Abstract

The philosophy of the French philosopher, playwright and critic Gabriel Marcel had a profound impact on twentieth-century thought. His philosophical work is well known, as well as the constant references that appear in it to music. What remains little known are Marcel's musical talent, his musical compositions, and the large body of music criticism and essays on music that he wrote during his career. The present dissertation represents a study of Marcel's musical writings in the context of his philosophical and dramatic work, in an elucidation of a Marcellian conception of musical meaning. ;Although Marcel never explicitly formed an aesthetics of music nor a theory of musical meaning, he did suggest some lines of research to be followed in approaching the question. The present study takes up these suggestions: an examination of the problem of knowledge; substitution of the idea of "revelation" for that of "production" when speaking of creation; conceiving the vocation of the musician as the revelation of values; and concentration on the greatest musical works, which give us access to truth. These topics are placed in the context of Marcel's philosophical work, following an examination of his conceptions of the human being and of meaning, and his discussion of music. Philosophical themes examined are the ontological exigence for transcendence, participation and presence, spiritual reality and freedom, disponibilite, creative fidelity, and the unverifiable and testimony. ;In a Marcellian conception of musical meaning, music is truth-bearing as signum signans, not signum signatum. Truth is revealed in the profound musical idea, a clarifying presence that gathers and structures our experience; and in the musician who, as witness, incarnates it. Music is testimony because it incarnates values, or mirrors of inexhaustible plenitude, which rule out absurdity by orienting our existence, giving it meaning through our engagement in a supra-rational world that surpasses all that is temporary and unfulfilled in our human existence. ;Marcel's conception is critically compared to theories of meaning in music of Hanslick, Coker, Pratt, Langer, Sessions, Geiger, and Heidegger. The Marcellian conception is operationalized through an exploration of its implications for composition, performance, and audition