OntmusicBib1. Ontology Bibliography

In a recent pair of articles, Aaron Ridley and Andrew Kania have debated the merits of the study of musical ontology. Ridley contends that the study of musical ontology is orthogonal to more pressing concerns over the value of music. Kania rejects this, arguing that a theory of the value of music must begin with an understanding of the ontology of music. In this essay, Bartel argues that, despite Kania's rejections, Ridley's criticism exposes a false methodological assumption that needs to be addressed—a poorly understood adherence to the priority of ontology, which is the belief that the resolution of ontological disputes must precede our understanding of the evaluation of musical performances. Barrel argues that there is a central claim at the heart of Ridley's criticisms that must be appreciated—that standard accounts of the ontology of music make unwarranted assumptions about the rigidity of the identification of musical performances—and yet Kania is right to claim that the resolution of some ontological questions will play some role in our evaluation of musical performances. Barrel argues that part of the disagreement between Ridley and Kania can be resolved by accepting a greatly weakened version of the priority of ontology.

Brown, Lee B. “Further Doubts about Higher-Order Ontology: Reply to Andrew Kania.” British Journal of Aesthetics. January, 2012.

In his reply, Andrew Kania grants that the question ‘what is the work of art in [a given] musical tradition?’ should be amended to ‘what is the work of art in [a given musical tradition], if any?’ But this ‘if’ comes a little late, given Brown's claim that a conceptual problem besets the very questions that are posed within a higher-order ontology. The problem underlies a passage in Brown's article that Kania finds almost comically weak—namely, that if rock tracks got 70 per cent of our critical attention while songs got only 30, not even this split would ‘warrant the strange conclusion that a work of rock music is a track, not a song’.

Dodd, Julian. “Defending the Discovery Model in the Ontology of Art: A Reply to Amie Thomasson on the Qua Problem.” The British Journal of Aesthetics. January 2012.

According to the discovery model in the ontology of art, the facts concerning the ontological status of artworks are mind-independent and, hence, are facts about which the folk may be substantially ignorant or in error. In recent work Amie Thomasson has claimed that the most promising solution to the ‘qua problem’—a problem concerning how the reference of a referring-expression is fixed—requires us to give up the discovery model. Dodd argues that this claim is false. Thomasson's solution to the qua problem—a hybrid descriptive/causal theory of reference-fixing—has a superior competitor, in the form of the account of reference-fixing suggested by Gareth Evans; and Evans's theory leaves the discovery model untouched.

Kania, Andrew. “In Defence of Higher-Order Musical Ontology: A Reply to Lee B. Brown.” The British Journal of Aesthetics. January, 2012.

In a recent article in this journal, Lee B. Brown criticizes one central kind of project in higher-order musical ontology—the project of offering an ontological theory of a particular musical tradition. Kania defends this kind of project by replying to Brown’s critique arguing that musical practices are not untheorizably messy and that a suitably subtle descriptivist ontology of a given practice can be valuable both theoretically and practically.

Work Area[edit]

Aristotle. Poetics. Translated by Richard Janko. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett, 1987.

Brown, Lee. “Do Higher-Order Music Ontologies Rest on a Mistake?” British Journal of Aesthetics 51, no. 2 (2011): 169–184.

Carvalho, John. “Representation and Self-Realization in Jazz Improvisation.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 68, no. 3 (Summer 2010): 285–290.

Collingwood, R. G. The Principles of Art. Oxford: Clarendon, 1938.

Day, William. “The Ends of Improvisation.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 68, no. 3 (Summer 2010): 291–296.

Goehr, Lydia. The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music. Oxford: Clarendon, 1992.

Hagberg, Garry. “On Rhythm.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 68, no. 3 (Summer 2010): 281–284.

Hagberg, Garry, ed. “Improvisation in the Arts.” Special issue, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 58, no. 2 (Spring 2000).

Hamilton, Andy. “The Art of Improvisation and the Aesthetics of Imperfection.” British Journal of Aesthetics 40 (2000): 168–185.

Iseminger, Gary. “Sonicism and Jazz Improvisation.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 68, no. 3 (Summer 2010): 297–299.

Kania, Andrew. “All Work and No Play: An Ontology of Jazz.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 69, no. 4 (Fall 2011): 391–403.

Kivy, Peter. Authenticities: Philosophical Reflections on Musical Performance. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1995.

Thom, Paul. For an Audience: A Philosophy of the Performing Arts. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.

"Types, Continuants, and the Ontology of Music." Julian Dodd - 2004 - British Journal of Aesthetics 44 (4):342-360.
"Music and Metaphysics." Saam Trivedi - 2008 - Metaphilosophy 39 (1):124–143.
"Musical Ontology: Sounds, Instruments and Works of Music" by Julian Dodd in Kathleen Stock (ed.), Philosophers on Music: Experience, Meaning, and Work, Oxford University Press.
"Doing Justice to Musical Works" by Michael Morris in Kathleen Stock (ed.), Philosophers on Music: Experience, Meaning, and Work, 2007.
"Versions of Musical Works and Literary Translations" by Stephen Davies in Kathleen Stock (ed.), Philosophers on Music: Experience, Meaning, and Work. Oxford University Press, 2007.
"Piece for the End of Time: In Defence of Musical Ontology." Andrew Kania - 2008 - British Journal of Aesthetics 48 (1):65-79.
The Metaphysics of Musical Works. Nikk Effingham - unknown
"Musical Works: Ontology and Meta-Ontology." Julian Dodd - 2008 - Philosophy Compass 3 (6):1113-1134.
"There Are No Things That Are Musical Works." Ross Cameron - 2008 - British Journal of Aesthetics 48 (3):295-314.
"Works of Music: An Essay in Ontology." Julian Dodd - 2007 - Oxford University Press.
Musical Works and Performances: A Philosophical Exploration. Stephen Davies - 2001 - Oxford University Press.
"The Methodology of Musical Ontology: Descriptivism and its Implications.' Andrew Kania - 2008 - British Journal of Aesthetics 48 (4):426-444.
"Defending Musical Perdurantism." Ben Caplan & Carl Matheson - 2006 - British Journal of Aesthetics 46 (1):59-69.
"Music Without Metaphysics?" Christopher Bartel - 2011 - British Journal of Aesthetics 51 (4):383-398.
"Platonism in Music." Peter Kivy - 1983 - Grazer Philosophische Studien19:109-129.

OntmusicBib1. Ontology Bibliography

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Discussion[edit]

Ontology Bibliography with some Abstracts[edit]

Work Area[edit]

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