Who Needs Classical Music?: Cultural Choice and Musical Value

Who Needs Classical Music?: Cultural Choice and Musical Value

by JulianJohnson (Author)

Synopsis

During the last few decades, most cultural critics have come to agree that the division between high and low art is an artificial one, that Beethoven's Ninth and Blue Suede Shoes are equally valuable as cultural texts. In Who Needs Classical Music?, Julian Johnson challenges these assumptions about the relativism of cultural judgments. The author maintains that music is more than just a matter of taste : while some music provides entertainment, or serves as background noise, other music claims to function as art. This book considers the value of classical music in contemporary society, arguing that it remains distinctive because it works in quite different ways to most of the other music that surrounds us. This intellectually sophisticated yet accessible book offers a new and balanced defense of the specific values of classical music in contemporary culture. The paperback edition includes a new preface from the author, re-contextualizing the debate ten years out. Who Needs Classical Music? will stimulate readers to reflect on their own investment (or lack of it) in music and art of all kinds.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
Publisher: OUP USA
Published: Sep 2011

ISBN 10: 0199755426
ISBN 13: 9780199755424

Media Reviews
You will often cheer out loud! I did...more profound than can be communicated in a book review. I read this twice. Like all my favorite books, I will read it again and again. Nothing is more relevant to classical music devotees. * American Record Guide *
Author Bio
Professor of Music, Royal Holloway University of London, author of Webern and the Transformation of Nature, (Cambridge, 2000), Who Needs Classical Music (OUP, 2002), and Mahler's Voices (OUP, 2009), and composer. Winner, Dent Medal (2005) from the Royal Music Association.