Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393965082 ISBN 13: 9780393965087

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995

Synopsis

Drawn from the influential journal Perspectives of New Music, these essays reflect a variety of artistic viewpoints and critical perspectives. The contributors include composers Pierre Boulez, John Cage, and Milton Babbitt, literary scholar Douglas Collins, anthropologist Eric Gans, philosopher Michel Foucault, and poet Delmore Schwartz. The authors contemplate music's origins and function, the changing relations between music and society, the effects of today's conflicting aesthetic notions on composition, and the relationship between music and other communicative behaviors. Taken together, the essays suggest a working aesthetic that would ensure the continual renewal of artistic tradition in Western culture.

About this title

About the Author

John Rahn is professor of music composition and theory at the University of Washington in Seattle, and since 1983 has been editor of Perspectives of New Music.

From the Back Cover

This collection helps explain why today's audiences often feel alienated from and confused by contemporary Western art music. It also asks whether there is a consensus of musical values in today's cultural climate.

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393965082
• ISBN 13: 9780393965087
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 402
• Editor: Rahn John