Kivy on Musical Genius

摘要

Peter Kivy argues that Handel was the frst composer to be regarded as a genius and that only in the neighteenth century was the philosophical apparatus in place that would enable any composer to be nconceived of as a musical genius. According to Kivy, a Longinian conception of genius transformed nHandel into a genius. A Platonic conception of genius was used to classify Mozart as a genius. Then nKant adopted a Longinian conception of genius and this shaped the perception of Beethoven. Kivy is nwrong on all counts. Composers were thought to be geniuses long before Handel. The emergence of nphilosophical aesthetics in the eighteenth century did little to shape conceptions of musical genius. nMore specifcally, Kivy misrepresents Kant’s conception of genius and the role that it plays in the nrecognition of Beethoven as a musical genius.