Table of Contents
1. Aesthetics and music in ancient Greece; 2. The concept of music;
3. The aesthetic of form, the aesthetic of expression, and
"Absolute Music": Aesthetics of music in the late 18th and 19th
centuries 4. The sound of music; 5. Rhythm and time; 6. Adorno and
modernism: Music as autonomous and "social fact" 7. Improvisation
and composition.
About the Author
Andrew Hamilton is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of
Durham, UK.
Reviews
"Andy Hamilton's Aesthetics and Music is an unusual concoction:
one part history of the aesthetics of music, one part review of
recent work in the Analytic philosophy of music, and one part
original contribution to musical aesthetics...Hamilton's respect
for and sincere interest in improvised music, experimentalism, and
sound-art is model for future writers on the philosophy of music."
- Brian Kane, "Current Musicology, " No. 85, Spring 2008
'A deeply informed author thinking hard about the musical matters
which he considers - with justification - to be the most
important... a lively and stimulating contribution to a number of
debates.'
M.W. Rowe, British Journal of Aesthetics
'A gifted philosopher, music critic and jazz performer, Andy
Hamilton has produced a book which leaves neither the philosophy
nor the music out. He guides us deftly through the aesthetics of
Kant and Adorno without neglecting the reality of music as sound
and rhythm, improvisation and composition, showing in an unusually
open-minded, lively way - and in philosophical depth - how
aesthetic experience is universal and human.'
Professor John Skorupski, St Andrews University, UK
'Aesthetics and Music is a rich and interesting study. Hamilton's
approach is innovative ... [the book] should be recommended to
anyone interested in the philosophy of music.'
Stephen Davies, University of Auckland, Analysis
'An innovative, cross-disciplinary contribution to the philosophy
of music, weaving Adorno's Critical Theory with Analytic
aesthetics.'
Professor Max Paddison, Durham University, UK.
'With a fine eye for argument, for teasing out and testing key
assumptions within the philosophy of music, Andy Hamilton's
Aesthetics And Music charts a knife-edge course between
scholarship, clear and penetrating thinking, and above all sound
intuitions.'
Stephen Robinson, The Wire, December 2007
