This is a past event
Björn Heile (University of Glasgow) will give the paper, Integrative Music History: Rethinking Music since 1900.
Integrative Music History: Rethinking Music since 1900
The concept of 'music' in Higher Education Institutions in the UK has changed beyond recognition in a comparatively short space of time. Where not so long ago the western classical canon reigned supreme, students can now study and practise a great variety of styles, genres and cultures. For the most part, however, this apparent diversity has not been accompanied by a reconsideration of the idea of musical culture as a whole. For instance, in most institutions Twentieth-century Music (read: 'Twentieth-century Western Classical Music') is taught separately from Popular Music or Jazz. This neat compartmentalisation into different styles, genres, traditions and cultures conflicts with what, in the wake of Petersen and Simkus, one may want to describe as the increasing omnivorousness not only of students but also staff. In my contribution, I will try to think through and beyond traditional boundaries to arrive at a more holistic understanding of musical culture predicated on the co-existence of and interdependence between different musical cultures. This is not to deny the continuing importance of distinct traditions at least in terms of musical language, but to suggest that these stylistic distinctions do not necessarily correspond to analogous differences in terms of their respective social functions. Indeed, it is my argument that, at least in the twentieth century, different musical traditions often respond to the same historical developments – for instance, the increasing impact of recording technology – but that they do so in different ways. Following Huyssen's proposition that the alienating effect of modernist art should be seen as a response to the 'encroachment' of popular mass culture, it could furthermore be argued that stylistic divergences, however extreme they may appear to be, are actually caused by the inter-relatedness of different musical traditions, rather than their separation. The concept of integrative music history will be illustrated with two case studies, the first comparing the responses of jazz and classical musicians to the introduction of recording and broadcasting and the second studying the impact of the student revolts of 1968 on different musical genres, styles and traditions.
- Speaker
- Björn Heile
- Venue
- King's College, KCF22