Can Music Really Do That? Reflections on Musical Profundity

The idea that music can express emotion has been of central concern for philosophers of music for quite a few years. We all recognize that music expresses emotion. Music might sound joyous. It might sound sad. It might sound vengeful. But how is it able to do so? After all, it's just an arrangement of sounds that we hear, often—in today’s world—in the absence of a performer. Just as mysterious, if not more so, than the musical expression of emotion is music’s claim to profundity. This talk presents some reflections on how we might come to understand the nature of musical profundity and why it is that music might affect and move us so deeply and intently.

Ian Heckman is a PhD student studying philosophy at UBC. His primary research interests focus on the philosophy of the performing arts, with a special focus on dance. His dissertation research aims at understanding how we can come to understand and appreciate bodily movement in the context of the performing arts. In addition to his background in philosophy, he has extensive training as a dancer and choreographer with undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance. He has presented his philosophical work at several conferences of the American Society for Aesthetics as well as numerous other venues. He is also the author of Evoking the Sublime through Dance: Embodiment, Music, and the Profound.