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Aesthetics of Music II

Code: 100635
Credits: 6
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Musicology OB 3

Contact lecturer

Name :
Germán Gan Quesada
Email :
german.gan@uab.cat

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

There are no compulsory requirements for the inscription in this course.

Objectives

On successfully completing this course, students will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate knowledge of the main trends, authors and themes of Music Aesthetics from the Renaissance to the end of the 20th century.
  2. Comment on a text (ancient or modern) of aesthetic nature.
  3. Connect the main concerns of Music Aesthetics (Renaissance-Present times) with the historical development of music styles.
  4. Put into context the evolution of Music Aesthetics within the history of Music Theory, Philosophy and Art History.
  5. Highlight the role of female writers and composers in Music Aesthetics during the Early Modern, Modern and Contemporary Ages.

Learning outcomes

  1. Produce correct, precise and clear argumental and terminological writing of knowledge acquired, both in the area of musical specialisation and dissemination.
  2. Integrate knowledge acquired in the production of clear and concise appropriate to the academic and specialist communication.
  3. Develop habits for transfer to the ambit of musical dissemination and information the musical training acquired.
  4. Identifying normative, stylistic or argumentative errors in a text.
  5. Commenting on literary texts, applying the acquired tools and taking into account the historical and sociocultural context.
  6. Making predictions and inferences about the content of a text.
  7. Evaluate the evolution of the aesthetics of music from a diachronic perspective.
  8. Develop a critical capacity for interpreting musical texts of an aesthetic nature.
  9. Use strategies which help to plan and develop ideas and to summarise and evaluate the written text.
  10. Structure ideas taking into account the different parts of an academic text.
  11. Organise the content of an aesthetic musical text, identifying the main and secondary ideas .
  12. Make predictions and infrerences on the adscription of the content of a text to a certain aesthetic trend.
  13. Relate msucical creation and reception to the aesthetic and literary foundation of each period.
  14. Identify situations in which a change or improvement is needed.
  15. Propose new experience-based methods or alternative solutions.

Contents

This course is structured into the following units:


  1. Music Theory in the the 15th Century: Tinctoris, Ramos de Pareja, Gaffurio.
  2. Musica reservata and musica poetica.
  3. Music and Text in the early Baroque period: the beginning of Opera and the Artusi/Monteverdi polemics.
  4. The concept of ‘music style’ and stylistic classifications during the 17th century.
  5. The Beautiful and the Sublime as aesthetic categories along the 18th century: from Joseph Addison to Friedrich Schiller.
  6. Music and Language: the Querelle des Bouffons and the theories on the (shared) origins of Music and Language skills.
  7. Kant’s Music Aesthetics and its German context in the 18th century.
  8. The Romantic twist: the Aesthetics of Feeling.
  9. Towards an Aesthetics of Form: Eduard Hanslick.
  10. Musicians-philosophers / philosophers-musicians: Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche.
  11. The aesthetic grounds of Avant-garde trends in the early 20th century.
  12. The possibility of a Sociology of Music: from Max Weber to Theodor Wiesegrund Adorno.
  13. New Music’ and new ways of ‘thinking about music’ after the Second World War.
  14. Music and (Post)modernism(s).

Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Individual tutorials / Group tutorial 4.5 0.18 3, 5, 8, 10, 13, 15
Preparation of the review of a musicological book chapter or article 35 1.4 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 13, 15
Individual study time for reviewing class materials 62.5 2.5 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15
Theoretical and practical sessions 43.5 1.74 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14

- The lectures will offer a general aesthetic introduction into the contents of each unit and will be complementary with the analytical commentary on a selection of representative texts and/or music examples. At the beginning of each unit, a short anthology of texts will be provided (through the subject’s Moodle class room). The reading and commentary of these texts is the main autonomous task required of the student, as they will be discussed as a regular in-class activity.

- Throughout the course, theoretical-practical lectures, in which a conceptualization and synthetic approach of every unit will be provided, alternate with others of a more open nature (commentaries of scores, auditions and texts, as well as seminars), from a flipped classroom methodological perspective. These practical sessions will be developed in small groups, depending on the size of the entire group.

- Individual or group tutorial sessions: according to teaching needs, the student's independent work will be supervised and any doubts about the subject will be solved.

