The Online Books Page

Music -- Philosophy and aesthetics

Here are entered works on the philosophy and aesthetics of music. Works on the relationship between music and philosophy are entered under Music and philosophy.

See also what's at your library, or elsewhere.

• Music
• Aesthetics
• Music theory
• Philosophy and aesthetics

• Popular music -- Philosophy and aesthetics
• Style, Musical
• Music -- 19th century -- Philosophy and aesthetics
• Music -- India -- Philosophy and aesthetics
• Music -- Performance -- Philosophy and aesthetics

• Music -- Philosophy
• Hermeneutics (Music)
• Music -- Aesthetics
• Musical aesthetics

• Instruments for New Music: Sound, Technology, and Modernism (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, c2016), by Thomas Patteson
  • multiple formats at Luminos
  • PDF files at JSTOR
• Die Metalogik: Die Musikalische Logik, Geometrie der Empfindungen (in German; Munich: Musarion verlag, 1919), by Walter Harburger (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
• The Magic of Tone and the Art of Music, by Dane Rudhyar (HTML at khaldea.com)
• Opera and Drama, by Richard Wagner, trans. by William Ashton Ellis (HTML at belgacom.net)
• Music Ho! A Study of Music in Decline (c1934), by Constant Lambert (HTML in Canada; NO US ACCESS)
• Music and Meaning (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1932), by Elizabeth Robinson Woods (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Art-Work of the Future, by Richard Wagner, trans. by William Ashton Ellis (HTML at belgacom.net)
• The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music, by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, trans. by Ian Johnston
  • HTML in Canada
  • Javascript-dependent Flash with commentary at Richer Resources Publications

• Listening to Popular Music: or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Led Zeppelin (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, c2007), by Theodore Gracyk (page images at HathiTrust)

• Sounding the Depths: Tradition and the Voices of History (2011), by Victor Grauer (HTML with commentary at blogspot.com)

• Bob Dylan's Career as a Blakean Visionary and Romantic (Geneseo, NY: Milne Library, SUNY College at Geneseo, c2013), by Eugene L. Stelzig (PDF and Epub with commentary at geneseo.edu)

• Music as Cultural Practice, 1800-1900 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), by Lawrence Kramer (HTML at UC Press)

• The Rebirth of Hindu Music (online second edition), by Dane Rudhyar (HTML at khaldea.com)

• A Musicology of Performance: Theory and Method Based on Bach's Solos for Violin (version 1.2; Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, c2016), by Dorottya Fabian (multiple formats with commentary at Open Book Publishers)

Items below (if any) are from related and broader terms.

• Curiosités Musicales: Notes, Analyses, Interprétation de Certaines Particularités Contenues dans les Oeuvres des Grands Maîtres (in French; Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, Fils et cie., 1873), by Édouard Marie Ernest Deldevez (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Digital Mozart Edition (comprehensive set of his musical compositions, with German commentary and English and German user interfaces), by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, ed. by Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg (searchable page images in Austria)
• How to Appreciate Music (New York: Moffat, Yard and Co., 1912), by Gustav Kobbé (Gutenberg text and illustrated HTML)
• The Merry-Go-Round (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1918), by Carl Van Vechten (Gutenberg text and page images)
• Old Scores and New Readings: Discussions on Music and Certain Musicians, by John F. Runciman (Gutenberg text)
• Prose Miscellany (Cincinnati: R. Clarke and Co., 1881), by Horace P. Biddle (HTML and page images at Indiana)
• Mozart, Weber and Wagner, With Various Essays on Musical Subjects (London: W. Reeves, ca. 1918), by Hector Berlioz, trans. by Edwin Evans (multiple formats at archive.org)

• Mathematics of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), With Audio Applications (second edtion, c2007), by Julius O. Smith (illustrated HTML with commentary at dsprelated.com)
• Harmonics: or, The Philosophy of Musical Sounds (second edition; London: Printed for T. and J. Merrill, et al., 1759), by Robert Smith
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust

• Musical Instruments and Their Homes (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1888), by Mary Elizabeth Brown and William Adams Brown
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust

• Bluebeard: A Musical Fantasy, by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
  • text with musical notation: multiple formats at archive.org
  • text only at Gutenberg

• Musical Instruments and Their Homes (New York: Dodd, Mead and Co., 1888), by Mary Elizabeth Brown and William Adams Brown
  • multiple formats at archive.org
  • page images at HathiTrust

• Aventures et Voyages (in French; Nice: Typ. S. C. Cauvin, 1876), by P. Seligmann (page images at HathiTrust)

• The Story of Marco (New York: A.L. Burt Co., c1911), by Eleanor H. Porter, illust. by Laura Miller (page images at HathiTrust)

• The Vocal Companion: Containing a Concise Introduction to the Practice Of Music, and a Set of Tunes of Various Metres, Arranged Progressively for the Use of Learners (Exeter, NH: N. Sawyer, 1897), by Samuel Holyoke (multiple formats at archive.org)

