The Distance of Presque-rien Between the Musicology and the Philosophy of Music

Abstract

When discussing the topic of music and philosophy as a musicologist, we cross a threshold and take another direction. Limited by a musicological perspective, we are often tempted to have a reductionist attitude, leaning towards synthesis and simplification. Crossing this threshold to reach the philosophy of music, we head for the quest of the nature of the work and of our own musical experience, in which explanations not only do not reduce the thought, but may continue, at least theoretically, to infinity. This impulse however is very quickly stopped by the unprovable, the unspeakable or, according to French philosopher Vladimir Jankélévitch, by “something that does not exist and yet is the most important thing of all the important things, the only one that is worth saying and the only one that in fact we can’t say!” The philosophy of music allows us to seek this Presque-rien which precisely separates musicology from the philosophy of music, and which immerses us in the search for the deeper meaning of the work. Faced with which we are like Giacinto Scelsi at his piano, stubbornly hitting a key and waiting for the quintessence of its essence or the meaning of meaning to appear. Musicology, by saying Presque-tout, can never cross the threshold of this Presque-rien which is missing in the ultimate understanding of a work, can never elucidate the mystery, the Charm which emanates from a musical work and which, in fact, affects us first. Vladimir Jankélévitch himself, who was both a practitioner of music and a philosopher, has followed through his writings, the path between the grammarian and the philosopher, in other words, has covered this long distance of Presque-rien.