The Authority of Music Criticism Author(s): Edward T. Cone Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society , Spring, 1981, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Spring, 1981), pp. 1-18 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/831032 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms American Musicological Society and University of California Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the American Musicological Society This content downloaded from 174.92.95.22 on Wed, 03 Feb 2021 15:44:49 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms The Authority of Music Criticism* BY EDWARD T. CONE W HAT AUTHORITY can the music critic claim for his opinions? That is a question often posed, or implied, by composers and per- formers, and sometimes by critics themselves. Its relevance is not nul- lified by the fact that it is usually asked by one who feels, rightly or wrongly, that he has been misunderstood by the critic and traduced by the expression of his opinion. Rightly or wrongly-for some philosophers, of course, those words are red herrings.