Music

Abstract

The Danish word is the same as the Older New Danish and is ultimately derived, via the Latin 'musica', from the Greek μουσική (short for μουσικὴ τέχνη), which in turn comes from the Greek word for muse. It is the art that consists in the arrangement of a series of tones in an ordered whole according to laws of rhythm, melody, and harmony, which is pleasing to the ear and serves to express or induce feelings or moods. Note that Kierkegaard used both "c" and "k" in his spelling of variants of the word. The term "music" occurs by far the most frequently in 'Either/Or', Part One, particularly in the essay, "The Immediate Erotic Stages Or The Musical-Erotic." This is also the only place in Kierkegaard's corpus devoted to an extended discussion of the concept of music. In the published works, the next most frequent occurrences of the term are in 'Stages on Life's Way', 'Either/Or', 'Part Two', 'The Moment', 'From the Papers of One Still Living', and 'The Concept of Irony'. The term is also scattered throughout the journals, notebooks, and papers.