Music and its Social Significance Flashcards
Merriam, Alan P. 1964. The anthropology of music. Evanston, IL: Northwestern Univ. Press.
Functionalist-inspired argument that highlights the coherence of musical values, behavior, and concepts, making a definitive argument for
the analysis of music as culture. Based on field research among the Basongye of Central Africa. (More about musical values, behavior, concepts than STRUCTURE —> that’s Blacking)
Shepherd, John. 1991. Music as social text. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Thinking especially about popular music in hegemonic contexts, Shepherd’s series of essays first debunk approaches that dismiss music’s “meaning” as social, and then offer interpretations of music that recognize power asymmetries, subjectivity, and affect as productive of music’s social significance.
Small, Christopher. 1996. Music, society, education. Hanover, NH: Univ. Press of New England.
Small’s most widely cited text argues for focusing on music as an activity rather than a commodity. Originally published in 1977. He updates
his position in Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening (Hanover, NH: Univ. Press of New England, 2008).
Turino, Thomas. 2008. Music as social life: The politics of participation. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
Applying Peirceian semiotics, and inspired by Bourdieu, Turino argues for the social significance of participatory musical experience, considering live and mediated listening. The pleasures of musical engagement as well as the political stakes that hinge on musical participation in social movements are discussed.
Blacking, John. 1973. How musical is man? Seattle: Univ. of Washington Press.
A polemic in which Blacking, influenced by his teacher Meyer Fortes and the structuralism of Levi-Strauss, and having conducted field research about Venda Tshikona performance in South Africa, argues for an underlying similarity in musical (harmonic-rhythmic) systems in different societies.
DeNora, Tia. 2000. Music in everyday life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
A consideration of music as affective, embodied, and communal on the basis of a study of music in contemporary cosmopolitan Britain, emphasizing classical music and pop scenes. The role of music in constructing a self is the starting point for the analysis of the social. Draws on Theodor Adorno, British cultural studies, and the sociology of art as exemplified by the work of Howard Becker.
Lomax, Alan. 1968. Folk song style and culture. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The most comprehensive presentation of Lomax’s Cantometrics project. Using a limited number of musical examples and the Human Relations Area Files, Lomax argues that a positively sloped statistical correlation exists between aspects of musical expression such as vocal timbre, complexity of textual material, and ensemble forms, on the one hand, and techno-environmental developmental stages such as “hunter-gatherer,” on the other.
Schafer, R. Murray. 1994. The soundscape: Our sonic environment and the tuning of the world. Rochester, VT: Destiny.
A foundational text for Sound Studies by the Canadian electroacoustic composer who laments the incursion of noise pollution into the everyday auditory field. Schafer provides useful terminology and listening exercises for describing and developing greater attunement to one’s auditory environment. Originally published in 1977.
