Music and cultural theory

Bibliographic Information

Music and cultural theory

John Shepherd and Peter Wicke

Polity Press , Blackwell Publishers, 1997

  • : pbk

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Bibliography: p. [218]-224

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

In this book Shepherd and Wicke make a bold and original contribution to the understanding of music as a form of human expression. They argue that music is fundamental to social life. Music is not merely a form of leisure or entertainment: it is central to the very formation and reproduction of human societies.The authors pursue this argument through a wide-ranging assessment of some of the major cultural theoretical contributions to understanding music. Theories of culture, linguistic theories, structuralist and post-structuralist theories and psychoanalytic theories of music are carefully explained and critically examined. The authors then develop their own account of music as a non-referential yet material form of human expression which embodies and conveys principles of symbolic structuring. They emphasize the human body as a principal site for the musical mediation of social and symbolic processes.Music and Cultural Theory establishes new links between musicology and cultural studies, showing how each discipline can inform and enrich the other. It will be recommended reading for students and professionals in musicology, media and communication studies, cultural studies and the sociology of culture.

Table of Contents

Preface. Introduction. 1. The Problem of Affect and Meaning in Music. 2. Music and Cultural Theory. 3. Music and Psychoanalysis. 4. Theorizing Difference in Language and Music. 5. Music as a Medium in Sound. 6. Music as Structure. 7. Music's Semiological Moment. 8. Music - a Performative Semiological Model. 9. Music and Language in the Constitution of Society. 10. Towards a Sociology of Sound. Bibliography. Index.

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