Thursday, April 16, 2009

(PM) Kivy on Davies

A review of Davies' book Musical Meaning and Expression by Peter Kivy, perhaps the second biggest fish in this small pond:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2346/is_n416_v104/ai_17633500/?tag=content;col1

In this mid-'80's work, Davies anticipates his most recent conclusions concerning the intrinsic properties of music:

Davies, like a growing number of us, locates the musical emotions "in" the music, as heard features of it. His version of the account is laid out in Chapter 5, the conclusion being, in brief, "that expressiveness can be an objective property of musical works, though, obviously, the emotions expressed are not felt by the music ... just as a willow can be sad-looking, or a person's face happy-looking, music can present an expressive appearance in its sound (without regard to anyone's felt emotions)" (p. 277).

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