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Full Idea
Music is not representational, since thoughts about a subject are never essential to the understanding of music.
Gist of Idea
Music is not representational, since thoughts about a subject are never essential to it
Source
Roger Scruton (Representation in Music [1976], p.74)
Book Ref
Scruton,Roger: 'The Aesthetic Understanding' [Methuen 1983], p.74
A Reaction
I would not have thought that many people thought music was representational, but Scruton particularly mentions passages in opera that seem to pick up aspects of the story. Do even bell sounds not represent bells?
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| 20101 | Without music life would be a mistake [Nietzsche] |
| 20341 | An interpretation adds further properties to the generic piece of music [Wollheim] |
| 12168 | Music is not representational, since thoughts about a subject are never essential to it [Scruton] |
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