Ontmusic17. Good Music: What makes it good?

Discussion

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What properties make for good music?

“In effect, it should not be too difficult to understand Wimsatt and Beardsley's own intentions in writing the essay and attacking the "intentional fallacy." From their biographical data and the essay itself wc can clearly see that they are posing as "New Critics," are positing the "objective theory" that a literary work has an independent public existence, are encouraging "intrinsic studies" while discouraging "extrinsic studies" of literature, are trying to replace a system of values (covering the ideas of sincerity, fidelity, spontaneity, authenticity, genuineness, originality, etc.) with another system (integrity, relevance, unity, function, maturity, subtlety, adequacy, etc.), and are disputing the Romantic view of the author as an important source of meaning for works and they are doing all these by arguing that the author's intentions are not the proper concern of the critic.” (bold not in original)

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NOTES