Description
Book SynopsisWhy is classical music predominantly the preserve of the white middle classes? Through a richly detailed ethnography, this book contributes to this ongoing debate with a timely and provocative intervention, locating classical music within one of the cultures that produces it - middle-class English youth - and foregrounds classical music as bodily practice of control and restraint.
Trade Review[A]n excellent book, written with energy and economy, deftly combining theoretical and empirical work, and written with the measured confidence of an insider, as well as the critical reflexivity of the apostate. * European Journal of Cultural Studies *
Class, Control, and Classical Music is a provocative read, designed to shake complacency and make readers think again about their own formative musical experiences. * Andrew Pinnock, University of Southampton, Cultural Trends *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1. Locating classical music in culture Chapter 2. Boundary-drawing around the proper: from the Victorians to the present Chapter 3. 'Everyone here is going to have bright futures'. Capitalising on musical standard Chapter 4. 'Getting it right' as an affect of self-improvement Chapter 5. Rehearsing restraint: how the body is transcended Chapter 6. 'Sometimes I feel like I'm his dog': gendered power and the ethics of charismatic authority Chapter 7. 'Instead of destroying my body I have a reason for maintaining it.' Young women's re-imagining of the body through singing opera Chapter 8. A community in sound: constructing the valued self Conclusion Appendix One References
