Music as an Art
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
In the latest of his books exploring a lifetime's passion for music, bestselling author and philosopher Roger Scruton brings his immense critical faculties to bear on a panoply of different musical genres, both contemporary and classical.
Music as an Art begins by examining music through a philosophical lens, engaging in discussions about tonality, music and the moral life, music and cognitive science and German idealism, as well as recalling the author's struggle to encourage his students to distinguish the qualities of good music. Scruton then explains – via erudite chapters on Schubert, Britten, Rameau, opera and film – how we can develop greater judgement in music, recognising both good taste and bad, establishing musical values, as well as musical pleasures.
As Scruton argues in this book, in earlier times, our musical culture had secure foundations in the church, the concert hall and the home; in the ceremonies and celebrations of ordinary life, religion and manners. Yet we no longer live in that world. Fewer people now play instruments and music is, for many, a form of largely solitary enjoyment. As he shows in Music as an Art, we live at a critical time for classical music, and this book is an important contribution to the debate, of which we stand in need, concerning the place of music in Western civilization.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Scruton (Understanding Music) fastidiously argues for tonality and expression as significant components of musical compositions in this enlightening academic work. Scruton breaks down the various features of individual pieces, such as Rachmaninoff's grand symphonies and Schubert's complex melodies. He writes that Schubert, one of his favorite composers, is revered for his ability to retain a single melody while changing the tonal center in each bar of music, but "none of this is trickery; always there is purpose to Schubert's innovations, and always they enhance the dramatic power and emotional intensity of the whole." In "Film Music," Scruton maintains that "John Williams's Harry Potter scores and Howard Shore's evocative music for Lord of the Rings exhibit a mastery of harmonic sequences, polyphonic organization, and orchestral effect that would be the envy of many a composer for the concert hall." Moving on to pop music, Scruton observes how the "melodies of the Beatles... were often highly adventurous, with internal rhyming and modulations into neighboring keys" Scruton is theoretical as he deconstructs certain pieces note for note, but he is aware that not everyone studied music theory: "You don't need the technicalities in order to hear what is going on." Music scholars will most appreciate this discussion of tonality.
