La Potenza della Musica: La Questione della dynamis tra Musica e Filosofia

This article examines the conceptual relationship between the notion of dynamics in music and the idea of dynamics as “power” and “potentiality” in metaphysics. What is implicit in both notions is the idea of “force”, as configured in a philosophical tradition from Aristotle to Nietzsche, Heidegger and Deleuze. It is no coincidence that the system of signs that, in music, indicates the intensity of sound, its strength and its expression, takes its name from this philosophical concept. What follows tries to understand in which sense the term dynamics, as a theory of force and potentiality, steps into the field of music. The Aristotelian concept of dynamis, Leibniz’s theory of vis activa and the Nietzschean “Will to Power” reveal their profound meaning when related to the specific dynamic ontology realized by music. Two contemporary musical examples, taken from flute works by Sciarrino and Hosokawa, show with particular evidence how to understand a metaphysical idea of musical dynamics.