My dissertation is concerned with two central issues: analysis of theory-practice gaps in aesthetic theories applied to avant-garde musics, and problems of visibility and respect in theorizing across cultures. In the first chapter, I examine a case study, John Coltrane's successive improvisations on "My Favorite Things," under two different theories in order to show how theories shape our view of the practices we are trying to explain. In the second chapter, I take up Coltrane's practices and their relations to theories once again but, in a reversal of the previous chapter's focus, I show how examining theories through practices can reveal these theory-practice gaps and problematic assumptions. I move, from there, to an analysis, informed by feminist standpoint epistemology, of the extent to which political values influence our theory choices and thus help construct our metaphysical views. Out of this discussion, my third chapter argues that attempts to universalize a culturally-situated notion of 'the musical work' (one drawn from Western classical music) do violence to works and artists situated in other cultural traditions. Thus I construct an alternative view of the musical work that I call 'contextualized nominalism' which has the merit of being sensitive to these issues of cultural situation. The fourth chapter explores connections between avant-garde jazz practices and oppositional politics which can be made visible when performances of works are accorded priority over composition. Here I construct a performative notion of community which, in addition to making the most sense of improvisational musical practices, can also be the ground of an 'ethos of improvisation' extendable into other social contexts. Finally I turn to the need for a pluralistic framework in aesthetic evaluation of polycultural artistic processes and products, through a critical examination of universal notions of aesthetic value. I argue, from this and all of the preceding chapters, that where we cross cultures, or mix them, in aesthetic evaluations, we must do so as respectful pluralists and within a pluralist framework.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.100665 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Nicholls, Tracey. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Philosophy.) |
| Rights | © Tracey Nicholls, 2005 |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002336611, proquestno: AAINR25221, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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