“De stilo et opere”; or, Looking for the Rule

Ever since Kant, we have thought of the rule guiding an exemplary and original work of art as contained within the work itself, discovered not prior to but in the act of composition itself. Everything else is copy. This paper weighs that position against a tendency in the teaching of music history which subordinates the individual work to general style. It concludes with examples of what it might look like to study a musical work by looking for its rule.