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This philosophical text explores the profound thematic and emotional depths of boygenius' music, composed of Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, and Phoebe Bridgers. Through an analysis of joy, inspiration, feminism, friendship, and religion in their songs, the text unveils a tapestry of intellectual depth and emotional honesty that resonates deeply with their audience. Highlighting the band's unique blend of joy and melancholy, the analysis reveals how their music turns personal suffering into collective catharsis, offering listeners a transformative experience. The ethereal qualities of their compositions, enriched by diverse inspirations, feminist perspectives, and intimate bonds, create a profound connection with fans, illustrating the enduring power of friendship and teamwork in their collaborative spirit. Ultimately, boygenius emerges not only as a musical force but as a philosophical touchstone, inviting listeners to explore the complexities of human emotion and societal reflection through their evocative melodies and lyrical narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a strong intuition that we can listen to works of music, yet musical ontologies on which works of music are abstract objects, perhaps most notably, type theories of music, seem to imply that this is impossible. This problem has received relatively little attention in the literature. I here explore and develop a solution suggested by Julian Dodd and argue that it has at least two problematic consequences, namely (i) that some works of music cannot be listened to unless one has already studied the relevant score or through a similar process learned roughly what the work requires of its performances and (ii) that it is possible for two people to listen to different musical works while listening to the same performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Realism about musical works is often tied to some type of Platonism. Nominalism, which posits that musical works exist and that they are concrete objects, goes with ontological realism much less often than Platonism: there is a long tradition which holds human-created objects (artifacts) to be mind-dependent. Musical Platonism leads to the well-known paradox of the impossibility of creating abstract objects, and so it has been suggested that only some form of nominalism becoming dominant in the ontology of art could cause a great change in the field and open up new possibilities. This paper aims to develop a new metaontological view starting from the widely accepted claim that musical works are created. It contends that musical works must be concrete and created objects of some sort, but, nevertheless, they are mind-independent, and we should take the revisionary methodological stance. Although musical works are artifacts, what people think about them does not determine what musical works are. Musical works are similar to natural objects in the following sense: semantic externalism applies to the term ‘musical work’ because, firstly, they possess a shared nature, and, secondly, we can be mistaken about what they are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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One of Griboyedov’s unrealised lines of work shaped by his musical talents was his interest in the foundations of musical science. Griboyedov’s scholarly ideas about the value-based content of music, musical theory and terminology, and his interest in musical ethnography were implemented by his younger contemporaries and companions V.F. Odoyevsky and M.D. Rezvoy. The moments of mutual influence between Griboyedov and Odoyevsky are revealed in their epistolary contacts. The contacts between Griboyedov and Rezvoy can be apprehended through the 1825 pencil portrait of Griboyedov by Rezvoy. The range of ideas expressed by Griboyedov was later continued by Rezvoy and Odoyevsky. Griboedov’s “code” in Russian musical art — attention to the history of Russia, the science of music, folk theater, folk song, the high sphere of temple art — was translated into the social, scientific, and artistic activities of his companions and followers.

