Musical Style and Social Meaning

Derek B. Scott is Professor of Critical Musicology, University of Leeds, UK

'...this is a very readable, enjoyable, thought-provoking, and interesting book, which I thoroughly recommend...' Folk Music Journal

• Contents: Introduction; Part 1 Music Criticism and Theory: Postmodernism and music: postscript; Modernism, postmodernism and musical consensus; Bruckner's symphonies - a reinterpretation; Mimesis, gesture, and parody in musical word-setting. Part 2 Jazz and Popular Music: The Jazz Age in Britain; Light music and easy listening; The Britpop sound; The challenges of assessing popular music performance in higher education. Part 3 Orientalism, National Identity, and Ideology: Orientalism and musical style; Edward Said and the interplay of music, history, and ideology; Imagining the nation, imagining Europe. Part 4 Politics, Class and Englishness: Music and social class in Victorian London; English national identity and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan; The power of music; Imperialism and anti-imperialism in 19th-century popular song; Sullivan's demonic tea-making scene: homage to Weber or parody? Part 5 Ethnicity and Race: The impact of Black performance on the 19th-century stage; A problem of race in directing Die Zauberflöte; In search of genetically modified music: race and musical style in the 19th century; Index.