1800s, there was a big discussion about “absolute music” and “program music.” Followers of “absolute music” believed that instrumental music does not tell a story or show emotions; they thought music was not about anything specific. This idea started in the late 1700s with writers from early German Romanticism, like Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, Ludwig Tieck, and E. T. A. Hoffmann.

Others supported “program music,” which they believed could show emotions and tell stories. An example is Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, where the music tells a story about an artist. Many people, including composer Richard Wagner and philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, supported program music. Wagner felt that words were more important than music alone.

Some thinkers, like Johann von Goethe, saw music as a deep way to understand beauty and order. Arthur Schopenhauer even said that music answers life’s big questions. Søren Kierkegaard looked at the deep meanings in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s music, especially in Don Giovanni.

Meaning and purpose

In a 1997 book, Steven Pinker called music “auditory cheesecake,” meaning that it might not be important for survival but is still very enjoyable. Philip Ball wrote that music touches deep parts of what makes us human. He said that in some cultures, saying “I’m not musical” would not make sense, just like saying “I’m not alive.”

Aesthetics of music

Main article: Aesthetics of music

In the past, people studied how music related to math and the universe. Later, in the 1700s, they began to focus more on how people feel when they listen to music — its beauty and enjoyment. This change is often linked to writers like Baumgarten and Kant. Today, philosophers also think about how music shows emotions.

Many important thinkers have written about music’s beauty, including Peter Kivy, Jerrold Levinson, Roger Scruton, and Stephen Davies. Famous composers and music writers have also added to these ideas. Some people, like Harry Partch and Kyle Gann, have explored different musical scales. Modern composers like La Monte Young, Rhys Chatham, and Glenn Branca have used special tuning systems.

Music can affect our feelings, thoughts, and minds. It can make us feel less lonely or more excited. The philosopher Plato believed that music directly influences our souls and suggested that the government should control what kind of music people hear.