The article is written in connection with the anniversaries of the life of the great Russian thinker Alexey Fedorovich Losev and is devoted to one of the aspects of his aesthetic research related to the interpretation of music in Neoplatonism. This article makes sense to emphasize the substantial ontological essence of music, relying on Losev’s phenomenological-dialectical method, on his commitment to Neoplatonism as the last significant ancient philosophical movement. Losev considered the philosophical foundations of music in the cosmological treatises of such philosophers as Quintilian, Proclus, Sallust. Touching upon the ancient origins of the philosophy of music as an aesthetic field, the author refers to the Pythagorean teaching of the divine number and the musical harmony of the spheres. At the same time, Neoplatonic ancient philosophy demonstrates different types of existence of music, or ancient Greek music. The combination of the logical and the illogical in Losev’s philosophical thinking allows the author to present through the prism of the philosophy of substantial musical existence the closeness of the idea of the existence of the music of the Neoplatonists, proceeding from the ideas of the One, and Losev, the divine unity, where the thought of music goes far beyond the limits of the actual musical art. Music in philosophical knowledge is outside of art as world harmony, substance, becoming in time, divine number, or the life of numbers, the expression of the numerical first principle. In the sources, the author used the works of A. F. Losev: “The History of ancient Aesthetics”, “Dialectics of myth”, “Dialectical foundations of mathematics”, which presents a deep connection between mathematics and music. At the same time, the author relied on his aesthetic research “The Logos of music in the phenomenological-dialectical method of A. F. Losev”, and other chapters of his book “The Value of Music: a philosophical aspect” and his dissertation “The concept of the value of music as a substance and a way of value interaction of a person with the world”. Summarizing, the author moves from the dialectic of musical-substantial being to the philosophical concept of “musical” as an aesthetic category that requires further research.

I develop Schopenhauerian musical formalism. First, I present a Schopenhauerian account of music with a background of his metaphysical framework. Then, I define meaningfulness as an analog to a Kantian notion of purposiveness and argue that, in light of Schopenhauer, music is meaningful as a direct manifestation of the universal will. Given the ineffable nature of what music points to, its form lacks any representation of meaning. Music is therefore the mere form of meaningfulness, and it is precisely this mere form that gives rise to the infinite possibilities to ascribe it with a variety of musical meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I address the question of how emotional qualities can be attributed to musical timbre, an acoustic feature that has proven challenging to explain using traditional accounts of musical emotions. I begin presenting the notion of musical expressiveness, as it has been conceived by cognitivists to account for the emotional quality of various musical elements like melody and rhythm. However, I also point out some limitations in these accounts, which hinder their ability to fully elucidate the emotional expressiveness of timbre, especially when considering it as a result of non-cognitively mediated processes. Consequently, I explore the link between timbre and atmosphere by reviewing anecdotal sources that have characterized timbre in terms of atmosphere. The goal here is to determine if these characterizations should be seen as merely allusive and metaphoric expressions or if they genuinely reveal essential properties of timbre. To achieve this goal, I delve deeper into the notion of atmosphere, and I show that it shares several key traits with the notion of musical emotions as conceived in the cognitivist's account. Both musical emotions and atmospheres are affectively charged externalities that are apprehended by the subject without cognitive mediation. Drawing from this insight, I conclude that the notion of atmosphere can serve as a valuable tool in explaining the emotional expressivity of timbre without invoking the resemblance-based mechanisms often found in cognitive accounts of expressiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the early medieval authors, Amalarius of Metz (8th–9th century) is one of those who discussed the impact of religious music and song on the body and soul. In his main work: the Liber Officialis, listening and singing liturgical music are depicted as having a corporeal effect that generates sensations of an intense sensory and emotional character. In Amalarius, living the musical religious phenomenon not only coincides with the idea that music can evoke emotions but there is something that goes further. What Amalarius emphasizes is a particular emotion: a "spiritual state" of the nakedness of the heart, almost a weakness of those who are capable of tears and sensitive to God's