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Author Piilonen, Miriam, author.

Title Theorizing music evolution : Darwin, Spencer, and the limits of the human / Miriam Piilonen
Published New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2024]
©2024

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Description 1 online resource (vi, 160 pages) : illustrations
Series Oxford studies in music theory
Oxford studies in music theory.
Contents Introduction: Music and evolution revisited -- Herbert Spencer writes to Alfred Tennyson -- Charles Darwin vs. Herbert Spencer on the origins of music -- Sound symbolism in Spencer's evolutionary thought -- The Darwinian musical hypothesis -- Edmund Gurney's Darwinian music formalism -- Conclusion: Post-Darwinian music theory
Summary "Theorizing Music Evolution is a critical examination of ideas about musical origins, emphasizing both nineteenth-century theories of music in the evolutionist writings of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. What did historical evolutionists such as Darwin and Spencer have to say about music? What role did music play in their evolutionary theories? What were the values and limits of these evolutionist turns of thought, and in what ways have they endured in present-day music research? Author Miriam Piilonen argues for the significance of Victorian music-evolutionism in lights of its ties to a recently revitalized subfield of evolutionary musicology. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to music theorizing, Piilonen explores how historical thinkers constructed music in evolutionist terms and argues for an updated understanding of music as an especially fraught area of evolutionary thought"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on January 18, 2024)
Subject Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 -- Criticism and interpretation
Spencer, Herbert, 1820-1903 -- Criticism and interpretation
SUBJECT Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 fast
Spencer, Herbert, 1820-1903 fast
Subject Music -- Origin.
Evolution.
Evolution
Music -- Origin
Music.
Music.
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2023040398
ISBN 9780197695319
0197695310
9780197695296
0197695299
9780197695302
0197695302
Other Titles Darwin, Spencer, and the limits of the human