MENC: The National Association for Music Education

The Sociology of Music Author(s): Johannes Riedel Source: Music Educators Journal, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Nov. - Dec., 1962), pp. 39-42 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of MENC: The National Association for Music Education Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3389807 . Accessed: 03/12/2013 17:40
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The
MANY

of Music Sociology
Johannes Riedel
atizations of knowledge which should be applied to the reworking of biographies as well as to music research in general. Not only in research, however, but in the teaching of music at the high school, college, and university levels as well do we need to apply this new approach to music scholarship. Through sociological studies of music we see music as related to the whole of human life, to the mosaic of human understanding and culture in a counterpoint of continuously changing relationships between music and society. We begin with composers of the past in the light of their own time, their own social environment, their own social motivations. Likewise we become much more aware of the role and importance of the contemporary composer in this era of nuclear physics. Our constant reassessment, our reinterpretations of men and music will not become obsolete if we can learn to use new perspectives to maintain and to enhance our knowledge and appreciation of music. We can only profit by broadening our own education through contact with music sociological studies in addition to our specializations in music research, education, composition, and performance. No musician today is so rigid as to deny the existence of some sort of interrelationship between music and society. Very often music magazines carry issues or essays on topics such as the state of government and the arts. The Music EDUCATORS JOURNALitself carries from time to time essays that are related to music and society. A considerable number of music history books include discussions of social institutions in connection with music. J. A. Westrup in his An Introduction to Musical History sees our knowledge about the social background, the influence of the church, the patronage of the courts, and the musician and his environment as absolute prerequisites for any serious study of music history. The trouble with most of the other sociological studies in music is that they are caught up within a pattern of pessimism and furthermore are reluctant to admit a systematic and extensive study of the sociology of music. If we grant the usefulness of sociological studies in other fields, how can we suppose the musician and his environment to be outside the realm
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of my colleagues I teach a music biblicourse which is designed to introduce the graduate student in music history/literature, composition and music education into the techniques of graduate study. At the same time the student is supposed to familiarize himself with historical and complete editions of musical works in addition to the basic literature on music itself. I include in the latter the study of biographies not of performers and educators but of composers because their lives illustrate quite clearly the intimate relationship that exists between the musician who creates and the music he creates. The inclusion of biographies in our graduate studies, however, presents difficulties, because the data are frequently unrelated and the interpretation of the composer and of his works all too often leads to a stereotyped image of the man. Many of the biographies maintain an idealistic image of the great musician, who is portrayed as being well above the average man in ideals and goals. We often read that, while persons in other occupations may consider wealth and fame the objects of their work, they are only secondary aims to the great musician. Musicians who capitalize upon their talents are criticized, for their gifts are intended to be used in the attainment of high ideals rather than for personal gain. Through some of the biographies we obtain a drawing room image of Beethoven who musically "liberates" the Germans, the Russians, the fascists, the communists; of Johann Sebastian Bach, the "sacred" composer-sacred in the sense of non-practical-who thought little of such things as public approval. These concepts are essentially nineteenth century attitudes towards the composers, their works, their world, and are closer to fiction than to real life. Unless such idealistic concepts are seen as the product of their time, they are absolutely useless and misleading. Thus we are challenged with the tremendous task of writing scores of new biographies in the light of our own time, and by means of more recent methods of research and investigation. The sociology of music is one of these newer system-

LIKE ography

[The author is professor of music, University Minneapolis.]

