After Debussy

Julian Johnson is Regius Professor of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London, having earlier been a Reader at the University of Oxford and Lecturer at the University of Sussex. He was for many years an active composer, receiving professional performances and broadcasts in Europe, the USA and Japan, a background that continues to shape his musicological work. He has published widely on music and musical aesthetics from the late 18th century to the present, with a particular focus on the cultural and historical significance of musical modernism. His work is always shaped by questions of musical meaning and value, evident in an engagement with the philosophy of music, ideas of nature and landscape, and the relation of music to literature and visual art. In addition to being a regular invited speaker at international academic conferences, Julian is committed to fostering a wider public understanding of music. For the last 25 years he has been a frequent guest on BBC Radio and given numerouspublic talks for leading orchestras and opera companies. In 2005 he was awarded the Dent Medal of the Royal Musical Association and, in 2013, became the first holder of the Regius Chair of Music at Royal Holloway. In 2017 he was elected to a Fellowship of the British Academy.

• Prologue: Music and Language Music, Logos, MusicologyAfter Debussy The margins of philosophy Part I: Saying Nothing 1. SirènesWordless voicesShipwreck and abyssConstellation 2. Mélisande and the silence of musicFraming nothingOrchestral voicesBeing mute 3. Mallarmé and the edge of languageBreathingFold upon foldEmpty words Part II: Appearing 4. Coming to presence Apparition Present absence Evanescence 5. MirrorsReflectionThreshold Echo 6. Taking place Listening to landscape Le jardin clos: dwelling in music Landscapes without figures Part III: Touching 7. The art of touchDebussy at the pianoBathersTowards an erotics of music 8. Writing the bodyL'écriture musicaleImaginary bodiesThe philosopher's body 9. Thinking in soundThe play of the sensibleThe grammar of dreamsMusic as knowing Epilogue: Being musicalAfter wordsBefore words The margins of music Bibliography Guide to discussion of individual works

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