A defense of immanent realism in the ontology of musical works
BORIS DOI
Abstract
This dissertation investigates the ontology of musical works. Its main aim is to determine what musical works are and whether a unified account of musical works is achievable across different musical practices, such as works written for interpretation, improvisations, and recordings. Against pluralist approaches according to which musical works have different natures depending on the practices in which they occur, I argue for an unified ontological account of musical works as immanent universals.
On this view, musical works are immanent entities: they cannot exist without being instantiated and can only be formally separated from their instances. The type-token distinction is used as a theoretical tool to distinguish musical works from their performances, recordings, or realizations. A central implication of this account is that there are no unperformed musical works: a musical work does not come into existence merely when a score is written, but only when it is first performed.
The dissertation also develops an account of the identity conditions of musical works. I argue that, although musical works share the same ontological category across different practices, their identity conditions vary according to the rules and conventions governing each practice. The result is a unified but practice-sensitive ontology of musical works.
On this view, musical works are immanent entities: they cannot exist without being instantiated and can only be formally separated from their instances. The type-token distinction is used as a theoretical tool to distinguish musical works from their performances, recordings, or realizations. A central implication of this account is that there are no unperformed musical works: a musical work does not come into existence merely when a score is written, but only when it is first performed.
The dissertation also develops an account of the identity conditions of musical works. I argue that, although musical works share the same ontological category across different practices, their identity conditions vary according to the rules and conventions governing each practice. The result is a unified but practice-sensitive ontology of musical works.
Date of Publication
2026
Year of graduation
2019
Theses Type
dissertation
Subject(s)
Keyword(s)
ontology of music
•
musical works
•
philosophy of music
•
improvisation
•
recordings
•
musical practices
Language(s)
en
Author(s)
Colas, Annabel |
Faculty/Graduate School
Institute
Access(Rights)
open.access
Primary OA Publication
true