Theoretically Informed Listening
Mark DeBellis · 1993
Abstract It is the difference between Mrs Munt and Tibby that interests me, and with which this chapter will be concerned. Why should we, finding ourselves in the position of Mrs Munt, aspire to that of Tibby? What are the benefits to a listener of having a technical knowledge of music? It is of course a basic premiss of the programme of aesthetic education behind music appreciation classes that this sort of progress is worthwhile, but how and why is it so? This chapter will be concerned in particular with the cast on these issues rendered by recent discussions of the explanatory status of music theory. In recent years there has been revived debate over the nature of theory, its claim to being a scientific enterprise, and its role in shaping musical activity and experience. In my view these discussions have tended to polarize the functions of theory as explanatory on the one hand and as contributing to the listening experience on the other, and laid insufficient stress on the way those functions interact. I shall argue here that the value of hearing music in theoretical terms sometimes derives from their explanatory potential, and shall describe one way in which this can occur.