Book description
Cited by Soundpost as "remarkable and revolutionary" upon its
publication in 1977, Music, Society, Education has become a classic in
the study of music as a social force. Christopher Small sets out to
examine the social implications of Western classical music, effects that
until recently have been largely ignored or dismissed by most
musicologists. He strives to view the Western musical tradition
"through the mirror of these other musics [Balinese and African] as
it were from the outside, and in so doing to learn something of the
inner unspoken nature of Western culture as a whole."
As series co-editor Robert Walser writes, "By pointing to the
complicity of Western culture with Western imperialism, Small challenges
us to create a future that is more humane than the past. And by writing
a book that enables us to rethink so fundamentally our involvements with
music, he teaches us how we might get there." "[A] visionary
critique of classical music's industrial-capitalist apparatus . . .
Deeply thoughtful and broadly informed." --Robert Christgau,
Village Voice CHRISTOPHER SMALL was Senior Lecturer at Ealing College
of Higher Education I London until 1986. He is author of Music of the
Common Tongue (1987), Schoenberg (1978), and numerous essays and has
composed for the screen, stage, and orchestra. He lives in Sitges Spain.
