What is music, and why does it move us? From Pythagoras to the present, writers have struggled to isolate the essence of "pure" or "absolute" music in ways that also account for its profound effect. In Absolute Music: The History of an Idea, Mark Evan Bonds traces the history of these efforts across more than two millennia, paying special attention to the relationship between music's essence and its qualities of form, expression, beauty, autonomy, as well as its perceived capacity to disclose ph...

•  Introduction 7
•  Part One
•  Essence as Effect: To 1550 23
•  1. Orpheus and Pythagoras 23
•  2. Isomorphic Resonance 30
•  Part Two
•  Essence and Effect: 1550-1850 39
•  3. Expression 41
•  The Separation of Powers 41
•  Music and Language 48
•  Music as Language 58
•  Mimesis 69
•  4. Beauty 79
•  5. Form 90
•  Form as Number 91
•  Form as Content 98
•  6. Autonomy 103
•  Material Au...