Preface; Introduction; PART I: I. Mattheson as philosopher of art; II. Mainwaring's Handel: its relation to English aesthetics; III. Charles Burney, music critic; IV. Kant and the Affektenlehre: what he said, and what I wish he had said; V. Mozart and monotheism: an essay in spurious aesthetics; VI. Child Mozart as an aesthetic symbol; VII. Something I've always wanted to know about Hanslick; VIII. What was Hanslick denying?; IX. Charles Darwin on music; X. Herbert Spencer and a musical dispute; PART II: XI. The fine art of repetition; XII. Platonism in music: a kind of defense; XIII. Platonism in music: another kind of defense; XIV. Orchestrating platonism; XV. Opera talk: a philosophical 'phantasie'; XVI. How did Mozart do it?: living conditions in the world of opera; XVII. How did Mozart do it?: Replies to my critics; XVIII. Live performances and dead composers: on the ethics of musical interpretation; XIX. On the concept of the 'historically authentic' performance; XX. Paul Robinson's Opera and Ideas; XXI. From ideology to music: Leonard Meyer's theory of style change; XXII. Music and liberal education; XXIII. A new music criticism?; XXIV. Is music an art?

"...it is precisely the breadth of this display that recommends The Fine Art of Repetition as among the handful of most important books in recent years on the philosophy of music....The pleasure of reading this variety of Kivy lies not just in the refined wit and eloquence of the formulations he offers but in attending to his pleasure and astonishment at how even the most minute or seemingly mundane questions regarding the nature of music and musical experience lead--it seems inevitably--to some of the most central and constitutive features of human life....The Fine Art of Repetition will be read with profit and pleasure by students and experts alike in music theory and aesthetics." Thomas Huhn, Canadian Philosophical Review

This collection of essays from Peter Kivy span a period of some thirty years and focus on a richly diverse set of issues providing an enjoyable and insightful introduction to the philosophy of art and music.