Cursed questions : on music and its social practices /

"Drawn largely from keynote addresses presented at conferences all over the world, and informed by the experience of writing the Oxford History of Western Music, this book considers the perennial, insoluble yet unevadable problems that musical scholarship must address, among them: musical ontology, musical representation, the determination of musical meaning, the objectives of musical historiography, the ethics of musical performance and criticism, musical periodization, the question of aesthetic autonomy, the social impact of art and the need to control it, the proper source of that control, the relationship of art (and art scholarship) to its temporal and geographical environments, the desirability of historical performance practices, the value and purpose of musical analysis, the origin and value of musical traditions, the purposes and effects of the social dissemination of music. As suggested by the subtitle, the thrust is consistently anti-essentialist. Meaning and value are at all times seen in relational terms, as aspects of social transaction"--"Roth Family Foundation Imprint in Music"Includes bibliographical references and index.Introduction -- The history of what? -- Did somebody say censorship? -- Haydn and the Enlightenment? -- Is there a baby in the bathwater? : on aesthetic autonomy -- Shall we change the subject? : a music historian refects -- "Alte Musik" or "early music?" : on performance -- Nicht blutbefleckt? -- What else? : on musical representation -- Unanalyzable, is it? -- Essence or context? : on musical ontology (2016) -- But aren't they all invented? : on tradition (2017) -- Which way is up? : on the sociology of taste -- A walking translation? : on musicology east and west."Drawn largely from keynote addresses presented at conferences all over the world, and informed by the experience of writing the Oxford History of Western Music, this book considers the perennial, insoluble yet unevadable problems that musical scholarship must address, among them: musical ontology, musical representation, the determination of musical meaning, the objectives of musical historiography, the ethics of musical performance and criticism, musical periodization, the question of aesthetic autonomy, the social impact of art and the need to control it, the proper source of that control, the relationship of art (and art scholarship) to its temporal and geographical environments, the desirability of historical performance practices, the value and purpose of musical analysis, the origin and value of musical traditions, the purposes and effects of the social dissemination of music. As suggested by the subtitle, the thrust is consistently anti-essentialist. Meaning and value are at all times seen in relational terms, as aspects of social transaction"-