Thanks to the Abominable Snowman for Monty Python's "Philosopher's Song." That belongs here in response to MC's OP—for its sarcasm. It has always seemed to me that skit's point was to poke fun at Australians. The Aussie philosophy department where everyone is called Bruce has departmental rules that include "This term I don't want to catch anyone not drinking." Chapman, Cleese and Idle all met at Cambridge, and all studied philosophy there. The pun that motivates this sketch, I take it, is a familiar English condescension toward those moronic Aussies, who have misunderstood and believe that philosophers are supposed to "drink" instead of "think."
I teach a university course on "Philosophy and Music." But that's meant somewhat tongue in cheek, too, as it isn't at all clear that music has even a potential to be "philosophical" in any serious sense of the word. Still, Plato (and Pythagoras before him) believed that mathematical relations were audible in music and, as math expresses eternal Being (not the mere appearances of "becoming" in the realm of the senses, the shadow realm of the famous cave allegory), Plato considered music to be a very high form of philosophical expression. He wasn't, of course, the last to do so; my favorite would have to be Schopenhauer, for whom music functions as a kind of empirical validation of his entire metaphysics.
Be that as it may, what does, or can, music—sequences of tones—"express"? The examples in this thread, from the OP's onward, cite lyrics, which might as well be "poetry" and not "music." But can instrumental music express ideas? Or, for that matter, even "emotions"? I know we all think it can—obviously, dance music at a funeral would be inappropriate, while languid melodies in a minor key will hardly enliven your party. But why do we think this? How can it do this?
Maybe that's a topic for another thread. In any case, with this problem in mind, I'll mention again John Cage's 4'33".
I teach a university course on "Philosophy and Music." But that's meant somewhat tongue in cheek, too, as it isn't at all clear that music has even a potential to be "philosophical" in any serious sense of the word. Still, Plato (and Pythagoras before him) believed that mathematical relations were audible in music and, as math expresses eternal Being (not the mere appearances of "becoming" in the realm of the senses, the shadow realm of the famous cave allegory), Plato considered music to be a very high form of philosophical expression. He wasn't, of course, the last to do so; my favorite would have to be Schopenhauer, for whom music functions as a kind of empirical validation of his entire metaphysics.
Be that as it may, what does, or can, music—sequences of tones—"express"? The examples in this thread, from the OP's onward, cite lyrics, which might as well be "poetry" and not "music." But can instrumental music express ideas? Or, for that matter, even "emotions"? I know we all think it can—obviously, dance music at a funeral would be inappropriate, while languid melodies in a minor key will hardly enliven your party. But why do we think this? How can it do this?
Maybe that's a topic for another thread. In any case, with this problem in mind, I'll mention again John Cage's 4'33".