voice. During the patristic era, especially in the East, "penthos" (compunction) was used to describe the experience of tears in prayer or meditation; however, Fathers of the Church described liturgical music as an obstacle to compunction. For this reason, an evolution of that compunctory doctrine emerges from the exposition of Amalarius. In this context, it is not a question of crying for one's sins but of exploiting a natural power (vis) of music. By simply listening to music, a person would seem capable of being moved and reaching a particularly "receptive state" to welcome the Word of God and make it bear fruit. What Amalarius describes in religious music seems to be the natural experience that one feels when, just listening to a melody, a tear spontaneously falls. This physical reaction is connected to a spiritual transformation that seems to pass through the flesh (carnalia) of our humanity. The result of this singular experience, strongly connected to musical ethics, is the conversion to good action and the possibility to dispose human beings to attentive, deep, and fruitful listening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the idea that works of art are technologies for self-transformation and contextualises this idea within the discursive field of "aesthetic thinking". It takes L. A. Paul's concept of "transformative experiences" as a reference point and analyses the materiality of music as an example for an artistic medium through which these transformations can be initiated in a paradigmatic way. Contemporary philosophies of art by Alva Noë, Georg Bertram, and Christoph Menke, all dealing with the influence of art on the self, are referenced and tentatively mapped onto one another, followed by a final presentation of twelve theses that subsume the leading ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionThe philosophy of music is a branch of philosophy that studies the meaning of music, the relationship between the artist and the creation of music, the relationship between the audience and music, and such issues. Since emotions and feelings constitute the meaning of music, the primary focus of theorists in this field is devoted to the fundamental question of where the emotional impact of music originates from. In the philosophy of music, there are two rival theories regarding the source of musical emotions: the expressive theory, which prioritizes the emotions of the artist in creating the work and considers the meaning of music in the expression of the artist's emotions, and the arousal theory, which gives priority to the emotions evoked in the listener and considers the meaning and purpose of music in eliciting the emotions of the audience.The aim of this research is to facilitate the scientific examination of the relationship between music and emotions. The specific objectives of this research are as follows: _ Introducing and examining the most important theories and discussions in the philosophy of music. _ Investigating the most important criticisms that have been made on various theories in the philosophy of music and showing the efforts of theorists and philosophers to respond to these criticisms. _ Showing that old theories put forward by philosophers like Aristotle can still be relevant in current philosophical discussions. This highlights the importance of mastering the history of philosophy for researchers in this field. _ Demonstrating that music can (or even should) be subject to contemplation and philosophical inquiry. This research is classified as fundamental research in terms of the data collection method, which is qualitative research using a library research approach. Additionally, this research specifically utilizes up-to-date and primary sources in the field of philosophy of music. Research Question(s)Which of these two theories of Expression and Arousal provides a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between music and emotions and offers a better explanation of our emotional experiences when confronted with music?Which theory can better respond to the criticisms raised against it? Literature ReviewSome of the most important articles published on the arousal theory of music are as follows (in chronological order):Mew, P (1984) The musical arousal of emotions.British Journal of Aesthetics 25 (4):357-361.Robinson, J (1994) The expression and arousal of emotion in music. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 52 (1):13-22. Beever, A. (1998) The Arousal Theory Again? The British Journal of Aesthetics 38(1):82-90.Kingsbury, J (1999) Why the Arousal Theory of Musical Expressiveness is Still Wrong? Australasian Journal of Philosophy 77 (1):83 – 88.Matravers, D (2007) Musical expressiveness. Philosophy Compass 2 (3):373–379.