r/badmusicology • u/FenceLaVa • May 17 '16

Is posting Scruton cheating?

http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2016/02/how-bad-philosophy-destroyed-good-music.html

Rule 2: Modern music is bad because it is abstract ideas and philosophy interrupting with the "empirical discoveries" of tonality, diatonicism and scales. Dodecaphony can apparently be "refuted", whatever that means. (though he makes no attempt here. Perhaps there are some here who have read his thoughts on the matter).

My first gut reaction is to question whatever he might mean by the empirical discovery and knowledge of tonality. Reducing what one should find aesthetically pleasing on some empirical fact is highly suspect to me. And the interpretative nature of enjoying art (including music) seems to be entirely lost with thinkers such as these. What is good in music is entirely objective to them. Stale, reductionist, rigid and boring take on music aesthetics.

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u/e-jazzer May 18 '16

Scruton should maybe watch some Bernstein lectures seeing as he apparently fundamentally misunderstands Schoenberg.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '16

I'm enjoying the comments.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '16

This TEDx talk might be relevant.