- In early February, an Moodle class room will be opened as the only repository of the teaching materials and links needed for the preparation of the subject, according to its general schedule and to the legal copyright regulations. In this sense, the Moodle class room is the reference space for the activities of the course and for the communications related to it; any question concerning the subject is to be submitted, therefore, through the Moodle mail and the lecturer will not answer enquiries sent to his main E-mail address.


Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Review of a musicological chapter or article 40% 1.5 0.06 5, 9, 10, 12, 14
Final exam 30% 1.5 0.06 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 15
Intermediate exam (Text commentary) 30% 1.5 0.06 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15

The Assessment will consist of the following activities:

- An intermediante exam (Text commentary) [pre-scheduled date: March 17, 2027].

- A final exam [pre-scheduled date: May 24, 2027].

N,B. Erasmus and exchange students who request to advance an exam must present a document from their home university justifying their request.

- A review of a musicological essay or book chapter, chosen from a selection which will be proposed to the students, through the Course Moodle, by mid March 2027. At that moment, additional information on the deadline of the final version of the task (within the period June 7-18, 2027) will be provided.


INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPARING THE REVIEW:

1. The perspective, content and structure of the review are free; however, it is expected to deal in particular with two main aspects: 1) summary of the topic and main and secondary arguments of the chosen text; 2) critical assessment [strong and weak points of the text, possibilities for future research or argumentative deepening], through consultation and correct reference to complementary bibliography.

2. Expected length: 10-12 pages (excluding cover and bibliography), text with single and half line spacing and font size 11.

3. There is no specific “model” or reference for carrying out a critical review of an article. However, these links can give some preliminary ideas: https://redaccion.hypotheses.org/b-resenas;

https://lenguaparaisosscc.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/pautas-para-la-realizaciocc81n-de-una-valoraciocc81n-cricc81tica.docx

All assessment activities are obligatory and independent. Following the academic schedule established by the Faculty, students may retake any assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed, provided that they have been evaluated for at least 2/3 of the total subject during the course.

Under no circumstances will a student pass the course without obtaining a passing grade, 5 or more, on each of the three assessment activities.

When publishing intermediate and final grades prior to recording them on students’ transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of the procedure, date, and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the lecturer.

In the event that a student has only participated in 30% or less of the assessment activities, they will be classified as “not assessed” on their transcript.


IMPORTANT NOTICES

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, thestudent will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

In the event that tests or exams cannot betaken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

In this subject, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is exclusively allowed for bibliographic or information search tasks and for the translation of texts. Students must clearly identify which parts of the activity have been generated with these technologies, specify the tools used, and include a critical reflection on their influence on the process and outcome of the activity. The lack of transparency in the use of AI in assessable activities will be considered an academic malpractice and may lead to a partial or total penalty in the activity grade, or to greater sanctions in serious cases.

SINGLE ASSESSMENT [pre-scheduled date: May 28, 2027]: 1) Concept and historical facts test [30%]; 2) Historical/contextual test [30%]; 3) Review of a musicological chapter or article [40%]. The same assessment requirements and method will be used in the event of retaken or compensated failed activities, on the date established by the Faculty forthis purpose.

Bibliography

N. B. Primary sources, whose reference will be provided, when necessary, along the lectures and in the text anthologies delivered to the students at the beginning of each unit, are excluded from this general bibliography, except for a couple of recent references.

ALCARAZ, M.ª José and PÉREZ CARREÑO, Francisca (eds.). Significado, emoción y valor. Ensayos sobre filosofía de la música. Madrid: Antonio Machado Libros, 2010.

ARES YEBRA, Javier. La Poética musical de Igor Stravinski. Sant Cugat del Vallès: Arpegio, 2021.

BLACKBURN, Bonnie J. and LOWINSKY, Edward E. (ed.). A Correspondance of Renaissance Musicians. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.

BOWIE, Andrew. Music, Philosophy and Modernity. Cambridge et al.: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

BOWMAN, Wayne D. Philosophical Perspectives on Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

CALLE, Román de la (ed.). Arte, gusto y estética en la Encyclopédie. València: Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2009.

CASTELLI, Patricia. La estética del Renacimiento. Madrid: Visor, 2011.

CLAUDON, Francis. La musique des romantiques. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1992.

COOK, Nicholas and EVERIST, Mark (ed.). Rethinking Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

CRUZ CRUZ, Juan (ed.) La realidad musical. Pamplona: Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, 1998.

DAHLHAUS, Carl. Estética de la música. Berlin: Reinchenberger, 1996.