‌ Arbo, A. (2009) Some Remarks on “Hearing-as” and its Role in the Aesthetics of Music. Topoi 28 (2):97-107.Cochrane, T. (2010) Music, Emotions and the Influence of the Cognitive Sciences. Philosophy Compass 5 (11):978-988.Eerola, T. (2016) Being Moved by Unfamiliar Sad Music Is Associated with High Empathy. Frontiers in Psychology 7.Levinson, j (2016) Music-Specific Emotion: An Elusive Quarry. Estetika 53 (2):115-131.Wu-Jing He (2017) Emotional Reactions Mediate the Effect of Music Listening on Creative Thinking: Perspective of the Arousal-and-Mood Hypothesis. Frontiers in Psychology 8 MethodologyThis research is classified as fundamental research in terms of its objective. The general aim of this research is to establish a conceptual framework for the philosophical examination of the relationship between music and emotions ConclusionsIn response to the first question, we first need to see what each of these two theories offers in response to the most important issue regarding emotions and music, namely the issue of the "relationship between expressed emotions in music and evoked emotions in the listener." The expressive theory addresses this issue with the concept of "grounding," while the motivational theory uses the concept of "emotional codes." Our analysis shows that the concept of "emotional codes" is more effective than "grounding" for two reasons:"Grounding" is a concept that claims objectivity, while by definition, the meaning of music lies in its sensory content. The conflict between the expressive theory and the motivational theory is essentially a conflict over determining the place of sensory content in music. The expressive theory places the sensory content in the expressed emotions in the musical piece and considers these emotions as a crystallization of the emotions of the creator, while the motivational theory places the sensory content of music in the emotions evoked in the listener through music. Referring to an objective concept to explain the place of sensory content, if not a theoretical impossibility, is an additional effort that only complicates the conflict between these two theories.The concept of emotional codes conceptualizes the issue at the mental (or intermental) level and provides an effective framework for explaining the position of the sensory content of music. Different and varied reactions to music are appropriate. Furthermore, by introducing the concept of emotional codes, one can pave the way for framing research issues in an interdisciplinary context. This way, the issue of the sensory content of music can be explored in the interdisciplinary fields of musicology, philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience.Our analysis has shown that the theory of motivation with our experiential intuition is more compatible. This is because the basis of judging a musical work is the experienced emotions, not the assumed emotions that the artist intended to express. For example, when we label a piece of music as sad, it is not because the composer intended to express sad emotions, but rather it is simply and intuitively because that piece evokes a sense of sadness in us.As a result, the theory of motivation provides a better and more valid explanation of the relationship between music and emotions.In response to the second question, it is important to consider the main criticism that challenges each of these two theories and how they respond to it. Our analysis has shown that the main criticism of the expressive theory is the "expression of unexperienced emotions," and proponents of the expressive theory, in response to this criticism, question the principles of this theory. They do not necessarily consider the expressed emotions as belonging to the artist, but rather see the artist as simply a narrator of the emotions of another individual (or even a completely imaginary person). In this way, they raise the larger question of whose emotions are being expressed in music. Since the answer cannot be the audience (as that would essentially turn it into a motivational theory), this question remains shrouded in ambiguity and mystery.On the other hand, in our research, we demonstrated that the responses that have been presented to the issue of "liking sad music" are not defensible and valid. Furthermore, by using the concept of catharsis from Aristotle, we were able to propose an acceptable response to this criticism. We showed that our proposed response can address all the criticisms that were present in other responses.

Bloch’s philosophy of music is one of the most interesting of the twentieth century, particularly in the context of Marxist aesthetics. This article focuses on the various peculiarities of this thought, which seldom are highlighted. Firstly, through a new analysis of the musical sections of Spirit of Utopia and The Principle of Hope, the relation between utopia and music will be discussed in Sections 2 and 3 in order to show the originality of Bloch’s refusal of the Marxist base-superstructure model in the field of aesthetics. In contrast to the other philosophies of music, the study of music inspires theoretical speculation in Bloch’s thought and not vice versa. In order to demonstrate this connection, in Sections 4 and 5, the idea of the sound in Spirit of Utopia will be examined and compared to the conception of the matter as it is presented in The Principle of Hope, The Materialism Problem, its History and Substance, and other works. These paragraphs aim to highlight how the early conception of sound was the model for the later conception of matter.

