This volume presents a selection of lively essays on philosophy of music by Peter Kivy, the leading expert on the subject. He explores the nature of musical genius; the subject of authenticity in performance and interpretation; musical representation and meaning; and the notion of music as the pure, formal structure of expressive sound.

• PREFACE


• PART I: GENIUS


• 1: MOZART'S SKULL


• 2: THE CASE OF THE PURLOINED PARTITUR


• PART II: AUTHENTICITIES


• 3: A TALE OF TWO AUTHENTICITIES


• 4: ANCIENT AUTHENTICITIES


• 5: OPERATIC AUTHENTICITY


• PART III: MEANING AND REPRESENTATION


• 6: MESSIAH'S MESSAGE


• 7: IS NOTHING SACRED?


• 8: SOUND IN SOUND


• 9: MUSIC, SCIENCE, AND SEMANTICS


• PART IV: MUSIC ALONE


• 10: AUTHORIAL INTENTION AND THE PURE MUSICAL PARAMETERS


• 11: LEONARD MEYER'S SONATA


• APPENDICES: SOME CRITICAL RESPONSES


• APPENDIX 1


• APPENDIX 2


• BIBLIOGRAPHY

Peter Kivy was educated at the Walden School in New York City, as well as with private teachers in oboe and music theory. He received his BA with highest honours in Philosophy at the University of Michigan, in 1956, and an MA in Philosophy from that University in 1958. He then went on to receive an MA in Music History from Yale University, and a PhD in Philosophy from Columbia University. He has taught in the Philosophy Department of Rutgers University since 1967, and is presently Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy. Professor Kivy has published numerous books and articles, both historical and analytic, in the philosophy of art, and is a past President of the American Society for Aesthetics.