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The Corded Shell: Reflections on Musical Expression
Intergrating eighteenth-century sources with recent aesthetic theories, Peter Kivy sets forth a view of musical expression that shows how emotive descriptions of music may be intelligible, methodologically sound, and hence a thoroughly respectable part of musical analysis and criticism. In doing so, he resolves the dilemma that has confronted both the untrained listener and the musical scholar or musician, namely: when musical description conforms to the scholar's demand for scientific analysis and objectivity, it is too technical for the untrained listener to understand: yet if it is rendered humanistically intelligible to layperson, the expert dismisses it as nonsense.
In order to resolve the dilemma, the author contends, emotive description must be made respectable in the eyes of the learned so that it can stand alongside technical description as a valid analytic tool. Rather than decry emotive description as meaningless and subjective rambling on the part of the composer or of the critic.
Professor Kivy suggests that emotive depictions of each other and the world around us. If the criteria of musical expressiveness can be identified with those of human expression, he concludes, then these criteria provide a rational foundation for the emotive criticism of music.
In order to resolve the dilemma, the author contends, emotive description must be made respectable in the eyes of the learned so that it can stand alongside technical description as a valid analytic tool. Rather than decry emotive description as meaningless and subjective rambling on the part of the composer or of the critic.
Professor Kivy suggests that emotive depictions of each other and the world around us. If the criteria of musical expressiveness can be identified with those of human expression, he concludes, then these criteria provide a rational foundation for the emotive criticism of music.
- GenresNonfictionMusic
184 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
May 11, 2026
How is it that absolute music—abstract music without words or a program—can be expressive of emotions?
Yes, some of this is by associations based on conventions, but this only goes so far. Kivy’s real contribution is to defend a contour theory: that the structures of music bear a resemblance to the experience of an emotion. Just like humans quickly anthropomorphize by seeing faces in inanimate objects with only a passing resemblance, Kivy says we do the same with music. Joy is expansive and hope is uplifting. So we hear a resemblance in expansive figures or rising figures that we say are expressive of joy or hope.
For an analytic philosophy book, Kivy has a lively and funny style. Really enjoyed his clear and readable prose as he presents and defends his theory (and refutes naive answers like the “arousal theory” where music expresses an emotion by causing the emotion in the listener).
Yes, some of this is by associations based on conventions, but this only goes so far. Kivy’s real contribution is to defend a contour theory: that the structures of music bear a resemblance to the experience of an emotion. Just like humans quickly anthropomorphize by seeing faces in inanimate objects with only a passing resemblance, Kivy says we do the same with music. Joy is expansive and hope is uplifting. So we hear a resemblance in expansive figures or rising figures that we say are expressive of joy or hope.
For an analytic philosophy book, Kivy has a lively and funny style. Really enjoyed his clear and readable prose as he presents and defends his theory (and refutes naive answers like the “arousal theory” where music expresses an emotion by causing the emotion in the listener).
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review