Sound Sentiment: An Essay on the Musical Emotions, including the complete text of The Corded Shell

by Peter Kivy

Kivy continues his discussion from The Corded Shell of how music possesses expressive properties

Genres: Music, Philosophy

286 pages, Paperback

First published November 16, 1989

Reviews

[Carol]

Sound Sentiment includes the entire text of Kivy's earlier book on musical expressiveness, The Corded Shell, along with several later essays in which he responds to critiques of the earlier book and thereby expands and refines his arguments. Kivy addresses (and re-addresses) the question of whether and how music can be expressive. He falls on the side of a modified formalism, arguing that music is indeed expressive of emotions but not by virtue of directly arousing those emotions in listeners. Music is expressive of emotions but does not directly express them.
Sound Sentiment is rigorously and beautifully argued, and I really enjoyed following the train of Kivy's thought. He is very persuasive, and very grounded. I also enjoyed the way in which he engaged with his critics - it's a great example of the scholarly conversation we are always talking about in information literacy instruction. Kivy clearly has great respect for those who have critiqued his arguments and fully engages with these critiques when defending and refining his position.