Today, digitalization is increasingly becoming an object of scientific study and viewed as a kind of challenge to the modern world. This challenge is not so much about new technologies and forms of storing and representing of information, but rather about changes and transformations in consciousness. “Digitalization” has rapidly entered into all spheres of society and has become a specific socio-cultural network context of human development. Reality subjected to simulation places a person in various multi-valued worlds. With the spread of digital technologies, art is changing and many new forms of its creation, replication and perception are appearing. Art is acquiring a “machine” character and the same can refer to music. Art became the object of digitalization in the 1960s. Initially, the role of digital sound was reduced to improving the quality of sound material and expanding the capabilities of the performer, but later composers and listeners found that it was a new opportunity for them to collaborate interactively, create their own music streams, use services that create generative music, etc. At the same time, the influence of digitalization became the subject of discussion in the field of social sciences and humanities. In this connection, the priority topics for discussion were music piracy, creation and application of new technologies for composing and performing music, opportunities for manifestation of subcultures’ interests provided by new technologies, etc. The authors analyze changes in music under the influence of digitalization processes, focusing on its formal and meaningful changes. The research problem is caused by incompleteness of knowledge about the social effects of music digitalization. The aim of the study is to describe the formal and meaningful changes in music that arise as a result of the digital revolution. The methodological basis of the research was the provisions of B. Latour’s actor-network theory, existential analysis of music and reflections on the musical experience of modern music performers. The approach of the Frankfurt school widely used in research of the music industry seems heuristically weak due to the political engagement of its founders and changes in the nature of political confrontations reflected in music. The main issue of the study is connected with the changes of human interactions, built on the basis of musical material, under the influence music digitalization. The most noticeable effects of digitalization of music, which are closely associated with changes in the media of musical information, are the creation of an illusion of a desacral eternity, the increasing tension between technical capabilities and non-discursive expert knowledge, leading to the elimination of this knowledge in the field of music in favor of natural musical inclinations, narrowing the range of representation of the human in music, highlighting the text, the transition of music as a value to music as an ideological instrument, the expansion of the illusory freedom of a person playing music creatively, reinforcing the negative understanding of freedom and human dependence on technoreality. Thus, these changes in music give rise to rethinking of social interactions created through music, in terms of B. Latour — “reassembly of musical and social”, mutually conditioning each other.

This article approaches the transformation of music's meaning and social insertion between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Bearing in mind that the meaning of everything we now call Art was “invented” during this period, its central thesis is that this “invention” in music, beyond technical issues, had a deep relationship with new ways of representing knowledge by post-Kantian idealism and early German romanticism. The epistemic transformations proposed by these movements implied understanding certain artistic practices beyond the mere technical domain, thus placing them at the center of a knowledge model that refuses to be reduced to the pure mechanical manipulation of matter. In this manner, it faces the problem of a truth beyond the pure instrumental application of our comprehension. This question will determine the social and epistemic meaning that music begins to have from that period onwards. In this context, the word music begins to mean something very different from what said word meant for a large part of the 18th century and previous ones and, as a practice, earns its place as a crucial form of access to a highly significant type of knowledge for Modernity.

The article presents philosophical views on music in the context of the transformations of the worldview from Antiquity to the Modern Time. In this research author also mentions the contemporary issues, and uses her own philosophical concept of the music, which can be described as following: the value of music as a substance and the way of the valuable interaction of a person with the world affirm the essence of musical being, in which the invariable principle of Harmony, the principle of Chaos-Form movement, is preserved (see "The Value of the Music: Philosophical Aspect"). Music expresses the fluid essence of the world and changes of being in space and time. Philosophy of music as a field of philosophical knowledge considers music from ontological-epistemological and phenomenological-axiological prospectives, as something more than just a form of art. It explores the deep, ultimate foundations of the existence of music as such and the philosophical and aesthetic foundations of musical art. Since ancient times music has been a representation of the world in the human conscience and served as the harmonic equivalent of cosmological philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and astrophysics (Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Aristoxenus, Porphyry et als.). The scientific view on music was enriched in the Modern Time by the expanded view on the cosmo-sound space reflected in musical art, which at the same time transforms the mathematical ideas of geometricity, squareness etc. The tendency to create integral world music in the musical practice of the XX-XXI centuries explains the attempt of mankind to present music by modern methods of composing musical art as an expression of fear towards the secret Harmony of universal existence, and, on the other hand - as a form of search for salvation and mental balance, intuitively reflecting what is happening in natural science, which more and more points to the abyss of unknowable universe, and the unstable place of man in the world.