Replies to My Critics

Abstract

I would like to thank the Editors of the British Journal of Aesthetics for organizing this symposium and the participants for their thoughtful comments. It is gratifying to see that my book has elicited such a wide range of responses. Hannah Ginsborg makes an important point that is rarely articulated or articulated so well: that music’s capacity to tell stories or express complex emotions is entirely consistent with its capacity for integration with words (a sung text, as in song or opera) and gesture (as in ballet or opera). Her argument suggests that historical debates about the essence of music were hindered by the search for a lowest common denominator within the sounding work itself. Ginsborg’s approach favours the perspective of listeners, who are free to hear music in ways that may vary widely. This offers a satisfying alternative to the either/or frameworks adopted by Wagner and Hanslick, who were intent on distinguishing between what music by itself can and cannot do.