DAHLHAUS, Carl. La idea de la música absoluta. Barcelona: Idea Books, 1999.

DARBON, Nicolas. Musica Multiplex. Dialogique du simple et du complexe en musique contemporaine. Paris: L’Harmattan,2007.

DEFEZ, Antoni. Música i sentit. El cas Wittgenstein. València: Universitat de València / PUV, 2008.

DIDIER, Béatrice. La musique des Lumières. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1985.

DUFFY, Cian and HOWELL, Peter (eds.). Cultures of the Sublime. Selected Writings, 1750-1830. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

DURAND-SENDRAIL, Béatrice. La musique de Diderot. Paris: Kimé, 1994.

ECO, Umberto (ed.). Historia de la belleza. Barcelona: Lumen, 2004.

FAXEDAS, Maria Lluïsa. Del simbolismo a la abstracción. La unidad de las artes en los orígenes del arte moderno. Gijón: Ediciones Trea, 2018.

FERRER, Anacleto (ed.). Grimm, Diderot, Rousseau y D’Alembert. La Querella de los Bufones. València: Museu Valencià de la Il·lustració i de la Modernitat, 2008.

FOSTER, Hal (ed.). La postmodernidad. Barcelona: Kairós, 2002 (5th ed.).

FUBINI, Enrico. La estética musical desde la Antigüedad hasta el siglo XX. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1988.

FUBINI, Enrico. Música y lenguaje en la estética contemporánea. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1994.

FUBINI, Enrico. El siglo XX: entre música y filosofía. València: Universitat de València / PUV, 2014.

GARCÍA LABORDA, José M.ª (ed.). La música moderna y contemporánea a través de los escritos de sus protagonistas (una antología de textos comentados). Sevilla: Editorial Doble J, 2010 (2nd ed.).

GARCÍA PÉREZ, Amaya and HERNÁNDEZ MATEOS, Alberto (eds.). Eximeno revisitado: Pensamiento y teoría musical en la Europa ilustrada. Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca-Servicio de Bibliotecas. 2024.

GARCÍA REVILLA, Enrique. La estética musical de Héctor Berlioz a través de sus escritos. València: Universitat de València / PUV, 2013.

GAVILÁN, Enrique. Entre la historia y el mito. El tiempo de Wagner. Madrid: Akal, 2013.

GAVILÁN, Enrique. Otra historia del tiempo. La música y la redención del pasado. Madrid: Akal, 2009.

GLOAG, Kenneth. Postmodernism in Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

GOMINET-BRUN, Julien, L'Harmonie universelle de Marin Mersenne. Musique et littérature au XVII siècle. París: Honoré Champion, 2025.

GONZÁLEZ SERRANO, Carlos Javier. Arte y música en Schopenhauer. El camino hacia la experiencia estética. Madrid: Locus Solus Ediciones, 2016.

GOZZA, Paolo (ed.). La Musica nella rivoluzione scientifica del Seicento. Bologna: Il Mulino, 1989.

GRATZER, Wolfgang et al. (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Music and Migration. Theories and Methodologies. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2024.

HIBBERD, Sarah and STANYON, Miranda (eds.). Music and the Sonorous Sublime in European Culture, 1680-1880. Cambridge et al.: Cambridge University Press, 2020.

JACQUEMIER, Myriam. La métaphore musicale de l’harmonie du monde à la Renaissance. Paris: Beauchesne Éditeurs, 2020.

KRAUSS, Rosalynd. La originalidad de la vanguardia y otros mitos modernos. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1996.

LIPOVETSKY, Gilles and SERROY, Jean. La pantalla global. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2009.

LISCIANI-PETRINI, Enrica. Tierra en blanco. Música y pensamiento a inicios del siglo XX. Madrid: Akal Ediciones, 1999.

LLOBET, Enrique. Idea de la música. Madrid: Instituto Juan Andrés de Comparatística y Globalización, 2024.

LONGINO. Sobre lo sublime, ed. Haris Papoulias. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2022.

MAGEE, Bryan. Wagner y la filosofía. Madrid: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2011.

MANIATES, Maria Rika. Mannerism in Italian Music and Culture, 1530-1630. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1979.

MARTIN, Marie-Pauline and SAVETTIERI, Chiara (eds.). La musique faceau système des arts ou les vicisitudes de l’imitation au siècle des Lumières. Paris: Vrin, 2013.

