Classical Music and Postmodern Knowledge"In this pathbreaking new book, Lawrence Kramer extends the theoretical and scholarly frontiers of musicology with every chapter, each of which explores a different case study in depth. In short, [he] demonstrates repeatedly that classical music is a far more significant force in history than its champions (who want music to transcend 'mere' social formations) usually allow."—Susan McClary, author of Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality "Kramer continues his project to steer the criticism of Western art music onto the paths of contemporary intellectual discourse. No one is better equipped for the task: Kramer's range is extraordinary, his scholarship impeccable, his arguments incisive. But above all, his values are humane. He cares passionately about this precious musical heritage, and his commitment can be felt on every page, including the dazzling performative and postmodern epilogue."—Walter Frisch, author of The Early Works of Arnold Schoenberg, 1893-1908 "This book will (I hope) be one of the foundational moments of a thriving and much-needed discourse. Kramer demonstrates the power to interpret that comes with fully integrating up-to-date critical literary theory with musical analysis. The risks he takes are absolutely necessary to our discipline if it is not, along with the music it professes to enshrine, to fade away into total cultural irrelevance and oblivion. Those scholars to whom postmodernism is a liberating and not a frightening concept will welcome this book with uncommon interest."—Robert Fink, founding editor of Repercussions: Critical and Alternative Viewpoints on Music and Scholarship |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Allegro autonomous artwork Bach becomes Beethoven Berkeley Calm Sea Carl Dahlhaus Charles Ives chord chorus cinders classical concept Concord Sonata creation cadence cresc critical critique Dahlhaus Daphnis and Chloe democratic social space Derrida discourse dominant Donna Haraway dynamism Elvis energy essay Example exotic Felix Mendelssohn feminine figure flute gender Goethe Goethe's harmony Haydn's Chaos hear hermeneutic heterogeneity ideal ideological imaginary immediacy Jacques Derrida Joseph Kerman knowledge language Lawrence Kramer Liebende schreibt listener logic of alterity major masculine Maurice Ravel means melody Mendelssohn metaphor modern modernist motive movement Music as Cultural musicology muß narrative normative Orchestral pedal performance phrase pleasure poem position postmodernism postmodernist Ravel recapitulation Representation of Chaos rhetoric semiotic sense sexual signifying singer Slavoj Žižek solo Sonata song sonority sound structure sublime suggests Suleika Susan McClary symbolic Symphony tempo texture theme tion tonic trans tutelage voice Wagner York