Abstract

This paper aims to show and study the fundamental concepts, themes and perspectives that are present in two seminal texts in the sociology of music written by Georg Simmel (1881) and Max Weber (1911). The approach that will allow us to highlight the main topics of musical discussion during the thirty years between these two texts is expressed by four terms that are included in their titles: psychological, ethnological, rational and sociological. The aim is to provide some interpretative keys that allow us to frame both texts within the philosophical debate about music at the turn of the century