Book Review: A.S. Klujev. The Summa of Music. Saint Petersburg: Aletheia, 2017

Abstract

The professional pianist and philosopher Alexandr Klujev’s book The Summa of Music is a fundamental work that sets a goal to comprehend the essence of music, to reveal the implicit that is “behind the notes,” that is little discussed but that defines the meaning of this art. The book presents Klujev’s concept of the philosophy of music and consists of his three works: “Music and life: on the place of Musical Art in the Developing World,” “The Ontology of Music” and “Music: A Path to the Absolute.” There is an Appendix to the book, which contains fragments from works on music by prominent authors of the 20th and 21st centuries: K.R. Eiges, N.O. Lossky, A.F. Loseva, T. Adorno, N. Hartmann, R. Ingarden, Schonberg and others. The opinions of these authors, on the one hand, confirm and, on the other hand, complement the ideas of A. Klujev. Therefore, the book’s author creates a kind of polylogue on music.