Paper Abstracts

Markos Tsetsos

Towards a Theory of the Values of Music Today

In controversies that arise today round the question of the valuation of music, subjective views (formalistic, relativistic, psychological, empirical) have mostly prevailed. In the working majority such controversies turn towards the likes and dislikes of individuals or social groups and the social-historical conditions which have formed them, whereas the compositions to which relevant valuations refer are debased to mental artifacts, on which personal prejudices are projected. In order to counterbalance such assertions the speaker proposes a kind of musical appreciation, which has the formation and value of the musical object as its bases, and seeks, instead of relativistic or disapproving arbitrary conclusions, rational critical foundation and the preservation of the pedestal, which holds the works that constituted the “canon of tradition”.

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