Professional Music-Making in London

Ethnography and Experience

Häftad, Engelska, 2004

AvStephen Cottrell

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Professional Music-Making in London is an engaging yet innovative study which examines the lives and work of Western art musicians from an ethnographic perspective. Drawing in part on his own professional experience, Stephen Cottrell considers to what extent musicians in Western society conform to Alan Merriam's paradigmatic assessment of them as having low status yet high respect, as well as being given an unusual degree of licence to deviate from convention. The book draws on a wide variety of approaches from scholars elsewhere: from ethnomusicologists such as Bruno Nettl and Henry Kingsbury, performance theorists such as Richard Schechner and Victor Turner, as well as psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and Melanie Klein. This rich intellectual heritage provides the framework for discussion of a variety of themes, including how musicians conceive their self identity and how this is negotiated in the professional musical world; how the deputy system facilitates musical exchange and engenders gift relationships; how humour lubricates social and musical relationships and mitigates the stresses of musicians' lives; and how the events in which musicians participate can be viewed as quasi-rituals, and thus related to analogous events in non-Western cultures. The focus of this study is on professional music-making in London, one of the world's busiest centres of musical performance. Yet the issues raised and explored are deeply relevant to other major centres of Western art music, such as New York, Berlin or Sydney. Ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, musicologists, performers, teachers and concert-goers will find this book a stimulating insight into, and investigation of, Western art musicians and their place in today's world.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2004-11-02
Mått156 x 234 x 13 mm
Vikt430 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieSOAS Studies in Music
Antal sidor230
FörlagTaylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN9780754608899

Tillhör följande kategorier

Musikböcker inom Kultur
Antropologi inom Samhälle och politik

'This book is ethnomusicology at home. The author, a professional musician as well as an academic, offers a view of London's classical music concert life that uniquely combines inside knowledge and ethnographic observation; the result is an unusual book that will appeal to a wider than usual range of readers - from academics to professional musicians to lovers of viola jokes. The book is a significant contribution towards the development of a musicology of performance, and vividly illustrates the broadening of the discipline which this entails.' Nicholas Cook, Professor of Music, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. '... guaranteed to inspire debate.' Classical Music '... Cottrell [...] successfully illustrates how this professional infrastructure, though unique to London, in fact has bearing on performance studies in general.' Choice '... a fine illustration of ethnomusicology from the perspective of an insider... Cottrell's exploration of patterns of meaning and identity-formation among professional musicians in London constitutes a valuable contribution to scholarship.' Music Research Forum 'It is easy to identify with, and to appreciate, the many dilemmas of musical life so eloquently and accessibly narrated by Stephen Cottrell, who has assembled a rich body of original material into the enjoyable and thought-provoking read that only an insider could produce. This is an important work; it is probably a classic.' The London Journal 'The book will appeal to scholars in a range of disciplines, including music education, with a particular interest in the preparation of the performer for professional life, the roles and status of professional musicians in western society, and the system of values that permeates training and professional work... This book is an exemplar of combining insider knowledge with ethnographic observation and remains thought-provoking four years after its publication.' Music Education Research