Aesthetic properties

Obviously, an aesthetic property can be ascribed to a musical work as a whole, to a more or less distinct part of it (for example, a passage, movement, or theme), or to a performance of the work. In the philosophical literature, many questions have been raised regarding the nature, reality, and attribution of aesthetic properties. To mention but a few: What distinguishes aesthetic properties from other kinds of properties? Do such properties exist? Are there objective grounds for attributing them to a work? In what follows, however, the focus will be on questions that concern specifically the aesthetic properties of music. In particular: What determines whether a musical piece has a certain aesthetic property? Is music capable of having emotional properties such as sadness? Are there aesthetic properties that music is incapable of having? These questions will be taken in turn in the following three sections.