Philosophy and Music Today

February 1st, 2013 – Philosophy and Music Today

After postwar musical experimentations such as John Cage’s 4’33” and Pierre Boulez’s Marteau sans maître and more recent compositions explicitly drawing on philosophy such as Pascal Dusapin’s O Mensch (2011) what can philosophy say about music today? How can it define the musical experience? And what is the role of music in philosophical thought? How do the physical and theoretical practices of music resonate with some philosophical writings? Can philosophy be rendered in music? And reciprocally what source of inspiration and value can composers and musicians find in philosophy?

This symposium seeks to encourage debate about the possibilities and limitations of concepts and themes such as (but not limited to) musical meaning, music as a form of language, the ineffable, philosophical approaches to music’s expressiveness, performance and authenticity.

Schedule:
2:00pm – Introduction
2:15pm – Françouis Noudelmann – Practice makes perfect. Philosophy of musical experience
2:45pm – Jacqueline Weber – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Enemy of Music
3:15pm – break
3:30pm – Olivier Dejours – Of Words and Notes
4:00pm – Richard Fleming – Notes After Listening: Wittgenstein and the Sirens of 7th Avenue (Handout – Notes After Listening)
4:30pm – Discussion/ Round table
5:00pm – Reception