Musikkfilosofiske tankekonstellasjoner om musikalsk mottakelighet og språk

Abstract

This essay focuses on two themes: man’s receptivity to music, and the verbalization of musical experience in a philosophical context. I begin with the listener’s attraction to music and then move on to longing as a basic concept in understanding musical receptivity. In the philosophy of music, the aesthetic-musical experience is of central importance to being able to verbally express what happens in the meeting between music and listener. Three central philosophers of music, Nietzsche, Adorno and Jankélévitch, all address the possible language character of music, although they do so in different ways and with different aims. I expand on some thoughts of these philosophers that open up for three different constellations of thought about the path from the aesthetic-musical receptivity to music to the philosophical verbalization of man’s attraction to music.