Musik und Metaphysik

The connection between music and metaphysics is taking on new significance at the beginning of the 21st century. Music is not only perceived in different ways, as it always has been: as a symbol of the transcendent on the one hand and "the cry of distress of those who experience the fate of humanity" (Schönberg) on the other. What seems to be of new significance is that the difference between the two is disappearing in music. Music can thus become a popular substitute for religion, but also a medium in which the "repressed aspects of philosophy" and a only partially "disenchanted world" are addressed.
The aim of this volume is to examine the relationship between music and metaphysics in an interdisciplinary framework and to explore the changes that characterize this question today. One focus is the exchange between composers, who talk about their own works, and cultural and music scholars as well as philosophers.

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