Aesthetics Of Musical Embodiment On The Concept Of Music As Presence (Using Philippine Music Examples)

Abstract

This paper compares the aesthetics of three songs from two musical traditions (one from the indigenous Manobo community in non-Islamic Mindanao Island and two from urban popular songs). It argues that song is not merely a personal expression but a performance (song-act) that  indicates  concrete  "presence  effects"  of  relationships  to  a  material,  social  world.  This philosophy  of  music  aesthetics  departs  from  the  once  dominant  European  concept  of absolute music as form but on the not-so-recent studies on music embodiment or incarnation where song makes sense as a substantial act in social worlds.