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Aesthetics and Music cover
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Pre-order. Available 20 Aug 2026
$32.40 RRP $40.50 Website price saving $8.10 (20%)

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Description

Aesthetics and Music is a fresh, provocative exploration of the key concepts and arguments in musical aesthetics. It makes an eloquent case for a humanistic, meritocratic and genuinely aesthetic conception of music and musical understanding. Anyone interested in what contemporary philosophy has to say about music as an art will find this thought-provoking and highly enjoyable book required reading.

Thinkers discussed range from Pythagoras and Plato to Kant, Nietzsche and Adorno. Areas of music covered include classical, popular and traditional music, and jazz. This updated edition features new material, including three new chapters on the evolutionary perspective, words and music and music and language. There are guides to further reading, and new dialogues with some contemporary thinkers and musicians.

Accessibility Information

Additional accessibility information

  • PDF/UA-2, 1.4
  • accessibility@bloomsbury.com

Hazards

The publication contains no hazards

Support for non-visual reading

Has alternative text descriptions for images

Navigation

  • Page list to go to pages from the print source version
  • Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation
  • All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Introduction
1. Aesthetics and Music in Ancient Greece
2. The Concept of Music
3. The Aesthetics of Form, the Aesthetics of Expression, and 'Absolute Music': Aesthetics of Music in the Late-18th and 19th Centuries
4. The Sound of Music
5. Rhythm and Time
6. Adorno and Modernism: Music as Autonomous and 'Social Fact'
7. Improvisation and Composition
8. The Aesthetics of Recording
9. Music and Dance
Annotated Bibliography
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 20 Aug 2026
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 2nd
Pages 336
ISBN 9781350094345
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Series Bloomsbury Aesthetics
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Andy Hamilton

Andy Hamilton teaches philosophy, and also aesthet…

Author

Andy Hamilton

Andy Hamilton teaches philosophy, and also aesthet…

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