Philosophy Society: 'The ontology of jazz'
-
Philosophy Society: 'The ontology of jazz' 08 November 2013 de Havilland Campus
About the event
Event type: Seminar
Andrew Kania, in his 'All play and no work: an ontology of jazz' (Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 69 (2011)), argues that in jazz there are no musical works, only performances.
This is a bold thesis, but a false one. I take the commonly held view that performances of jazz standards are performances of works of music: that is, works composed for multiple, different performances. Jazz, on this view, is ontologically akin to classical music. In this case, the truth is not particularly surprising, but well worth stating nonetheless.