The Corded Shell: Reflections on Musical Expression, published in 1980 and now out of print, was concerned with the question of how music comes to have the emotional properties that have been perceived in it and ascribed to it since antiquity. In that book, Peter Kivy argued that music possesses expressive properties, not as powers to arouse emotions in us but, rather, as perceived qualities of the music itself. In Sound Sentiment, he augments his previous work with four entirely new chapters. Incorporating the complete, corrected text of The Corded Shell, Kivy brings his earlier arguments up to date in light of recent work in the field, and discusses and answers various criticisms.

Peter Kivy is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and Associate Editor of the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. He received the Deems Taylor Award of ASCAP for The Corded Shell.