Thinking on Music

• Main Author: Umut Yener Kara
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hacettepe University 2014-06-01
• Series: Momentdergi
• Subjects: müzik; duygular; ses; ontoloji; temsil
• Online Access: http://www.momentdergi.org/index.php/momentdergi/article/view/40

In this paper, i try to present and discuss some old and new questions concerning music. I start with the observation that despite its pervasiveness in almost all areas of human life, music remains an undertheorised and unpopular subject in social sciences and humanities. While i explore the reaasons for that neglect, i briefly discuss some of the answers given to the question “what is music?”. Afterwards i attempt to approach music from an ontological and metaphysical perspective. Following scholars like Bruno Latour, John Law and Friedrich Kittler, i argue that Western conceptions and preconceptions about the nature of reality are influenced by a technique of seeing invented in Renaissance painting called “linear perspective”. I conclude with some speculative and preliminary remarks on our modes of engagement with the world via hearing and music.