Music to Hear on Here: Group 3 Debate: More to Consider

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Group 3 Debate: More to Consider

In addition to the post below (please read the post below first), consider the following:

In Perfect From Now On, Sellars speaks about how music has effected his dad and his life. Sellar’s father was overly obsessed with Bob Dylan, to the point that he drove his family away and lived a life solely devoted to Dylan. Sellar’s describes his dad’s condition as being similar to “Gollum, sitting happily in his cave, singing to his Precious.” (14)
In Sellar’s case, he realizes that his obsession with the group Guided by Voices and other boyish music may have lead to the problems he experiences in relationships and in his career. Of this he says: “My obscene musical devotion, and the life style it espoused, didn’t have everything to do with my stagnant reality. But it certainly had something to do with it.” (14-15)

We present this to you so you can think about our second question: What is the effect of popular music on the listener (in regards to Adorno’s theory and/or the other texts’ examples of the effect of music on the listener)? How does this effect his creativity as a listener and his life outside of music? How much power does music have over the listener?

Example of music talked about in the text:

By: Jessica Adams, Elaine, James, and Karina

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Course Description

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Martin Mull (or Elvis Costello)

Thinking about the meaning and value, intellectual, affective and neurological experiences, and aesthetics of music has occupied an important position in modern and contemporary philosophical writings. Central to the philosophy of music is a questioning of what music is insofar as it is an art form and practice, akin to but different from other arts, such as drama, literature, painting, sculpture, to name but a few examples. Claims have been made, in fact, that music’s effect, when performed and listened to, surpasses those of the other arts because of its abstact purity, of its universality, and of its singular capacity to express, represent and incite emotions. This course will explore such issues in 19th-20th century philosophy. We will begin with introductory readings of what composes the field and discipline of the philosophy of music. We will read—among other philosophers, novelists, critics and musicologists—Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Barthes and Adorno’s writings on music. Finally, we will have the occasion to read about and listen to specific musicians, both high and low, and explore the contexts of their work, concentrating on the historical and political dimensions of the practice, performance and art of making music.