"The key virtue of Michael Gallope’s book is that it articulates a framework within which the often dense and puzzling writings on music of four apparently very different philosophers can be seen as bearing productively on one another—as sharing thematic preoccupations, even as they disagree (sometimes radically) about the most illuminating ways of investigating them and about their ethical and political implications. Gallope achieves this by treating all four primarily as philosophers rather than as theorists of music and by relating them genealogically."

Stephen Mulhall, Professor of Philosophy, University of Oxford | Critical Inquiry

"Gallope’s aim is to show that there is a common thread running through four fabled music-philosophical projects of the twentieth century: those of Bloch, Adorno, Jankélévitch, and Deleuze/Guattari, which have seemed separated by profound divides between national traditions, and to take radically different stances towards the question of musical signification.  He shows that this view – espoused for decades – misleads us, and traces their shared perplexity, a fruitful befuddlement about music that represents their common ground.  As marvelous as Gallope’s explications are – and the realigning of twentieth-century music philosophy is extraordinary – his work here is also punctuated throughout with original speculation, and the result is one of the most important books on music philosophy to appear in decades."

Carolyn Abbate, Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor, Harvard University

"Writers on music often encounter the ineffable only to glance quickly off of it, launching a defensive salvo in retreat. In Deep Refrains, Michael Gallope moves in the opposite direction, meditating ever more intently on music’s aporias, which he maps in exhilarating philosophical detail. Eschewing polemic in favor of nimble argument and generous explanation, Gallope opens our ears to arresting sympathetic resonances between diverse thinkers—Schopenhauer, Bloch, Adorno, Wittgenstein, Jankélévitch, Deleuze and Guattari—all of whom have confronted music's potential to elude talk. Gallope deftly braids their insights to reveal a music at once deeper and more precise than we had known."

Steven Rings, Associate Professor of Music, University of Chicago

"Lucidly presented and penetratingly insightful, Deep Refrains reads the most important twentieth-century reflections on music’s ineffability – on the complex ways that music contributes to verbal conceptualization precisely by exceeding conventions of conceptual reasoning. Gallope’s compelling and highly intelligent interventions draw out the ramifications of musical material for contemporary thought, signaling music’s promise without neglecting its subtle perplexity: A resoundingly masterful accomplishment in every sense."

John T. Hamilton, William R. Kenan Professor of German and Comparative Literature, Harvard University

"In Deep Refrains: Music, Philosophy, and the Ineffable, Michael Gallope presents a comparative study of four philosophical projects wherein music has been not only the object but also the method of study."

Cultural Critique