Bøker av Paul Thom

In Opera as Art: Philosophical Sketches, Paul Thom argues for opera as an art, standing alongside other artforms that employ visual and sonic media to embody the great themes of human life. Thom contends that in great operatic art, the narrative and expressive content collaborate with the works aesthetic qualities towards achieving this aim. This argument can be extended to modern operatic productions. At their best, these stagings are works of art in themselves, whether they give faithful renditions of the operas they stage and whether their aims go beyond interpretation to commentary and critique. This book is a philosophical introduction to the key practices that comprise the world of opera: the making of the work; its interpretation by directors, critics, and spectators; and the making of an operatic production. Opera has always existed in a context of philosophical ideas, and this book is written for opera-lovers who would like to learn something about that philosophical context.

Among the many practices in which musicians engage are several that may be viewed as modes of interpretation, a kind of interpretation that the author calls "performative". This book aims at making the case for understanding these activities of transcribing, varying, and realizing music as all forms of interpretation.

Critics and artists claim the title of interpreter for themselves. Scientists do not so readily describe themselves in this way. This text recognizes that whenever interpretation occurs there may be a plurality of successful interpretations.

Recounts the remarkable history of efforts by significant medieval thinkers to accommodate the ontology of the Trinity within the framework of Aristotelian logic and ontology