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Wittgenstein and the Conditions of Musical Communication

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2005

Hanne Ahonen
Hanne Ahonen
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Abstract

If Wittgenstein's later account of language is applied to music, what seems to follow is a version of musical formalism. This is to say that the meaning of music is constituted by the rules of a given system of music, and the understanding of music is the ability to follow these rules. I argue that, while this view may seem unattractive at the outset, Wittgenstein actually held this view. Moreover, his later notion of a rule gives us resources to answer some of the traditional criticisms directed against formalism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy , Volume 80 , Issue 4 , October 2005 , pp. 513 - 529
Copyright
© The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2005

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