Ontology of Music [SOS–CIA] L. K. Kam
“Ruddy music lessons…”
What/Where is Music? Score Object Spatial Sound Event real imagined Temporal
John Keats ( ), English Romantic lyric poet “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on,— Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone…” (Ode on an Grecian Urn 1819)
Jean-Paul Sartre ( ) French novelist, playwright, and exponent of Existentialism “If the concert hall burns down during a performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, that’s not the end of the symphony.”
S. O. S. (Phenomena) Score: Notations Opus: Work Sound: Performances
C. I. A. (Personae) Composers not Authors Interpreters not Performers Appraisers not Audiences, Recipients Amateur/Diletante Critics/Scholars
Literature Cook, Nicholas. Music: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. Oxford: OUP, Clarke, Eric, and Nicholas Cook. Emipirical Musicology: Aims, Methods, Prospects. Oxford: OUP, 2004.