Abstract

This is a review of antiformalism, humanism, subjective idealism and irrationalism developed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These trends had a significant influence on the development of the sociological views about music in particular, and about the arts in general. They influenced also the artistic practice and contributed to the appearance of the romantic ideology, thus preparing the ground for developments that appeared during the twentieth century in the fields of the arts and culture in general, and specifically in music. This study traces from a systematic and historical perspective the methodological foundations of some fields in contemporary sociology (like the sociology of music and the sociology of the arts).