Course: Philosophy and Aesthetics of Music credits: 2

In the musical discourse there is no lack of personal (and often strong) opinions.
Opinions are freely expressed about music itself, performances, performers, composers and so on. Often these opinions take the form of (subjective) judgement and criticism.
Judging and assessing is of course unavoidable for example in the case of competitions and/or auditions. Also numerous recordings and performances are reviewed in papers, journals and on the internet. The giving of "stars" (1-5) is nowadays a current technique of giving a mark. No underpinning, reasoning or argumentation required. If we think we have to form an opinion about music and related aspects, we should be aware of the fundaments on which we build our opinions. If we are not aware of those fundaments we should start searching for them. If you think you don't need those fundaments because you are convinced of your personal pure and exquisite taste and intuition, PLEASE stay away from this elective...  thank you.