Kivy on Justifying Music in Liberal Education

by R.A. Goodrich

In memoriam S.J. Parry amicus musicae, amicus curiae

Within analytical aesthetic circles, Peter Kivy is best known for re-igniting the debate inaugurated by Eduard Hanslick over the issue of whether or not music of the purely instrumental or absolute kind can be said to express a content, and, if so, whether or not listeners' emotional responses to it bear any relation to that content. Kivy's particular contribution countenances the possibility of interpreting the appearance of a musical work as expressive — be it the percussive Allegro barbaro [1911] by Bela Bartok or the lyrical Adagio for Strings [1936] by Samuel Barber—without having to presume that music itself, being non-sentient by nature, possesses any emotional, subjective state.