Czy rozumienie muzyki zależy od świadomego śledzenia struktur formalnych utworu? Jerrold Levinson i Peter Kivy wobec problemu doświadczenia muzycznego

Does musical understanding depend upon refl ective awareness of large-scale musical structure? Jerrold Levinson, in his brilliant book Music in the Moment, rejects this notion and defends the view that musical comprehension is fundamentally a matter of individual momentary impressions. In other words, understanding music is a matter of moment-by-moment absorption of individual bits of music. Levinson calls this perspective ‘concatenationism’. This perspective helps to defend music lovers who are passionate and attentive, yet structurally unconcerned. On the other hand, Peter Kivy, in his distinctively elegant style, defends the structuralist position, as it contributes a substantial part of the satisfaction derived from classical music. My aim in this article is to present the main strands of that passionate controversy between Kivy and Levinson.