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, NINETEEN SIXTY-TWO

of Minnesota,

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of sociological methodology? Most of these studies dwell complacently upon indigestible and unimportant potpourris of topics such as musicians' salaries and patrons without relating them to the music performed by these musicians. THERE AREfew books on the topic of "Music and Society." To be sure, an extremely interesting course was offered by Carleton Sprague Smith at the University of Southern California during the second summer term of 1951. Time and again the stone of sociological endeavor in music has been set in motion only to roll onwards into semi-obscurity or backwards into intellectually attractive, plausible but imprecise generalizations. The time has become ripe for systematic studies in the field of the sociology of music. The time is past when this area would be used only as a tool to further background and peripheral information. It is absolutely imperative that it be made a study in its own right. Let us accept it in the same fashion we have embraced ethnomusicology in this country. Only a few years ago this was a rather obscure field, practiced by a few, known only to a few, and accorded little significance in our national undertakings in music research. Observe this field today! It has become one of the most important activities in American music research. I am certain that dedicated study of the sociology of music would bear similar results in no time. While we strive for an intensified attention to the sociology of music we do not want to belittle or restrict the traditional fields of historical musicological research; they constitute a part of our "data." On the contrary, we must use the old as a starting point for the new. After all, both serve the same purpose. Nevertheless, one can no longer say that the purpose of music research lies only in the fields of music history and archaeology, in the arrangement of its materials in a historical perspective through discovery, collecting, and editing. This attitude prevailed toward the end of the nineteenth century. "No documents, no history" was a typical slogan of the fact-minded historian of the time. It was in conjunction with this approach that musicology produced the great German, French, and English historical editions, the Denkmiiler and Monuments with which every American music graduate student spends so much time in getting acquainted. Neither can one say anymore that the business of music research is to concern itself exclusively with historical investigations of styles and their evaluations. The minutiae into which a given style may be resolved naturally occupy a great part of the time and attention of the scholar, particularly if he is also a teacher of vocal or instrumental music, and music literature and history. Eventually, however, the larger undertaking of evaluating a style in its historical context becomes a point of concern, and with it normally comes the need to relate the artistic style to other areas of human experience, the aim being to shed light on a given culture, an expression of a particular economic and social order or an existing social regime. The importance of such investigations must not be
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denied. The knowledge obtained in one concentrated area has a happy faculty of overflowing into other areas. As a result, the perspective gained in one aspect of music research leads to a new level of insight from which further investigations in music can be made. The more precise we can make our knowledge about human experience, the easier it will be for the educator to see means through which he can amplify the scope and quality of this human experience. The Sociology of Music for the Undergraduate

OFMUSIC THE SOCIOLOGY has two levels: a sociology

of music at the level of the undergraduate student and a graduate study which is more sophisticated and experimental. The first entails the musician and the society to which he belongs, the second deals with the specific social causes of music production and appreciation. The first includes topics such as (1) The musician as a single producer of music, (2) Collective music producers (ensembles, educational institutions, professional organizations), and (3) Patronage. Sociology of music on the graduate level may attempt to establish causal relationship between (1) The state and the level of music technology of a given society and the influence it leaves on the sounds produced, (2) The changing society and its promotion of changing styles, (3) The relation between values which music reveals and values which are entertained by a corresponding society. The objective of a sociological investigation of the individual music producer is the discussion of the various music career groups: composer, conductor, solo singer, solo instrumentalist, accompanist, orchestral player, organist and choir director, teacher and scholar, music critic and agent, music publisher and dealer. It does not give priority to one profession over the other, to the composer over the music educator, the conductor over the music critic. Furthermore it involves all musicians, including the vast majority of musicians of local and regional importance. It concerns itself not only with the Arnold Sch6nbergs of each period, but covers Western and non-Western civilizations, all creeds, nations, and races. It investigates the social environment in which the musician lives: how he is raised, educated, appointed and paid, how he works and how work is allotted to him.

THE PURPOSE Of a sociological investigation of the collective music producer is to deal with vocal (choral) and instrumental (orchestral, chamber music, and band) ensembles. It includes groups of all societies, of all periods and races: the Gamelan orchestras in Java, the choral organizations of the medieval and Renaissance cathedrals, the magnificent grande bande of Lully, the famous Mannheim orchestra of the eighteenth century, the huge orchestras used by Berlioz, the American symphony orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Moreover it elaborates on vocal and instrumental amateur groups of all times and of all nations. This includes such groups as American community orchestras, community choral groups, oratorio societies, and amateur operatic troupes, as well as medical orchestras, instrumental
MUSIC EDUCATORS JOURNAL

