Absolute Music, Mechanical Reproduction
1st Edition
Published on 7. June 2010
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-0-520-26479-3 (ISBN)
Description
Recordings are now the primary way we hear classical music, especially the more abstract styles of 'absolute' instrumental music. In this original, provocative book, Arved Ashby argues that recording technology has transformed our understanding of art music. Contesting the laments of nostalgic critics, Ashby sees recordings as socially progressive and instruments of a musical vernacular, but also finds that recording and absolute music actually involve similar notions of removing sound from context. He takes stock of technology's impact on classical music, addressing the questions at the heart of the issue. This erudite yet concise study reveals how mechanical reproduction has transformed classical musical culture and the very act of listening, breaking down aesthetic and generational barriers and mixing classical music into the soundtrack of everyday life.
Reviews / Votes
"In Ashby's refreshing reading, [recordings' displacement of composers' texts] is neither a doomsday moment nor bland techno-utopianism: it's a chance to re-engage with classical music in the vernacular." Times Literary Supplement 20101015 "Ashby raises crucial and often agonising issues for those who care about the marginalisation of classical music." The Wire 20101201 "This formidable work of scholarship ... has the capacity dramatically to change thinking." -- Andrew Green Classical Music Magazine 20100703 "Ashby really stakes out the place of instrumental art music in a digital world, never backing away from hard questions that make us examine the very nature of musical performance itself." Journal Aesthetics & Art Criticism 20110815 "Compelling, insightful, [and] occasionally head-spinning... [Ashby's] move between philosophy and cultural history is deft... Immensely useful." -- Gustavus Stadler CRITICISM 20121120More details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
11 b-w photographs, 3 music examples
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
590 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-26479-3 (9780520264793)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Arved Ashby
Absolute Music, Mechanical Reproduction
E-Book
06/2010
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€34.49
Available for download
Person
Arved Ashby is Professor of Music at the Ohio State University. He is the editor of The Pleasure of Modernist Music, and has published articles on twelve-tone composition, film music, minimalism, and Frank Zappa. He was an American Musicological Society (AMS) 50 Dissertation Fellow, and won the AMS Alfred Einstein Award in 1996.