Expanding the Sociological Horizon: Music, Meaning, and Matter

John Mirsky, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

This paper reviews historical and contemporary literature in the fields of the sociology of music and "new" musicology (an approach combining cultural sociology and musicology, stemming from the 1980s and continuing until the present) in the light of the present political context, revisiting the following afresh: what does music play in enacting social change? Empirically, the paper takes as data interviews and ethnographic observations from two classical music conservatories in the United States. This paper proposes a more extensive dialogue between sociological and musicological perspectives on the relationship between music-making and social change, centering on Production/Consumption paradigms within sociology and "new" musicology within musicology. I argue that both subfields have much to add to the conversation, especially when used in tandem. What is added by the musical literature is specificity—attention to musical notation and specific musical practices. What is added by sociological scholarship is a focus on causal mechanisms.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 113. Aesthetics and Politics