• Theft! A History of Music (2017), by Keith Aoki, James Boyle, and Jennifer Jenkins (PDF with commentary at Duke)
• Music: Its Language, History, and Culture (c2014), by Ray Allen, Douglas Cohen, Nancy Barnes Hager, and Jeffrey Taylor (illustrated HTML with commentary at cuny.edu)
• Chopin, and Other Musical Essays (New Yor: C. Scribner's Sons, 1894), by Henry T. Finck (Gutenberg text)
• The History of Music: A Handbook and Guide for Students (New York: G. Schirmer, c1907), by Waldo Selden Pratt (PDF at djm.cc)
• The Magic of Tone and the Art of Music, by Dane Rudhyar (HTML at khaldea.com)
• Critical Reflections on Poetry, Painting and Music; With an Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of the Theatrical Entertainments of the Ancients (3 volumes; London: Printed for J. Nourse, 1748), by abbé Dubos, trans. by Thomas Nugent
  • Volume I: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume II: multiple formats at archive.org
  • Volume III: multiple formats at archive.org
  • all volumes: page images at HathiTrust

• Bluebeard: A Musical Fantasy, by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
  • text with musical notation: multiple formats at archive.org
  • text only at Gutenberg

• Music: Its Language, History, and Culture (c2014), by Ray Allen, Douglas Cohen, Nancy Barnes Hager, and Jeffrey Taylor (illustrated HTML with commentary at cuny.edu)
• Elements of Music and of Fingering the Harpsichord; To Which is Added a Collection of Airs and Lessons for the Harpsichord or Piano Forte (Glasgow: Pub. for the author, ca. 1802), by Anne Gunn, contrib. by Joseph Haydn (page images at HathiTrust)
• The Rural Harmony: Being an Original Composition in Three and Four Parts, for the Use of Singing Schools and Musical Societies (Boston: I. Thomas and E. T. Andrews, 1793), by Jacob Kimball (multiple formats at archive.org)
• Harmonia Americana: Containing a Concise Introduction to the Grounds of Music, With a Variety of Airs, Suitable for Divine Worship, and the Use of Musical Societies, Consisting of Three and Four Parts (Boston: Printed by I. Thomas and E. T. Andrews, 1791), by Samuel Holyoke (multiple formats at archive.org)

• Evaluation and Credentialing in Digital Music Communities: Benefits and Challenges for Learning and Assessment (Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, c2014), by H. Cecilia Suhr (PDF with commentary at MIT Press)

• Lucy Gayheart (1935), by Willa Cather (text in Australia; NO US ACCESS)

• Music in Song, From Chaucer to Tennyson: Being a Selection of Extracts Descriptive of the Power, Influences, and Effects of Music (1883), ed. by L. L. Carmela Koelle (multiple formats at archive.org)

• A Musicology of Performance: Theory and Method Based on Bach's Solos for Violin (version 1.2; Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, c2016), by Dorottya Fabian (multiple formats with commentary at Open Book Publishers)

• The Triangle of Mu Phi Epsilon, by Mu Phi Epsilon (partial serial archives)
• Billboard (partial serial archives)
• Gramophone (1923-) (partial serial archives)
• Recording Musician (British magazine, 1992-1993) (full serial archives)
• The Etude (full serial archives)
• Cash Box (partial serial archives)
• Dalibor (in Czech) (partial serial archives)
• The League of Composers' Review (partial serial archives)
• The Musical Quarterly (partial serial archives)
• The Musical Courier (partial serial archives)
• The American Art Journal (1860s weekly; online from volume 5 onward; renamed Watson's Art Journal in 1867) (partial serial archives)
• California Musical Journal (partial serial archives)
• Jacobs' Orchestra Monthly (partial serial archives)
• La Chronique Musicale: Revue Bimensuelle de l'Art Ancien et Modern (in French; 1873-1876) (partial serial archives)
• Le Courrier Musical (partial serial archives)
• Le Mercure Musical (aka La revue musicale S.I.M.; in French; 1905-1914) (partial serial archives)
• The Musical Critic (most issues of this Chicago-based periodical, 1897-1900) (partial serial archives)
• The Musical Million (partial serial archives)
• Niederrheinische Musik-Zeitung, ed. by Ludwig Bischoff (partial serial archives)
• Ragtime Review (with recent commentary; 1914-1918) (full serial archives)
• Watson's Art Journal (published in the 1860s and 1870s; renamed from the American Art Journal in 1867) (partial serial archives)
• The Dollar Magazine (ran for 2 volumes; New York: Wilson and Co., 1841-1842), ed. by Nathaniel Parker Willis and H. Hastings Weld (full serial archives)
• Fine Arts Journal (partial serial archives)
• Bayreuther Blätter, contrib. by Richard Wagner (partial serial archives)

More items available under broader and related terms at left.