Introduction

This chapter presents the disciplinary debates and terms of reference informing this exploration of music making in which sampling practices play a fundamental role. It maps out the theoretical and methodological terrain that informs the “close listening” approach to analyzing these works in light of a burgeoning interest from across the spectrum of academic research and music journalism in the interrelationship between music and politics—however these two domains may be defined. Developing earlier work addressing debates about when, and how music and politics may mutually inform one another, this chapter presents the socio-musicological and interdisciplinary approach to examining how this relationship “sounds” in five case studies. The objective is to provide a more refined conceptual lexicon and analytical framework so that reader-listeners can listen to, and so “hear” the respective ‘musicking politics” at stake in each case, and do so in ways that go beyond focusing on lyrical content alone or requiring an advanced level of musical knowledge. This opening chapter and the conclusion (Chapter 7) work together in either direction.

Facing the music: Stereotyping of and by women in US music journalism

This study updates and expands the application of stereotyping and professional socialization to music journalism in a way that is generalizable to the United States music journalism industry, and seeks to understand the role women journalists play in counteracting or perpetuating stereotyping of women musicians. A content analysis of 936 articles finds significant stereotyping of women musicians in major US music publications during 2016. The stories, randomly sampled from eight top US publications, were predominantly about men artists and by men authors, and were more likely to discuss women musicians’ appearance and relationships, and used more sexualized and emotional language. Improvement was found in that articles were no more likely to discuss women musicians’ age and youth than men’s. Women journalists were just as likely to stereotype women musicians as men journalists were, and more so in one category. We expand stereotyping by incorporating insights from professional socialization and applying it to the ‘soft news’ yet male-dominated field of music journalism, adding to our knowledge of hard news fields such as politics, business and sports. It also updates the few studies of music journalism from decades ago, showing little progress in the blatant stereotyping of women musicians

How Reliable Are Nineteenth-Century Reviews of Concerts and Operas?: Félicien David's Le Désert and His Grand Opéra Herculanum

The vast quantity of French-language music journalism and reportage in the nineteenth century can tempt us into citing one or another review that reflects our own view of the topic or work. We sometimes state or imply that a review stands for the attitudes and opinions of most musicians and music lovers of the day. The idiosyncratic career of Félicien David was reported with great interest and vivacity by dozens of critics. Selected reviews reveal patterns that apply not just to David's works, but to nineteenth-century music generally. These patterns include: 1) the greater reliability of reviews by critics who were musically trained (e.g., Berlioz, Reyer, Gounod and Saint-Saëns), despite the possibility of bias; 2) critics sometimes conferring with each other before they wrote their review, or echoing each other's written opinions; 3) a willingness on the part of some critics to carry out a near-vendetta against a composer or work, whether for personal reasons (e.g., conflict of interest) or because of a deep-seated intolerance for any aesthetic and musical approaches that were at variance with the critic's own; 4) the sense of a positive mission, in writings by critics who were themselves prominent creative artists (see point 1); and 5) the power of a review to help determine the success or failure of a work, composer, or performer. A recently published letter by Berlioz (translated here for the first time) reveals how conscious this remarkable composer-critic was of his own biases and aesthetic commitments, and how willingly he allowed them to shape his reaction to a new work by a younger, lesser-known composer. The responses of Berlioz and others to two works of David, Le Désert and Herculanum, provide the primary material for discussion. These responses include an insightful and previously undiscussed review (of Herculanum) by Ernest Reyer.

Disseminating Survival

Media played an important role in the reestablishment of Jewish culture in postwar communities, especially newspapers published by and for survivors. Much of their content was a crucial component in the identificatory practices of integrated Jews and their pre-Holocaust understanding of Germanness. The newspapers were especially significant for the cultural activity of the communities and in establishing a postwar identity. Their content also picked up prewar threads, broadly transmitting music journalism and criticism. By reporting on music, the papers contributed to the reestablishment of a cultural identity in the communities. In turn, the primary aim of the first postwar broadcasts was of a different nature, namely to give voice to the formerly oppressed and to familiarize the general public with Jewish culture. In this way, radio contributed to the democratization of everyday life, creating a sense of community, with new communicative potentials for marginalized groups.

Free Jazz and the “New Thing”

Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz was at the center of controversy in early 1960s music journalism. Released in 1961, the album contains a single thirty-seven-minute performance that is abstract and opaque. Its presumed cacophony and lack of order made Free Jazz emblematic of the “new thing,” the moniker journalists used to describe jazz’s emergent avant-garde, and links were drawn between the album’s sound and the supposed anti-traditionalism and radical (racial) politics of its artists and their supporters. This article does three things. It examines prominent reportage surrounding the album and the “new thing,” outlining the analytical shortfalls that helped to promulgate common misunderstandings about the music. It presents a new analytical framework for understanding Free Jazz, and it explains how the performance was organized and executed by exploring the textural provenance of its abstraction: heterophony. Heterophony, a term commonly used in ethnomusicology but with various shades of meaning, is theorized here as an opaque, decentralized musical texture. It opens up new epistemological terrain in the context of experimental improvised music by affording multiple simultaneous subjectivities (i.e., different sonified identities), interpolating the listener into a dynamic and constantly shifting sonic mesh. The experiment that was Free Jazz, I argue, is one of collective musical agency, in which the opacity of that sonic mesh—woven by the musicians in coordinated action—subverts traditional expectations of clarity, cohesion, and order, beckoning the listener to hear more openly, or more “freely.”

Music journalism of the first half of the 19 th century about the Russian violin school

Since the beginning of the XIX century the Russian press informs its readers about all musical events. Although the authors of the publications were not professionals, the level of reviews and notes amazes with their knowledge of art, especially knowledge of the intricacies of violin playing. This phenomenon can only be explained by the rich auditory experience of journalists. In Russia there was an intense musical life, the most famous virtuosos of that time performed in salons and on stages not only in capitals, but also in provincial cities. By the beginning of the 19th century a strong Russian violin school was formed with an original («vo-cal») interpretation of sound. Its representatives pay much more attention to the quality of sound than foreign virtuosos, who prioritize technical perfec-tion, sometimes to the detriment of even the elementary requirements of musicality. Russian music criticism has never echoed the opinions of Western colleagues; it had its own criteria for evaluating it. She boldly criticized even the violinists-buffooners recognized in Europe and supported the Rus-sian virtuosos, who soon gained worldwide recognition.

Thüringer Musikszene – Jugendmusikredaktionen als außerschulische musikbezogene Bildungskontexte

This contribution addresses a music editorial youth project in the context of extracurricular music education: Where and in which manner does musical education take place, particularly regarding music journalism? Opportunities for music journalism do not so much arise in schools or music schools but rather in actively used leisure time. The present study examines the motivation of participants in relation to their peers, host organisations, and project tutors. The concept of serious leisure perspective (Robert A. Stebbins) delivers the frame to discuss the results of the study.