Sing me a new song: A philosophic examination of music and power

Philosophical texts that include music as discursive elements can be re-understood as attempts to utilize music in various metaphoric and symbolic ways while dealing with power and discourse. This understanding results in a stronger awareness of the special, if largely unrecognized, position that music has in philosophy. Throughout, power describes a number of different relationships, primarily rhetorical or political domination. I examine music and power in ancient Greek philosophy (Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle), in Friedrich Nietzsche's writings, and finally in the birth of jazz in America. The examination of jazz; is not only theoretical but also displays the underlying rhetorical and political power structures in jazz as seen in John Coltrane's "My Favourite Things" and George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." The primary struggle in each examination is the power struggle between what music is and what music does. These power struggles are originally rhetorical struggles, but often involve political overtones.