Since around 1900, composers of classical music have mined philosophical texts for compositional material: in other words, they have “composed philosophy.” Starting with musical adaptations of Friedrich Nietzsche’s works, compositions that set texts taken from philosophical works, use operatic librettos on philosophers’ lives, or include a philosophical program have become increasingly common. Yet scholarship has produced a limited view of the practice, primarily due to the tendency in historical musicology to heavily privilege the works of canonical composers. The project “Composing Philosophy” offers a novel view of these approaches to musical composition as something done from the standpoint of philosophical amateurism—engaging deeply with philosophy while being inexpert in it—irrespective of whether composers are students, canonical figures, or something in between. By looking at the larger practice of “composing philosophy” through the lens of philosophical amateurism, we can gain insight into how this seemingly esoteric practice intersects with more popularizing concepts of philosophy, the ways in which music can complicate and transform how philosophical source material is heard or understood, and the reasons that the practice has become an increasingly common preoccupation for composers. 

The primary investigator for this project, Jennifer Ronyak, has conducted research so far at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz, as well as at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Music from 2021-2022 with the support of a European Fellowship from the Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions of the European Commission, Horizon 2020 program (Project COMPHIL, no. 101020153).