Philosophy of the Performing Arts (eBook)

David Davies is Associate Professor of Philosophy at McGill University. He is the author of Art as Performance (Blackwell, 2004), Aesthetics and Literature (2007), and the editor of The Thin Red Line (2008). He has published widely in the philosophy of art on topics relating to the nature of art, artistic value, literature, film, music, theater, and the visual arts.

Preface and Acknowledgments viii

Part One Performance and the Classical Paradigm 1

1 The Nature of Artistic Performance 3

1 Introduction 3

2 What is a Performance? 4

3 Institutional Theories of Artistic Performance 7

4 Aesthetic Theories of Artistic Performance 10

5 Artistic Performance and Artistic Regard 14

6 Overview 17

2 The Classical Paradigm I: The Nature of the Performable Work 23

1 Introduction: Berthold and Magda Go to the Symphony 23

2 The Multiple Nature of Performable Works 24

3 Performable Works as Types 29

4 Varieties of Type Theories: Sonicism, Instrumentalism, and Contextualism 32

5 Other Theories of the Performable Work 38

3 The Classical Paradigm II: Appreciating Performable Works in Performance 51

1 Introduction: Talking Appreciatively about Performable Works 51

2 Can Performable Works Share Artistic Properties with Their Performances? 53

3 The Goodman Argument 57

4 Answering the Goodman Argument 62

4 Authenticity in Musical Performance 71

1 Introduction 71

2 Authenticity in the Arts 72

3 Three Notions of Historically Authentic Performance 74

5 Challenges to the Classical Paradigm in Music 87

1 Introduction: The Classical Paradigm in the Performing Arts 87

2 The Scope of the Paradigm in Classical Music 90

3 Jazz, Rock, and the Classical Paradigm 94

4 Non-Western Music and the Classical Paradigm 101

6 The Scope of the Classical Paradigm: Theater, Dance, and Literature 103

1 Introduction: Berthold and Magda Go to the Theater 103

2 Theatrical Performances and Performable Works 105

3 Challenges to the Classical Paradigm in Theater 112

4 Dance and the Classical Paradigm 120

5 The Novel as Performable Work? 128

Part Two Performance as Art 133

7 Performances as Artworks 135

1 Introduction: Spontaneous Performance in the Arts 135

2 The Artistic Status of Performances Outside the Classical Paradigm 138

3 The Artistic Status of Performances Within the Classical Paradigm 143

8 Elements of Performance I: Improvisation and Rehearsal 149

1 Introduction 149

2 The Nature of Improvisation 150

3 Improvisation and Performable Works: Three Models 154

4 Improvisation and Recording 160

5 The Place of Rehearsal in the Performing Arts 164

9 Elements of Performance II: Audience and Embodiment 172

1 Can There Be Artistic Performance Without an Audience? 172

2 Audience Response 181

3 The Embodied Performer and the Mirroring Receiver 189

10 Performance Art and the Performing Arts 200

1 Introduction 200

2 Some Puzzling Cases 201

3 What is Performance Art? 206

4 When Do Works of Performance Art Involve Artistic Performances? 209

5 Performance as Art: A Final Case 216

References 219

Index 226

"This is a remarkable and remarkably useful book, and for
much the same reason ... The other result is that professionals
in the philosophy of art will have to rise to the challenge. Davies
has set the bar very high." (Oxford Journals
Clippings, 4 May 2012)
"Philosophy of the Performing Arts is a careful and detailed study
in analytic philosophical aesthetics ... Summing Up: Highly
recommended. Graduate students through professional/practitioners."
(Choice, 1 January 2012)

"David Davies' Philosophy of the Performing Arts is a
long-awaited book. For not since Paul Thom's For an Audience
has a book in the Anglo-American philosophical tradition focused so
clearly, exclusively, informatively and fairly on all of the
performing arts. I will use David Davies' The Performing Arts in my
classes."

--James Hamilton, Kansas State University, author of
The Art of Theater

"In this outstanding philosophical study, David Davies subjects
the different, conflicting literatures characterizing works,
performances, and their relationships to critical review en route
to developing his own integrated theory. Covering classical music
to jazz, Shakespeare to Brecht, dance to performance art, this is
essential reading for anyone interested in the performing
arts."

--Stephen Davies, University of Auckland, author of
The Philosophy of Art