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organizations of industrial groups, bands, and orchestras in high schools, colleges, and universities. A sociology of the orchestra must not, however, restrict itself to the counting of orchestras of many sizes and purposes: It must investigate the causal relationship between the audience and the repertory of the orchestra, the audience and the kind of orchestral composition a composer writes. The immense concentration of people who live in large cities with their increased interest in music ask for the performance of orchestral music in large concert halls. Only the sound of large orchestras will fill these halls. Accordingly, composers will select powerful sound effects, color contrasts, and emphatic rhythmic devices which will come through. To a certain degree a composer will use a musical language which can be grasped best by the mass audiences: the symphonic form will be replaced by the symphonic poem or by orchestral suites drawn from original ballet compositions. This does not imply, however, that composers write huge symphonic "show" pieces with mass appeal themes or that mass audiences ask only for symphonic works which have the orchestral apparatus of Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben (1899), Arnold Schinberg's Gurre Lieder (1900 and later), and Messiaen's Turangalili (1950). On the contrary, composers have written symphonies for emsembles smaller than the large symphony orchestra, i.e., the string orchestra. Audiences have turned to concerto music of the baroque era and to chamber music, leaving the familiar for the unfamiliar, the traditional for the contemporary. The success of the New Friends of Music in New York and its many imitators all over the country disproves the view that the spreading of an art among a mass audience necessarily dilutes its standards. The various types of house, chamber, and concert hall concerts, concerts available for a limited and privileged number of consumers, and the public concert belong to the sociology of collective music producers as well. In the latter we distinguish public concert systems sponsored by government agencies as in the USSR versus concert systems sponsored by private citizens' trustee funds as in the United States. The history of the public concert in America is full of accounts of support of private citizens in the founding of orchestral societies within a given city. The sociology of collective music producers covers music education institutions as well. Throughout the history of music a distinction is made between pedagogical institutions that train professional musicians and those that educate laymen. To the latter belongs the American singing school, a characteristic pedagogical institution in American life. Initially it provided only choral instruction to the laymen, and it did not derive support from any ecclesiastical or secularpolitical but rather from secular sources. Although the singing schools were originally intended to develop choral singers, their goals were adjusted to a more "socially" true function in the nineteenth century: Not only choral music, but a variety of instrumental classes were given as well. The history of this music institution can be examined as a case example of organizational emergencies and their struggle to survive. The sociology of music for the undergraduate continues, then with the very popular topic of patronage:
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, NINETEEN SIXTY-TWO

Who pays for the upbringing of the musician, who provides for further study, who pays the salaries and wages, who commissions composers to write? This extremely interesting and obvious chapter is followed up by discussions related to music forms: What kind of music is sponsored by the patrons? Here a consideration of the opera, oratorio, and cantata, the overture, suite and symphony, dance, popular and folk music is in place. This may be concluded by the question: What do patrons expect music to do? Here the problem of music which fulfills specific functions with all its implications must be investigated. Does music possess only utilitarian values? Does music indicate the aesthetic values that a society uses to make value judgments about that music? What social groups talk about music as a critic talks about literature? Is this a valid concern of society? These latter questions belong, however, to the sociology of music for the graduate. The Sociology of Music for the Graduate the sociology of music for the undergraduate, FRoM we may proceed to a more sophisticated level. Here, however, a word of warning is in order: When we investigate the causal relationships between music and society, we should not confuse them with aesthetic evaluation in music. The aesthetic problem lies beyond the sociological problem. Whether a piece is good or bad does not depend on any extramusical values but only on the artistic application of values innate in the crafts of music theory and composition. That a composition pleases only one person, or an entire nation, bears no influence on the aesthetic evaluation of it. A composition may be extraordinarily important and epoch-making yet be applauded by only a few; examples of Johann Sebastian Bach, Max Reger, and Arnold Schinberg come to mind. By the same token favorable reaction of the masses bears no witness to the aesthetic quality of an art work. As a matter of fact a major objection against Marxian theories is the lack of differentiation between social and musical values. If Marxian theories in music carry with them connotative implications of the Marxian State, differentiation will be an unlikely development. Differentiation implies scales of values, compromises, choices made in terms of preferences. Music in a Marxian State exists at the discretion of the State. Musical values are dictated for social music by a group whose interests are largely antagonistic to the determination of social values by an individual engaged in a free creative expression. The first category of a sociology of music on the graduate level deals with the state and level of music technology in a given society. This includes such problems as the development of instruments, the abandonment of old instruments in favor of new ones; changing performing techniques in unison with a changing world of instruments; the role of the conductor, his view of his own role in relationship to the orchestra; the phenomenon of the opening night; the formation of musical taste within a community and educational institutions as created by the orchestra; and the status of an orchestral musician in relation to other members of the community. As for the problem of changing performing tech41

