Author Description
Can Music Feel Pain? Do Songs Possess Dignity? Do Symphonies Have Rights? Of Course Not, You Might Say. Yet Think Of How We Anthropomorphize Music, Not Least When We Believe It Has Been Somehow Mistreated. A Singer Butchered Or Mangled The Star-spangled Banner At The Super Bowl. An Underrehearsed Cover Band Made A Mockery Of Led Zeppelin's Classics. An Orchestra Didn't Quite Do Justice To Mozart's Requiem. Such Lively Language Upholds Music As A Sentient Companion Susceptible To Injury And In Need Of Fierce Protection. There's Nothing Wrong With The Human Instinct To Safeguard Beloved Music... Except, Perhaps, When This Instinct Leads Us To Hurt Or Neglect Fellow Human Beings In Turn: Say, By Heaping Outsized Shame Upon Those Who Seem To Do Music Wrong; Or By Rushing To Defend A Conductor's Beautiful Recordings While Failing To Defend The Multiple Victims Who Have Accused This Maestro Of Sexual Assault. Loving Music Till It Hurts Is A Capacious Exploration Of How People's Head-over-heels Attachments To Music Can Variously Align Or Conflict With Agendas Of Social Justice. How Do We Respond When Loving Music And Loving People Appear To Clash?
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
How do we reconcile our intense emotional attachments to music with the ethical imperative to protect human beings from harm? William Cheng, a musicologist, investigates the human tendency to anthropomorphize music and treat it as a sentient entity deserving of defense. He argues that this instinct often creates a moral conflict, where the protection of musical integrity or the reputations of celebrated artists takes precedence over the well-being of victims of abuse or social injustice.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Analysis of the intersection between music appreciation and social justice activism.
- Examination of how public discourse frames musical performance as a moral act.
- Case studies involving public figures, conductors, and the cultural response to musical "misconduct."
Scope Limits
- The text does not provide a comprehensive history of musicology.
- It does not offer a definitive legal framework for resolving conflicts between art and ethics.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars and critics recognize this work as a provocative contribution to contemporary musicology that challenges the boundaries of aesthetic appreciation. Readers frequently note the intellectual density of the prose and the author's willingness to confront uncomfortable ethical dilemmas within the arts community.
Page Count:
0
Publication Date:
1900-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press,
ISBN-10:
0190620161
ISBN-13:
9780190620165
Ethics
Music Criticism
Music
Sociology
Musicology
Social justice
Musique