Roman Ingarden’s Problems with Avant-garde Music

Roman Ingarden’s theory of the musical work is usually criticized for not being able to handle the problems of avant-garde music. The most important reason for this criticism is its dependence on the musical score and, generally, on the conventions of pre-twentieth century European classical music. In my article I offer a revision of Ingarden’s theory, which on the one hand leaves its substantial arguments intact and on the other allows the theory to tackle the problem of avant-garde music successfully. I ultimately hope to demonstrate that this revised theory is suitable for dealing with the problem, and can yield fruit when applied.