Art Music: Love, Listening and Soulfulness - Hardcover

-[Del Nevo] pursues, in enthusiastic and sometimes even poetic prose, a rich explanation of aspects of music that transcend language. A sensitive and knowledgeable writer, he tries to foster the pursuit of a kind of higher aesthetic musical listening. This is a book for those interested in what music can be; for Del Nevo, it is about what music should be. Build around analogies and metaphors rather than explicit arguments, the beauty of Del Nevo's thoughts instructs and inspires rather than merely persuades. The author incorporates the ideas of many poets, composers, and European authors such as Baudelaire, Goethe, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wordsworth, Wagner, and Keats. . . . This is a lovely book that says as much about life as about music. . . . Highly recommended.- --P. Jenkins, Choice -A wonderful book touching the depths of life. Not only an affirmation of the human soul, but soul-opening and illuminating. Poetry, philosophy, and especially music are here vehicles for exploring and raising sensibility, sensitivity, and soul-life, touching challenges a feeling life faces in an economic age. This work has practical applications as well as functioning as a general tonic. For example, it provides a rich background for music therapy, but more, a support for the power of listening throughout our lives.- --Michael Eigen, Contact With the Depths -Matthew Del Nevo argues with passion, comprehensive knowledge, and musical sensitivity for the central importance of music to our being. In times where the authenticity and quality of musical listening is continuously challenged by noise, Dr. Del Nevo reminds us in a forthright manner that through music we explore our soul and develop soulfulness. This is a book which says what must be said.- --Goetz Richter, Sydney Conservatorium; author, Congruence of Philosophy and Music: Silent Harmony and Hidden Contemplation -The underlying theme of Art Music: Love, Listening, and Soulfulness is that no amount of Muzak or episodes of American Idol are likely to completely erase music's capacity to generate profound aesthetic experience and immediate social bonds. Drawing on philosophers and theorists as varied as Plato, Augustine, Kant, Baudelaire, Schopenhauer, Wagner, Adorno, Levinas, and Scruton, Del Nevo argues that modern listeners need to recover the 'metaphysics of nostalgia' lurking within the most temporal of the arts. . . . The argument is that real musical listening--rather than shallow consumerism--is what our culture needs if it is to recover the animating spirit of great art; and, if contemporary individuals are to acquire the self-reflective habits that soulfulness demands. With its robust central message, and extensive scholarship, Art Music is sure to generate debate amongst music philosophers, musicologists, music teachers, and anyone interested in the fate of modern culture.- --Eduardo de la Fuente, author, Twentieth Century Music and the Question of Modernity "[Del Nevo] pursues, in enthusiastic and sometimes even poetic prose, a rich explanation of aspects of music that transcend language. A sensitive and knowledgeable writer, he tries to foster the pursuit of a kind of higher aesthetic musical listening. This is a book for those interested in what music can be; for Del Nevo, it is about what music should be. Build around analogies and metaphors rather than explicit arguments, the beauty of Del Nevo's thoughts instructs and inspires rather than merely persuades. The author incorporates the ideas of many poets, composers, and European authors such as Baudelaire, Goethe, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wordsworth, Wagner, and Keats. . . . This is a lovely book that says as much about life as about music. . . . Highly recommended." --P. Jenkins, Choice "A wonderful book touching the depths of life. Not only an affirmation of the human soul, but soul-opening and illuminating. Poetry, philosophy, and especially music are here vehicles for exploring and raising sensibility, sensitivity, and soul-life, touching challenges a feeling life faces in an economic age. This work has practical applications as well as functioning as a general tonic. For example, it provides a rich background for music therapy, but more, a support for the power of listening throughout our lives." --Michael Eigen, Contact With the Depths "Matthew Del Nevo argues with passion, comprehensive knowledge, and musical sensitivity for the central importance of music to our being. In times where the authenticity and quality of musical listening is continuously challenged by noise, Dr. Del Nevo reminds us in a forthright manner that through music we explore our soul and develop soulfulness. This is a book which says what must be said." --Goetz Richter, Sydney Conservatorium; author, Congruence of Philosophy and Music: Silent Harmony and Hidden Contemplation "The underlying theme of Art Music: Love, Listening, and Soulfulness is that no amount of Muzak or episodes of American Idol are likely to completely erase music's capacity to generate profound aesthetic experience and immediate social bonds. Drawing on philosophers and theorists as varied as Plato, Augustine, Kant, Baudelaire, Schopenhauer, Wagner, Adorno, Levinas, and Scruton, Del Nevo argues that modern listeners need to recover the 'metaphysics of nostalgia' lurking within the most temporal of the arts. . . . The argument is that real