1st Edition
Music as a Science of Mankind in Eighteenth-Century Britain
196 Pages
by
Routledge
196 Pages
by
Routledge
196 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Music as a Science of Mankind offers a philosophical and historical perspective on the intellectual representation of music in British eighteenth-century culture. From the field of natural philosophy, involving the science of sounds and acoustics, to the realm of imagination, involving resounding music and art, the branches of modern culture that were involved in the intellectual tradition of the... Read more
Introduction; Part I The contribution of music to the ‘Science of Man’; Chapter 1 An ethical pleasure? Music and the education of man; Chapter 2 Anthropologies and psychologies of listening; Part II An intellectual background for British musical theories and histories; Chapter 3 Musical knowledge and human knowledge; Chapter 4 Music and history;
Biography
Maria Semi was educated at the University of Bologna (Italy), where she took a PhD in Musicology. After a year spent as Research Fellow at the Centre d'Etudes Supérieures de la Renaissance (Tours, France), she is currently Research Fellow back at the University of Bologna. Her principal interests concern the philosophy of music from ancient times to the eighteenth century, the organization of musical knowledge in the same period, and the role played by music in cultural and social contexts. She is currently working on a new French critical edition of Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique.
'I recommend this book to a wide audience... absolutely engrossing and satisfying.' Early Music America 'Two significant questions posed by Semi’s new book are, to what extent does speculation on music enter into this scientific discourse, and in what way does the art of music itself participate in and contribute to the overall project? These are important but underexplored issues, one reason being that, for the most part, historians of eighteenth-century British science and philosophy have not considered music as part of their intellectual remit. In my view, this book certainly shows that they should.' British Journal for the History of Science '... an interesting and welcome synthesis of British eighteenth century theories of music.' Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
