Music from the Inside: Emotional Expression and the Understanding Listener Belinda Marie Prakhoff Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2013 School of Historical and Philosophical Studies The University of Melbourne Produced on archival quality paper i Abstract My thesis examines the view that training in musical analysis is essential for musical understanding. I defend the untrained lover of music against the formalist charge that their understanding of music must be inadequate. Following Stephen Davies’s account of understanding “by degrees”, my account emphasises music as heard rather than analysed. I construct a case against Eduard Hanslick’s views, which I argue have contributed to more recent formalist accounts that depend upon the flawed theory-dependence of observation thesis and a de-emphasis on expressive properties of music. In response to such formalist views, my account takes the expressive properties of music and places them at the centre of our musical understanding, arguing that untrained listeners are equipped to understand them through a combination of hardwiring and cultural immersion rather than formal study. I discuss aspects of modularity theory (with particular emphasis on its support for theory-neutral observation) to defend this claim, arguing as a part of this defence that music expresses basic emotions only. I also confront accusations of circularity made in the past against any account proposing that understanding expression is necessary to musical understanding. These accusations draw upon the subjectivity inherent in the response- dependent nature of musical expressive properties. I argue, with reference to Philip Pettit’s “ethocentric” conception of response-dependence, that this subjectivity is not so extreme as to lead to the kind of vacuous circularity such accusations assume. I conclude by sharpening the distinction, not always clearly drawn, between understanding and appreciation. I argue that it is appreciation, rather than understanding, that comes in “degrees”, and the background knowledge and training previously thought to be essential to understanding is better placed within appreciation. I also deploy the Aristotelean notion of three kinds of friendship to argue that our conception of appreciation should be re- weighted to include the quality of our relationship with the work to provide a more inclusive model. ii Declaration This is to certify that: i) The thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD; ii) Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used; iii) The thesis is fewer than 100 000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Signed: Belinda Prakhoff. iii Acknowledgements There are many people I would like to thank for their help in my completion of this thesis. First of all, my supervisor, Karen Jones, whose patience and determination have been beyond measure throughout my candidature. Thanks too to John Armstrong, whose supervision in the early stages of my research was inspirational. The members of Karen’s research group, particularly Sam Gates-Scovelle, Trevor Pisciotta, Katinka Morton, Judy Chambers and Phillip Dragic, gave me valuable feedback and support, as did Monte Pemberton. I am also very grateful to Stephen Davies and Christopher Cordner for their advice and discussion regarding aspects of my work. To my colleague and friend Clare McCausland, thanks are due not only for her proof- reading and comments but also for her support (via innumerable emails and coffees) throughout her own candidature and mine. I also thank my cousin and ex-housemate Olivia Watchman; my singing teachers Patricia Sage, Adrienne Dugger, Raymond Connell and Tania Ferris; my understanding employers at The University of Melbourne; and my parents, Andrew and Brenda Paterson, whose faith in me has been constant throughout. This work would not have been completed without their support. Special thanks and love are reserved for my husband Rick Prakhoff, whose tolerance, understanding, vast musical knowledge and sensational cooking have all been essential to the writing process. And finally, thanks are also due to my analysis lecturer, who could never have imagined where her one remark might lead. Belinda Prakhoff December 2013. iv v Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................. i Declaration............................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. iii Introduction: “But what are you hearing?” ......................................................................... 1 1. Motivation ............................................................................................................................ 1 2. Methodology and caveats ................................................................................................... 9 3. Understanding, Appreciation and Relationships ......................................................... 13 4. Chapter by chapter outline .............................................................................................. 20 Chapter One: Overview ...................................................................................................... 25 1. Central questions .............................................................................................................. 28 2. Formalism: On the Musically Beautiful – Eduard Hanslick (1891) ........................... 30 3. Emotivism: a short survey ............................................................................................... 40 Chapter Two: Analysis and Understanding ....................................................................... 54 1. The traditional view ......................................................................................................... 56 2. Two objections .................................................................................................................. 61 Chapter Three: Experience and Understanding ................................................................ 76 1. Expression, circularity and response-dependence ....................................................... 80 2. Understanding by degrees ............................................................................................... 89 3. Experiential formal meaning .......................................................................................... 99 4. Expression as musical structure ................................................................................... 104 Chapter Four: Kinds of Emotions .................................................................................... 110 1. Basic emotions ................................................................................................................ 113 2. Some objections .............................................................................................................. 122 Chapter Five: Expression .................................................................................................. 133 1. Basic emotions and music ............................................................................................. 137 2. Cross-cultural basic emotions in music ...................................................................... 143 3. Experimental evidence and the problem of cultural distortion ............................... 146 4. Basic emotions: three or six? ......................................................................................... 155 5. Summary and conclusions ............................................................................................ 160 Chapter Six: Response ...................................................................................................... 165 1. Being moved .................................................................................................................... 169 2. The emotional response ................................................................................................ 173 3. The aesthetic response – is it an emotion? .................................................................. 183 Chapter Seven: Appreciation............................................................................................ 197 1. Appreciation ................................................................................................................... 202 2. Kinds of relationships .................................................................................................... 212 Conclusion: Music from the inside .................................................................................. 221 References ......................................................................................................................... 231 1 Introduction: “But what are you hearing?” 1. Motivation I’ll begin with the motivation behind this thesis. Many years ago, a music analysis lecturer in my Masters course responded to my confession that I had difficulty analysing one of the set pieces by exclaiming in a bewildered tone: “but what are you hearing, then?” She was unable to conceive that it might be possible for me, by then an experienced performer, to hear the structures