The Musician as Interpreter

“Paul Thom’s latest book is a valuable and illuminating contribution to the philosophy of music. It focuses on a number of musical activities not often accorded sufficient attention by philosophers, such as the transcribing of works, the writing of variations, and the annotating of scores. Thom makes a persuasive case that activities of that sort, and even more so, that of musical performing, are modes of musical interpretation, and thus that musical interpretation is hardly the province of criticism alone, being instead something that pervades musical practice.” —Jerrold Levinson, University of Maryland

“Written like a musical score, in a clear prose style, the book states its theme early, displays variations of the theme in chapters devoted to the three main forms of performative interpretation, and recapitulates that theme in a final chapter titled 'Interpretation." Deeply informed by the author’s knowledge of music, the history of music, and theory, this volume is generously illustrated with examples of musical scores.” —J.M. Carvalho, Choice