Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"In his latest book on the aesthetics of music, Peter Kivy presents an argument not for authenticity but for authenticities of performance, including authenticities of intention, sound, practice, and the authenticity of personal interpretation in performance.... As usual, Kivy's work is beautifully written, well argued, and provocative."--Notes"Kivy has provided a sorely needed framework for all future discussion of the authenticity matter. This is his best book, a major contribution to performance studies and to musical aesthetics; likely it will be studied and cited for generations."--Choice"Written in lively prose, with a keen sense of reality, [this volume] ought to be of interest not only to philosophers and musicologists, but to all serious lovers of music."--Roger Scruton, Times Literary Supplement"The consistent theme running through Kivy's book is the need for interpretation as the personal authenticity and authority of the performer against the ideology both of the composer as genius and of the puritanical devotion to the authority of the text of the early music devotees.... This is a most valuable book, one which constantly surprises and delights through its philosophical insights and informed musical understanding."--British Journal of Aesthetics

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

In the past three decades a quiet revolution has occurred in the performance of old music. Now there are "mainstream" performers and "authentic" performers; the authenticists continue to move to the fore. Kivy (Rutgers, the State Univ. of New Jersey) explores the precarious aesthetic scaffold that supports the "authentic" movement. He finds five different meanings for "authentic" that might be applied to musical performance, and he examines the how and why of each. (Some practitioners prefer the term "historically informed" to "authentic," but Kivy insists that "authentic" is quite all right.) What are the performer's ethical responsibilities with respect to a composer's text? What does listening have to do with performance? These are very basic questions, and Kivy handles them brilliantly. In the process he touches on all sorts of general issues pertinent to the performance of music. Zealots may disagree with the conclusions, and philosophers may find some of the arguments lacking in rigor. Nevertheless, Kivy has provided a sorely needed framework for all future discussion of the authenticity matter. This is his best book, a major contribution to performance studies and to musical aesthetics; likely it will be studied and cited for generations. Recommended to all libraries. B. J. Murray; University of Alabama

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Peter Kivy is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. His previous books include Music Alone: Philosophical Reflections on the Purely Musical Experience , also from Cornell.