The Oxford Handbook of Western Music and Philosophy

Whether regarded as a perplexing object, a morally captivating force, an ineffable entity beyond language, or an inescapably embodied human practice, music has captured philosophically inclined minds since time immemorial. In turn, musicians of all stripes have called on philosophy as a source of inspiration and encouragement, and scholars of music through the ages have turned to philosophy for insight into music and into the worlds that sustain it. In this Handbook, contributors build on this legacy to conceptualize the rich interactions of Western music and philosophy as a series of meeting points between two vital spheres of human activity. They draw together key debates at the intersection of music studies and philosophy, offering a field-defining overview while also forging new paths. Chapters cover a wide range of musics and philosophies, including concert, popular, jazz, and electronic musics, and both analytic and continental philosophy.

Tom?s McAuley is Assistant Professor of Music and Ad Astra Fellow at University College Dublin. Previously, he held postdoctoral positions at the University of Cambridge (British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship) and Indiana University, and from 2010 to 2018 served as Founding Chair of the Royal Musical Association Music and Philosophy Study Group. He is author of The Music of Philosophy: German Idealism and Musical Thought, from Kant to Schelling, forthcoming with Oxford University Press.

Nanette Nielsen is Associate Professor at the University of Oslo. She joined Oslo in January 2015, after having been Associate Professor and Lecturer at the University of Nottingham (2009-15) and at the University of East Anglia (2005-9). Nielsen works on music and philosophy, especially intersections between ethics and aesthetics, on film music, opera and music criticism in the Weimar republic, and on Scandinavian music and culture. Her publications include the co-written book Music and Ethics (2012), the article 'Ernst Krenek's "problem of freedom" in Jonny spielt auf' (Twentieth-Century Music, 2013) - for which she won the 2014 Jerome Roche Prize - and the monograph Paul Bekker's Musical Ethics (2017).

Jerrold Levinson is Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Maryland and Past President of the American Society for Aesthetics, 2001-2003. He is the author of five collections of essays, Music, Art, and Metaphysics (1990, 2nd ed. 2010), The Pleasures of Aesthetics (1996), Contemplating Art (2006), Musical Concerns (2015), and Aesthetic Pursuits (2016), plus a monograph, Music in the Moment (1998). Levinson is also editor of Aesthetics and Ethics (1998), The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics (2003), and Suffering Art Gladly (2013), as well as co-editor of Aesthetic Concepts (2001) and Art and Pornography (2012).

Ariana Phillips-Hutton teaches at the University of Cambridge. Her research ranges across contemporary music, performance, and philosophy with a particular interest in the relationship between music, memory, and violence. Publications include articles in Twentieth-Century Music and Popular Music. She is also the author of the forthcoming book, Music Transforming Conflict, forthcoming.

Introduction
Tom?s McAuley, Nanette Nielsen, and Jerrold Levinson

Part 1: Mapping the Field

1. Historical Musicology and Philosophy
Julian Johnson

2. Music Theory and Philosophy
Alexander Rehding

3. Ethnomusicology and Philosophy
Ellen Koskoff

4. Analytic Philosophy of Music
David Davies

5. Continental Philosophy of Music
Christopher Norris

Part 2: History

6. Ancient Greece
Armand D'Angour

7. The Middle Ages
Elizabeth Eva Leach

8. The Early Modern Period
Bruce R. Smith

9. The Enlightenment
Tom?s McAuley

10. The Nineteenth Century
Andreas Dorschel

11. The Twentieth Century
Tamara Levitz

Part 3: Philosophical Traditions and Practices

12. Epistemologies
Ian Cross and Elizabeth Tolbert

13. Ethics
Ariana Phillips-Hutton and Nanette Nielsen

14. Phenomenology
Simon H?ffding

15. Ontology
Charles O. Nussbaum

16. Theology
Jeremy Begbie

17. Philosophy of Language
Hanne Appelqvist

18. Hermeneutics
Lawrence Kramer

19. Deconstruction
Naomi Waltham-Smith

20. Posthumanism
Gary Tomlinson

Part 4: Musical Traditions and Practices

21. Improvisation
Bruce Ellis Benson

22. Composition
Joseph Dubiel

23. Performance
Paul Thom

24. Listening
Marcel Cobussen

25. Vocal music
Freya Jarman

26. Electronic music
Joanna Demers

27. Popular music
Theodore Gracyk

28. Blacksound
Matthew D. Morrison

29. Jazz
Garry L. Hagberg

30. Opera
Michael Fend

Part 5: Key Concepts

31. Absolute Music
Sarah Collins

32. Consciousness
David Clarke

33. Evolution
Stephen Davies

34. Expression
Mark Evan Bonds

35. Gender
J.P.E. Harper-Scott

36. The Ineffable (and Beyond)
Carolyn Abbate & Michael Gallope

37. Meaning and Autonomy
Max Paddison

38. Meaning and Scepticism
Paul Boghossian

39. Mercy
Martha C. Nussbaum

40. Nature
Stephen Decatur Smith

41. Making Sense
Andrew Bowie

42. Society
Michael Gallope

43. Space
Andrew Kania

44. Time
Christopher Hasty

Part 6: Collisions and Collaborations

45. Authenticity
Julian Dodd and John Irving

46. Beauty
Nick Zangwill and Stephen Hinton

47. Emotion
Michael Spitzer and Derek Matravers

48. Enchantment
Scott Burnham and Gordon Graham

49. Expectations
Jenny Judge and Bence Nanay

50. Galant Music
Jean-Luc Nancy, trans. Naomi Waltham-Smith & Jerrold Levinson, with an introduction by Naomi Waltham-Smith

51a. Perception
Christopher Peacocke

51b. Response to Christopher Peacocke: Perception
Nicholas Cook

52a. Subjectivities, Susan McClary

52b. Response to Susan McClary: Subjectivities
Jeanette Bicknell