Paper Abstracts

George Fitsioris

Speaking about Music; A Humanistic Demand

Considering as established the fact that music is not merely “sound formations in motion”, but, quite the opposite, that a musical work refers also (albeit in a general way) to the reality outside music, the speaker calls for a theoretical and analytical verbal expression about music, which, besides inspecting the theoretical systems and locating the formal principles governing the unity of a musical work, will encompass a humanistic character of broader interest. This will bring its addressee in a closer contact with music. The speaker holds, specifically, that analytical texts should become more vivid and personal; that they should correspond with greater sensitivity to the works of art they describe; also, that it is their duty to lay emphasis on the social and cultural meaning of their analytical deductions, revealing openly the fact that all music is a practice that forms, produces and reproduces social models of behavior, cultural values, i.e., ideology.

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