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niques in unison with a changing world of instruments, one example must suffice. The change towards the homophonic music around 1600 caused specific problems of acoustical nature for the organ. The search for a solution by Schlick (1511), Zarlino (1562), Mersenne (1635), and Werckmeister (1691) resulted finally in "equal temperament," which constituted social compromise between acoustical experimentation and practical needs. When we consider that the organ has remained the main instrument of church music in Western lands, then we may regard equal temperament as a "derivative" effect of Christianity. The Chinese theoretically knew equal temperament long before 1600, but since they did not use keyboard instruments, the system never came into use. In Greece, c. 350 B.C., Aristoxenos also suggested tempering the intervals to make each halfstep equal in ratio to every other one. But here again, in a music practice without keyboard instruments, there was no demand for such a system. The role played by music in China and Greece did not ask for a practical utilization of the equal-tempered scale. The second category of sociological investigations in music on the graduate level deals with the changing society and its promotion of changing styles. This category seems to have become the most popular approach in the publications on music and society. A good example from the twentieth century is the decade of the nineteen twenties with the disillusionment of the post-World War I generation who had dreamed of furthering the ideals of social justice through participation in the war to end all wars. The state of "anomie" of William James' "lost generation" showed itself in the conflict between the traditional norms or patterns of a society rooted in Puritanism and Transcendentalism and the mores of a new industrial society with its scientific and realistic philosophy. In music the attempts to depict this confusion of norms and the restlessness and frustration of the twenties led to the overthrow of music tradition and a search for

new rhythms, tonalities, orchestral colors, and style. Arnold Sch6nberg pioneered in the upheaval against tradition by further intensification of expressionism and by establishing the twelve-tone serial system of writing. Expressionism and atonality express artistically the state of social unrest in the nineteen twenties, a remarkable change of style of the composers of a changing society. The two most significant points of view on the third problem of the sociology of music on the graduate level, the most exciting and hazardous one-musical values and ethos-emerge from nineteenth century reflection. They are a materialistic attitude versus idealistic thinking. The materialistic approach says that the mode of production in material life determines the general character of the social, political, and spiritual processes of life. The idealistic viewpoint holds that it is the human mind which determines culture. Both the type of society and the kind of art are an expression of the human mind.
I HAVE TRIED TO DO in this short rbsum6 was not to outline a complete presentation of the sociology of music but to call the attention of the musical scholar, educator, composer, and performer to the establishment of a systematic sociology of music. By subdividing this field into an area of undergraduate and of graduate study I wanted to stress that the study of the sociology of music is not a matter for the teacher alone but for the student as well. With a sociological viewpoint of the composer, a high school student might better understand the music he studies. In a time which sees many social and political changes, in a generation which witnesses the continuous rise of many new nations and their claim for social justice and political freedom, the musician must begin to see himself not in a state of irresponsible isolation, but in a state of social integration. Studies in the sociology of music will help him to become aware of his social function. WHAT

Dates to Remember
MEETING DATES PLACE HEADQUARTERS

College Band Directors National Association December 16-18, 1962 MENC Southwestern Division January 12-15, 1963 March 1-4, 1963 MENC Eastern Division Southern Division March MENC 20-23, 1963 MENC North Central Division MENC Western Division MENC Northwest Division Interim Meeting of Board of Directors and State Presidents of the MENC 1964 MENC Convention March 29-April 1, 1963 April 7-10, 1963 April 17-20, 1963 August 19-22, 1963 March 11-17, 1964

Chicago, Ill. St. Louis, Mo. Atlantic City, N.J. Charleston, W. Va.

Conrad Hilton Hotel Chase-ParkPlaza Chalfonte-HaddonHall Charleston Civic Center Radisson Hotel Minn. Minneapolis, Bakersfield,Calif. BakersfieldCivic Auditorium Casper, Wyo. Washington, D.C. Philadelphia, Pa. Morgan Junior High School NEA Building SheratonHotel

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MUSIC

EDUCATORS

JOURNAL

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