Music in a capitalist culture

Midterm paper for Learning of Culture with Lisa Stulberg

Max Weber locates the roots of capitalism in vestigial puritanical Protestantism. Émile Durkheim, in turn, gives a theory of how that Protestantism arose in the first place. In this paper, I ask two questions. First: can Weber’s and Durkheim’s theories of religion be extended to explain culture generally? Second, and more specifically: can their theories explain music?

Music is a valuable lens for examining cultures, because while every world culture includes it, the particular form and function varies considerably from one culture to another. Contemporary America contains a variety of musical subcultures and countercultures that overlap and conflict with one another. We might follow Weber’s example and say that America’s culture has capitalism as its single defining feature. And we might say that America’s commercial pop mainstream defines our musical culture. But those two generalizations conceal roiling masses of unresolved conflict.

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Marx and Althusser

Note-taking for Learning of Culture with Lisa Stulberg

Unlike most social theorists of his era and since, Marx can actually write. His prose has a rhythm and urgency that feels more like a sermon than a scholarly text. Of course, he has the advantage that he’s writing a manifesto, so he isn’t bogged down by nuance, complexity or the admission of contradictory arguments.

Karl Marx

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Music Matters chapter six

Public-facing note taking on Music Matters by David Elliott and Marissa Silverman for my Philosophy of Music Education class. 

It seems obvious that the point of music education is to foster musical understanding. But what is musical understanding, exactly? Where and how do we learn and teach it?

On an emotional level, people seem to understand music just fine without being taught how to. My son, at age three and a half, recently heard “And She Was” by Talking Heads for the first time, and within ten seconds was commenting on how happy it sounds. He might not be able to explain why it sounds happy, but he understands just fine what he’s hearing.

Milo sings

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Bourdieu and Swidler – Structures and the Habitus

Note-taking for Learning of Culture with Lisa Stulberg

This week’s reading was the second chapter of Pierre Bourdieu‘s Outline Of A Theory Of Practice, on Structures and the Habitus. Bourdieu writes the worst, most opaque prose of any social theorist. The second paragraph of this chapter includes the phrase “structured structures predisposed to function as structuring structures.” Later: “the habitus, which at every moment structures in terms of the structuring experiences which produced it the structuring experiences which affect its structure…” Bourdieu. What are you doing. Why do you write like this.

Pierre Bourdieu

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Music Matters chapter nine

Public-facing note taking on Music Matters by David Elliott and Marissa Silverman for my Philosophy of Music Education class. 

Research into music psychology (and simply attending to your own experience, and to common sense) shows that music arouses emotions. However, there is no conclusive way to explain why or how. To make things more complicated, it’s perfectly possible to perceive an emotion in a piece of music without feeling that emotion yourself–you can identify a happy song as being happy without it making you feel happy. Music and emotion are inextricably tied up with each other, but how does music arouse emotions, and how do emotions infuse music?

Elliott and Silverman summarize some major philosophical theories of musical emotion (or lack thereof).  Continue reading “Music Matters chapter nine”

QWERTYBeats research

Writing assignment for Design For The Real World with Claire Kearney-Volpe and Diana Castro – research about a new rhythm interface for blind and low-vision novice musicians

Definition

I propose a new web-based accessible rhythm instrument called QWERTYBeats.

QWERTYBeats logo

Traditional instruments are highly accessible to blind and low-vision musicians. Electronic music production tools are not. I look at the history of accessible instruments and software interfaces, give an overview of current electronic music hardware and software, and discuss the design considerations underlying my project.  Continue reading “QWERTYBeats research”

Freud – Civilization And Its Discontents

Note-taking for Learning of Culture with Lisa Stulberg

We have read some dense canonical European White Guys. None of them have been as difficult and off-putting as Freud. I would have rather read Civilization And Its Discotheques.

Freud is so Freudian

Freud begins with the observation that for most of human history, our happiness has been tied to our ability to control nature: to keep away predators and stinging instincts, to keep ourselves fed and sheltered, to alleviate pain and disease. At the time Freud was writing, nature was well under control. You would think, then, that we would be really happy. But as Louis CK puts it: “Everything is amazing and nobody is happy.”

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Music Matters chapter five

Public-facing note taking on Music Matters by David Elliott and Marissa Silverman for my Philosophy of Music Education class. These are responses to the discussion questions at the end of chapter five, which discusses personhood and music education.

Antonio Damasio - Descartes' Error

Why should music educators be concerned with the nature of personhood?

All forms of music, education and community music are personal. They involve social engagement, and emotions both personal and collective. Praxial music education considers the student as a holistic person, not just as a musician. Educative teaching aims for the flourishing of the whole person, not just supplying skills and knowledge. It is difficult to support the flourishing of persons without a clear idea of the nature of personhood.

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Émile Durkheim – Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

Note-taking for Learning of Culture with Lisa Stulberg

This week, we read another cornerstone of the sociology canon: Émile Durkheim on where religion comes from.

Émile Durkheim

The book is very much a product of its time, with continual and annoying references to “primitive” religions and peoples. No question that Durkheim’s methodology doesn’t pass contemporary muster. But his theoretical insights are on point.

[R]eligion is something eminently social. Religious representations are collective representations which express collective realities; the rites are a manner of acting which take rise in the midst of the assembled groups and which are destined to excite, maintain or recreate certain mental states in these groups (10).

You could substitute the word “music” for “religion” and this paragraph would still be true. This is food for future thought.

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Music Matters chapter four

Public-facing note taking on Music Matters by David Elliott and Marissa Silverman for my Philosophy of Music Education class.

What is education?

Milo gets some STEM education

The etymology of the word “education” from its various Latin roots gives a good overview of modern senses of the word:

  • Educationem: rearing children, animals, plants and promoting physical development
  • Educare: to train or mold
  • Educo and educere: to lead out, to “teach a man to fish” as per Lao Tzu

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