The Philosophy of Rhythm

Aesthetics, Music, Poetics

Andy Hamilton editor Max Paddison editor Peter Cheyne editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:8th Jan '20

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Philosophy of Rhythm cover

Rhythm is the fundamental pulse that animates poetry, music, and dance across all cultures. And yet the recent explosion of scholarly interest across disciplines in the aural dimensions of aesthetic experience--particularly in sociology, cultural and media theory, and literary studies--has yet to explore this fundamental category. This book furthers the discussion of rhythm beyond the discrete conceptual domains and technical vocabularies of musicology and prosody. With original essays by philosophers, psychologists, musicians, literary theorists, and ethno-musicologists, The Philosophy of Rhythm opens up wider-and plural-perspectives, examining formal affinities between the historically interconnected fields of music, dance, and poetry, while addressing key concepts such as embodiment, movement, pulse, and performance. Volume editors Peter Cheyne, Andy Hamilton, and Max Paddison bring together a range of key questions: What is the distinction between rhythm and pulse? What is the relationship between everyday embodied experience, and the specific experience of music, dance, and poetry? Can aesthetics offer an understanding of rhythm that helps inform our responses to visual and other arts, as well as music, dance, and poetry? And, what is the relation between psychological conceptions of entrainment, and the humane concept of rhythm and meter? Overall, The Philosophy of Rhythm appeals across disciplinary boundaries, providing a unique overview of a neglected aspect of aesthetic experience.

While the overarching rubric is philosophical, the arguments take up residency across the diverse terrain of philosophy ("analytic" and "continental"), cognitive psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, literary studies, musicology, and even visual culture. Most chapters are impressively accessible to non-specialists. * Martin Scherzinger, Revue de musicologie *
It won't be an exaggeration to say that this volume is a philosophical landmark in the realm of aesthetics. * Pablo Seoane Rodriguez, Teorema *
This remarkable collection of essays brings together philosophical and empirical approaches to the significance of rhythm across the arts. The approach is refreshingly interdisciplinary. Anyone concerned with the place of rhythm and metric structure in the arts, and-more generally-within the wider domain of human practices will find this an extraordinarily helpful volume. * Robert Kraut, The Ohio State University *
Fascinating and mysterious, rhythm is at the heart of music, dance, poetry, sociology, and neuroscience. This inspired volume engages, enlightens, and is the first to explore rhythm across a broad range of philosophical, aesthetic, and perceptual domains. This book is required reading for anyone concerned with time and rhythm in contemporary life. * Peter Nelson, University of Edinburgh *
A fascinating and broad overview. This book covers dance, poetry, literature, and painting, as well as music, all considered from a multidisciplinary perspective and including both Continental and analytic approaches to philosophy. This unfairly neglected topic richly rewards the serious treatment thatThe Philosophy of Rhythm accords it. * Stephen Davies, University of Auckland *
This wonderful collection considers questions about rhythm from a wide variety of angles, perspectives, and disciplines-among them analytic and continental philosophy, musicology, art history, poetics, and neuroscience. Like the dialogue that opens the book, The Philosophy of Rhythm supports no particular line of thought or argument but enormously deepens our understanding of a topic so palpable and yet so mysterious. * Christoph Cox, Hampshire College *

ISBN: 9780199347773

Dimensions: 183mm x 260mm x 29mm

Weight: 953g

440 pages