Christian Kock publishes book on the aesthetic experience of music

Christian Kock, emeritus professor of rhetoric, has just published the book Lyt langsomt: Musikoplevelse er livskvalitet (“Listen slowly: Experiencing Music is Quality of Life”).

The book is the result of a long collaborative effort by Christian Kock and his daughter Julie, a classical cellist. Its website, lytlangsomt.dk, is open and can be accessed by anyone for free. There, Julie performs J.S. Bach’s Cello suites nos. 1 and 5, of which the book performs a close reading, applying a rhetorical and aesthetic optic. The listener, while listening, will see the musical notes pass across the screen (“score animation”), and interpretive comments pop up when one hears the passages they refer to. This is an innovative technique in music popularization. The purpose is to promulgate and intensify the joy and the experienced quality of life that listeners may derive from great music—a sustainable joy, as the book emphasizes.

The publisher’s announcement allows those interested to buy the book at a reduced price by clicking the button ”Køb hos Academic books”.