Looking Back at Ourselves: The Problem with the Musical Work-Concept

Abstract

This chapter examines the problem with the musical work-concept and considers precedents in Renaissance music for both work-status and the work-concept. It looks at the history of the debate over the nature of the musical work and the existence (or not) of a watershed in music history during the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. It argues that the work is a robust, long-established concept within Western art music. The chapter also discusses Lydia Goehr's history of the work-concept, which implies the confusion of philosophical aesthetics with historiography, as well as alternative narratives of musical work, such as Michael Talbot's account.

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