MATAMORO, Blas. Nietzsche y la música. Madrid:Fórcola Ediciones, 2015,

"Música y pensamiento" [dossiers Scherzo, 332 (september 2017) i 339 (april 2018)].

Musique et Humanisme à la Renaissance. Paris: Presses del'École Normale Supérieure, Centre V. L. Saulnier, Univ. Paris-Sorbonne, 1993.

NATTIEZ, Jean-Jacques. Le combat deChronos et d’Orphée. Mesnil-sur-l’Estrée: Christian Bourgeois, 1993.

NEUBAUER, John. La emancipación de la música instrumental. Madrid: Visor, 1992.

PADDISON, Max. Adorno’s Aesthetics of Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

PALISCA, Claude V. Humanism in Italian Renaissance Musical Thought. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.

PALISCA, Claude V. Studies in the history of Italian Music and Music Theory. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.

PARDO, José Luis. Esto no es música. Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg, 2007.

PÉREZ MASEDA, Eduardo. El Wagner de las ideologías. Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2004.

PERLOFF, Marjorie. El momento futurista. Valencia: Pretextos, 2010.

POLO PUJADAS, Magda. L'estètica de la música. Barcelona: UOC, 2007.

POLO PUJADAS, Magda. La música de los sentimientos. Filosofía de la música de la Ilustración. Murcia: Éditum, 2010.

POLO PUJADAS, Magda. Filosofía de la música del futuro. Zaragoza: Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, 2017.

PONS, Jordi. El camino hacia la forma. Goethe, Webern, Balthasar. Barcelona: Acantilado, 2015.

POUSSEUR, Henri. Música, semántica, sociedad. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1987.

PRITCHARD, Matthew. Romantic Music Aesthetics. Creating a Politics of Emotion. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2024.

“Les querelles musicales dans les écrits esthétiques et littéraires après 1750”, Revue Musicorum, 17 (2016).

RASULA, Jed. Dadá. El cambio radical del siglo XX. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2016.

ROWELL, Lewis. Introducción a la filosofía de la música. Barcelona: Gedisa, 1987.

RUIZ DE SAMANIEGO, Alberto. La inflexión posmoderna: los márgenes de la modernidad. Madrid: Akal, 2004.

SABATIER, François. Miroirs de la musique. La musique et ses correspondances avec la littérature et les beaux-arts. Paris: Arthème Fayard, 1998.

SÁNCHEZ DE ANDRÉS, Leticia and PRESAS, Adela (eds.). Música, ciencia y pensamiento en España e Iberoamérica durante el siglo XX. Madrid: Servicio de Publicaciones de la UAM, 2013.

SÁNCHEZ MECA, Diego. El itinerario intelectual de Nietzsche. Madrid: Tecnos, 2018.

SANTIAGO GUERVÓS, Luis de. Arte y poder. Aproximación a la estética de Nietzsche. Madrid: Trotta, 2004.

SCHUMANN, Robert. El baile de la Liga de David. Escritos sobre música. Valencia: Pre-textos, 2024.

SCRUTON, Roger. The Aesthetics of Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.

SPOTTS, Frederic. Hitler y el poder de la estética. Madrid: Fundación Scherzo, 2011.

STANYON, Miranda and HIBBERD, Sarah (eds.). Music and the Sonorous Sublime in European Culture, 1680-1880. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.

STRUNK, Oliver. Source Readings in Music History. London: Faber & Faber, 1981 (2nd ed.).

TRÍAS, Eugenio. El canto de las sirenas. Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg, 2007.

TRÍAS, Eugenio. La imaginación sonora. Barcelona: Galaxia Gutenberg, 2010.

VARWIG, Bettina. Music in the Flesh. An Early Modern Musical Physiology. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2023.

WAGNER, Richard; NIETZSCHE, Friedrich. Correspondencia. Madrid: Fórcola Ediciones, 2025.

WYMEERSCH, Brigitte van. Descartes et l’évolution de l’esthétique musicale. Sprimont: Mardaga, 1999.

ZIOLWOSKI, Theodore. Stages of European Romanticism. Cultural Synchronicity across the Arts, 1798-1848. Rochester, NY: Candem House, 2018.


https://www.wikisofia.cat/wiki/Pàgina_principal

https://earlymusictheory.org

International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music (1971-) [https://www.jstor.org/journal/intereviaestsoci]

Software

Does not apply.

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE

Type of teaching Group Language Semester Shift
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan/Spanish second semester morning-mixed
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan/Spanish second semester morning-mixed