On Music (Thinking in Action)

Hardly a day goes by without listening to music. While the days of "hit songs everyone knows" playing on street corners are gone, anyone can now easily find music to their liking from all over the world via the internet. Even those without a habit of listening to music will likely hear BGM from televisions, radios, supermarkets, restaurants, or smartphone games, unless they are secluded in the mountains alone.

Music is closely intertwined with human life. For this reason, music has become an important theme for philosophy, which seeks to understand what it means to be human. Not only in Western philosophy starting from ancient Greece, but also in Eastern philosophy originating from Confucianism and Hinduism, philosophers have spoken about music since ancient times. Not just philosophers, but musicians and music lovers alike surely have their own personal views on the subject.

However, precisely because it is a subject many people want to comment on, there are many discourses regarding music that are ambiguous or incorrect. Furthermore, such discourses can sometimes distort the listening experience itself. According to Gracyk, the purpose of this book is to prevent readers from falling into such errors by reconsidering music once again.

The themes of each chapter include: what is the difference between mere sound and music (Chapter 1), what kind of knowledge is necessary for appreciation (Chapter 2), what is emotional expression through music (Chapter 3), and how music provides mystical experiences (Chapter 4). If you are a music lover, you must have been curious about these issues at least once. Additionally, this book conducts a broad-ranging investigation using diverse examples such as classical, rock, jazz, Indian classical music, and folk music from Papua New Guinea.

It should be noted that one should not blindly accept the views in this book. The purpose of this book is to examine and discuss various discourses and provide the materials to better understand music. Many "philosophy" books found on the streets give the impression of saying something deep while being completely incomprehensible. However, philosophy is an endeavor that clarifies arguments through repeated discussion rather than escaping into inexplicable "depth."

This book is an introduction to the "philosophy of music" and, at the same time, an introduction to "philosophy" using music as its subject. I would be honored if you could experience philosophical discussion through this book.

On Music (Thinking in Action)

Theodore Gracyk (Author), Toru Genka (Co-translator)

Keio University Press

208 pages, 2,500 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.