I have produced several episodes of Sound Philosophy that explore the thought of Immanuel Kant as it applies to various issues in popular music. More such episodes are coming. Here is what is available now:
031–Kant’s Three Syntheses and the Album
This episode explores the three syntheses Immanuel Kant describes in his Critique of Pure Reason. The first synthesis designates locations within time and space; the second finds associations to draw perceptions together in order; the third applies concepts to percepts. The four basic concepts are number (the whole and its parts), quality (the features of an object), modality (its mode of existence–whether real or fictional and many other states in between), and relation (how the object fits in the world). These are the concepts in general, the bare minimum for something to register as a thing. I then apply that way of thinking to music. First, I consider musical space and time as idealizations, then the issue of association, then the concepts in general as they apply to music. Finally, all of this is brought to bear on the conception of the album (starting around 1945) as a unitary thing that is, in some ways, superordinate to the various songs contained within it.
032–Kant’s Syntheses and the Ontologies of Music
This is a companion episode to the previous discussion of Kant’s Three Syntheses. Here I use the three syntheses as a means for exploring some intriguing elements of the nature of music. Music, I suggest, has a very special relationship to space and time; that is, music produces an Imaginary (in Kant’s sense) of space and time (the first synthesis). Music also presents fascinating problems in coming to grips with our ability to forge continuity among representations (the second synthesis); this relates to Aristoxenus’s theory of melody. Finally, music is a relatively strange object. It features quantitative relationships (intervals) that reveal themselves as qualitative; it is a quality of another object that becomes substantive; it depends upon but also establishes relations; it both exists and is fictive. This illustrates the four basic concepts of the third synthesis: quantity, quality, relation, and modality.
033–Singer-Songwriters of the 1970s and the Problem of the Self
This episode investigates the move from the communitarian spirit of the 1960s to the “Me Decade” of the 1970s. I explore some historical and cultural reasons for this shift, employing ideas from Tom Wolfe and Immanuel Kant. I then look at the dialectic between an intentionally inauthentic notion of the self (personae) and an authentic self as it unfolded in the music of the 1970s, particularly among the singer-songwriters. The last segment addresses the style of that music–caught between folk music (and its implicit authenticity, speaking with the voice of the authentic We) and light-jazz/lounge music (and its implicit inauthenticity).
034–Joni Mitchell, Kant, and the Fragility of Beauty
This episode brings together Joni Mitchell and Immanuel Kant in an attempt to elucidate what it means to engage with beauty. We explore the role of pleasure in beauty for Kant as well as the peculiar nature of aesthetic judgment. We also discuss the four “moments” in Kant’s discussion of the striking way in which we confront beauty. Mitchell’s music helps demonstrate the way beauty manages to be both utterly private and utterly social, subjective yet universal, the way it suggests a kind of necessity that can’t be pinned down conceptually, manifests meaning without defining that meaning, and gets bound up in an engagement with another being/object in a similar manner to love. Indeed, I suggest that engaging beauty is not at all separate from the act of falling in love. ONLY AVAILABLE ON SPOTIFY (because I include copyrighted music by Mitchell).
035-Shortcut to Transcendence: The US Reception of Hindustani Music
This episode begins by examining the relationship between music and nature. It then explores the Chandogya Upanishad and Hindustani Classical Music for insights into nature, humankind, and music. The final segment turns to the U.S. reception of the music of Ravi Shankar and discusses how that reception over the course of the 50s and 60s reflected a growing concern with spirituality and the search for a shortcut to transcendence.
036–The Transcendental Aesthetic of Space and Time in Hindustani Music
This episode examines Kant’s Transcendental Aesthetic to reveal some of the strange properties of space and time. It then turns to the nada Brahma of Hindustani philosophical tradition and the writings of Hazrat Inayat Khan to discuss the creation of space and time from the unstruck sound and how that makes music a special conduit to the truth. The last segment turns to Hindustani music and how its formal and performative elements enact a path of transcendence beyond space and time (and our entrapment in the cycle of birth and death) in order to connect with the nada Brahma.
037–Progressive Rock and (Kantian) Form
This episode examines form in popular music and especially Progressive Rock by first investigating the distinction between extensional and intensional form (as presented by Andrew Chester) and glossing that as the distinction between “trekking” and “dwelling.” The second segment targets some specific issues in Immanuel Kant’s understanding of aesthetic form. The third segment turns to the adaptation of classical music by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and what that reveals about Prog Rock’s approach to form.
038–Giving the Idea to Art: Kant, the Genius, and Prog Rock
This episode explores the notion of genius and Immanuel Kant’s concept of the aesthetic idea. The aesthetic idea is shown to be the distinguishing element that differentiates natural beauty from art beauty. Progressive Rock is then discussed as a genre that self-consciously courts the label of genius and takes seriously the espousal of ideas (aesthetic and otherwise). “Pantagruel’s Nativity” and “Black Cat” by Gentle Giant are discussed along with a brief overview of “Supper’s Ready” by Genesis.
041–Sapere Aude: Bebop and Kantian Autonomy
This episode begins by examining historiographical accounts of the rise of bebop and places bebop within the context of Harlem and 52nd Street. The second segment discusses the famous essay “What Is Enlightenment?” by Immanuel Kant and unpacks his concept of autonomy as presented there. Michel Foucault’s critical take on Kant’s essay introduces the idea of autonomy involving working at the edges of one’s being. The final segment presents Harlem and 52nd street as two zones of autonomy for bebop–one involving relatively safe experimentation within isolation and the other offering social change at the risk of assimilation into tradition.
This episode examines the issue of play. What is at stake in play? How do “rules of the game” relate to the freedom of play? The second segment turns to the notion that aesthetic pleasure arises for Immanuel Kant from the “free play” of the Imagination and Understanding that exhibits “lawfulness without a law.” I suggest that in both play and this notion of aesthetic judgment the “law” or the “rules” are emergent–they emerge out of the act of playing, they are in play. The last segment looks at bebop as a form of play and confronts the Kantian paradox that some limited civil unfreedom leads to greater artistic and intellectual freedom.
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More episodes are coming soon, including two on Outlaw Country music and issues of freedom and morality and then two on the so-called Hip Hop Sublime. I will post on these when they are completed. Be sure to also check out the other Kant series: a close reading of the Critique of Pure Reason with Eric Taxier. I will discuss that in the following post.
Be sure to consult the Kant page under the Sound Philosophy Heading on this website for more information on the two Kant series of episodes, general commentary, reading suggestions, and more.
Thanks, as always, for your time and patience.