Research Seminar: 'The possibility of profound music'
Prof Julian Dodd (Manchester)
Maclaurin Building Central Committee Room
About the event
Event type: Seminar
Plausibly, a profound work of art has a profound subject matter, which it presents in such a manner as to prompt us to consider this subject matter in a fresh, insightful way. Peter Kivy has argued that pure music (i.e. music with no accompanying text or dramatic setting) cannot be profound.
His grounds for thinking this are two assumptions he makes about profundity in the arts: that profound artworks can only have a profound subject matter by denoting it; and that profound artworks must express or otherwise convey profound propositional contents about the profound things they denote.
Pure music, since it is a non-denotative, non-propositional art form, fails on both counts. This paper argues that both of the above assumptions are false. Consequently, Kivy's conclusion that works of pure music cannot be profound can be resisted.