musical listening--rather than shallow consumerism--is what our culture needs if it is to recover the animating spirit of great art; and, if contemporary individuals are to acquire the self-reflective habits that soulfulness demands. With its robust central message, and extensive scholarship, Art Music is sure to generate debate amongst music philosophers, musicologists, music teachers, and anyone interested in the fate of modern culture." --Eduardo de la Fuente, author, Twentieth Century Music and the Question of Modernity "[Del Nevo] pursues, in enthusiastic and sometimes even poetic prose, a rich explanation of aspects of music that transcend language. A sensitive and knowledgeable writer, he tries to foster the pursuit of a kind of higher aesthetic musical listening. This is a book for those interested in what music can be; for Del Nevo, it is about what music should be. Build around analogies and metaphors rather than explicit arguments, the beauty of Del Nevo's thoughts instructs and inspires rather than merely persuades. The author incorporates the ideas of many poets, composers, and European authors such as Baudelaire, Goethe, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Wordsworth, Wagner, and Keats. . . . This is a lovely book that says as much about life as about music. . . . Highly recommended." --P. Jenkins, Choice "A wonderful book touching the depths of life. Not only an affirmation of the human soul, but soul-opening and illuminating. Poetry, philosophy, and especially music are here vehicles for exploring and raising sensibility, sensitivity, and soul-life, touching challenges a feeling life faces in an economic age. This work has practical applications as well as functioning as a general tonic. For example, it provides a rich background for music therapy, but more, a support for the power of listening throughout our lives." --Michael Eigen, Contact With the Depths "Matthew Del Nevo argues with passion, comprehensive knowledge, and musical sensitivity for the central importance of music to our being. In times where the authenticity and quality of musical listening is continuously challenged by noise, Dr. Del Nevo reminds us in a forthright manner that through music we explore our soul and develop soulfulness. This is a book which says what must be said." --Goetz Richter, Sydney Conservatorium; author, Congruence of Philosophy and Music: Silent Harmony and Hidden Contemplation "The underlying theme of Art Music: Love, Listening, and Soulfulness is that no amount of Muzak or episodes of American Idol are likely to completely erase music's capacity to generate profound aesthetic experience and immediate social bonds. Drawing on philosophers and theorists as varied as Plato, Augustine, Kant, Baudelaire, Schopenhauer, Wagner, Adorno, Levinas, and Scruton, Del Nevo argues that modern listeners need to recover the 'metaphysics of nostalgia' lurking within the most temporal of the arts. . . . The argument is that real musical listening--rather than shallow consumerism--is what our culture needs if it is to recover the animating spirit of great art; and, if contemporary individuals are to acquire the self-reflective habits that soulfulness demands. With its robust central message, and extensive scholarship, Art Music is sure to generate debate amongst music philosophers, musicologists, music teachers, and anyone interested in the fate of modern culture." --Eduardo de la Fuente, author, Twentieth Century Music and the Question of Modernity "A wonderful book touching the depths of life. Not only an affirmation of the human soul, but soul-opening and illuminating. Poetry, philosophy, and especially music are here vehicles for exploring and raising sensibility, sensitivity, and soul-life, touching challenges a feeling life faces in an economic age. This work has practical applications as well as functioning as a general tonic. For example, it provides a rich background for music therapy, but more, a support for the power of listening throughout our lives." --Michael Eigen, Contact With the Depths "Matthew Del Nevo argues with passion, comprehensive knowledge, and musical sensitivity for the central importance of music to our being. In times where the authenticity and quality of musical listening is continuously challenged by noise, Dr. Del Nevo reminds us in a forthright manner that through music we explore our soul and develop soulfulness. This is a book which says what must be said." --Goetz Richter, Sydney Conservatorium; author, Congruence of Philosophy and Music: Silent Harmony and Hidden Contemplation "The underlying theme of Art Music: Love, Listening, and Soulfulness is that no amount of Muzak or episodes of American Idol are likely to completely erase music's capacity to generate profound aesthetic experience and immediate social bonds. Drawing on philosophers and theorists as varied as Plato, Augustine, Kant, Baudelaire, Schopenhauer, Wagner, Adorno, Levinas, and Scruton, Del Nevo argues that modern listeners need to recover the 'metaphysics of nostalgia' lurking within the most temporal of the arts. . . . The argument is that real musical listening--rather than shallow consumerism--is what our culture needs if it is to recover the animating spirit of great art; and, if contemporary individuals are to acquire the self-reflective habits that soulfulness demands. With its robust central message, and extensive scholarship, Art Music is sure to generate debate amongst music phil