In Philosophy of Song and Singing: An Introduction, Jeanette Bicknell explores key aesthetic, ethical, and other philosophical questions that have not yet been thoroughly researched by philosophers, musicologists, or scientists. Issues addressed include: The relationship between the meaning of a song’s words and its music The performer’s role and the ensuing gender complications, social ontology, and personal identity The performer’s ethical obligations to audiences, composers, lyricists, and those for whom the material holds particular significance The metaphysical status of isolated solo performances compared to the continuous singing of opera or the interrupted singing of stage and screen musicals Each chapter focuses on one major musical example and includes several shorter discussions of other selections. All have been chosen for their illustrative power and their accessibility for any interested reader and are readily available.

An indispensable key to Adorno’s influential oeuvre—now in paperback In 1949, Theodor W. Adorno’s Philosophy of New Music was published, coinciding with the prominent philosopher’s return to a devastated Europe after his exile in the United States. Intensely polemical from its first publication, every aspect of this work was met with extreme reactions, from stark dismissal to outrage. Even Arnold Schoenberg reviled it. Despite the controversy, Philosophy of New Music became highly regarded and widely read among musicians, scholars, and social philosophers. Marking a major turning point in his musicological philosophy, Adorno located a critique of musical reproduction as internal to composition, rather than a matter of musical performance. Consisting of two distinct essays, “Schoenberg and Progress” and “Stravinsky and Reaction,” Philosophy of New Music poses the musical extremes in which Adorno perceived the struggle for the cultural future of Europe: between human emancipation and barbarism, between the compositional techniques and achievements of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. In this translation, which is accompanied by an extensive introduction by distinguished translator Robert Hullot-Kentor, Philosophy of New Music emerges as an essential guide to the whole of Adorno's oeuvre.

This is a unique, groundbreaking collection of autobiographical essays by leading women in philosophy. It provides a glimpse at the experiences of the generation that witnessed, and helped create, the remarkable advances now evident for women in the field.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V REGISTERS The different registers of the voice should be regarded by the singer as only so many modifications in the quality of tone, which modifications are inherent in the voice itself. These modifications in quality are not to be brought about by conscious adjustments of the parts employed in making those modifications, as any interference with the parts will produce that obstacle to smoothness and equality in the scale which we commonly call a " break." If the entire throat, which of course includes the tongue, is allowed to remain perfectly free and untrammelled; if no part is held in a fixed position, and if the lungs remain free to expand to the ingoing and outgoing of the breath, as they will if the diaphragm be neither held in a fixed position nor consciously worked, the registers will assert themselves naturally, and merge imperceptibly into one another with perfect ease. The number of registers varies in different voices. The soprano and contralto voices of full compass have five registers, the tenor has three, and the bass and barytone have two. From a physiological standpoint these registers represent different adjustments of the vocal cords or ligaments, and also different positions of the larynx itself, which different positions cause a variation in the dimensions of the throat. The larynx stands lowest for the lower chest register, and in this position the throat is long and wide; and as the larynx gradually ascends for each succeeding register, the throat becomes shorter and narrower, until it reaches the highest point, when the space in the throat is very small. From the standpoint of the singer, however, the registers simply represent different qualities of sound and different points of reverberation in the...