[Roger Knox]

... I think what you are speaking to is that music is an art form. The philosophical study of aesthetics is really at the heart of it.

It looks like the OP for this thread has been deleted. Anyway, your mention of (1) "music as an art form;" and of (2) "the philosophical study of aesthetics" caught my eye.

Re (1): it has been a concern for many including me that we so often miss the artistry in music in our TC discussions. Yet verbalizing our musical experiences is difficult. Over a lifetime of working in music, talk about musical artistry has come mostly in the form of side remarks, quotes, and occasional enlightening commentaries. Sporadic articles and books on music criticism sometimes directly address music as an art form, and sometimes don't. "Taste" isn't mentioned much anymore and superlatives with accompanying explication seem to be frowned upon, even in reference to compositions that we believe deserve them. As for (2): aesthetics -- philosophical or otherwise -- is seldom even surveyed in university music programs that I know of. Again, there are a few books that one can resort to, possibly more than I'm aware of. If anyone has comments or can recommend good sources, I'd be interested.

 

[Roger Knox]

The title is impossibly demanding and the OP is missing -- not a perfect thread! Anyway I'll just plunge forward.🏊‍♀️ There are short piano pieces that come close to perfection. Nevertheless I feel something more is needed. For big orchestral works the one that stands out is Beethoven's 3rd, the Eroica. It's an epic work maintains a high level, even for Beethoven, over four movements. Yet the details matter too, things that pique our attention. For example, the opening theme in E-Flay Major has a famous dip to the note D-Flat -- what my teacher called "where the unexpected becomes the inevitable." Beethoven often makes such impish moves. Not only does he wriggle out of this one successfully but it adumbrates harmonic events later in the movement. Perhaps we might call that delayed perfection.

 

[Roger Knox]

I don't know what others are referring to, but your first post is perfectly visible, even when I look at it in a different browser without logging in.

I see it now.