How Music Works
An Aesthetic Framework
Reconciling Form and Content
Henrik Kilhamn
A substantial text that brings together important ideas and concepts in music philosophy and theory into a coherent framework, with the ambition to spread them to a wider public.
The text is available as an E-book (PDF) on Gumroad e-commerce platform: https://sonatasecrets.gumroad.com/l/howmusicworks
In order to give the ideas as much reach as possible, the whole text is also available on this site in text form (and rudimentary formatting). However, if you enjoy reading it, consider purchase the PDF product on Gumroad to support Sonata Secrets.
Navigate by clicking on the chapters in the Content index below.
Contents
3. Identifying Music’s Intrinsic Properties
4. Four Levels: The Stairs of Emergence
5. The Constituent Level: Basic and Emergent Dimensions
6. The Perceptual Level: Musical Units
7. Valence along the Dimensions: Expression
9. Emotional Responses: Arousal Mechanisms
10. The Structural Level: Patterns, Generic and Conventional Structure
11. Valence of Structure: Narrative
12. The Musical-Contextual Level: Genre and Style
13. The Extra-Musical-Contextual Level: Program as Experience Booster
14. Analysis as an Epistemological Tool: An Informed Position
