Abstract

In its multifaced history, stretching back thousands of years, Western music has always attracted the attention of scholars, scientists and philosophers. Music has been considered a significant topic for philosophical theories and controversies. This paper seeks to confirm the cultural, social and political relevance of music in contemporary philosophical debates. The essay aims to shed light on the current state of a range of debates about Western music within analytic philosophy, with particular reference to the problem of the definition of music, ontological issues, and the question of emotions in – and through – music. In the second part, the essay briefly considers the origin of American critical musicology, focusing on Susan MacClary. The new musicology is philosophically interesting because in it the continental approach to the philosophy of music plays a significant role. In the context of analytic philosophy, philosophers draw attention to conceptual problems related to music, while critical musicology uses continental philosophy to propose a new approach to the history of music