Music and Politics - List
I recently tried to get an overview of basic texts in the field of "Music and Politics" with a special focus on Eastern Europe (including Russia) and totalitarian systems.
(This list if formated according to IEEE -2007 using Citavi)
Classics and corresponding introductions
L. Althusser, On ideology. London , New York: Verso, 2008.
T. Eagleton, Ideology. London, New York: Longman, 1994. (Reader)
T. Eagleton, Ideology: An introduction. London: Verso, 2007.
A. Gramsci, Selections from the prison notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. New York NY: Int. Publ., 1999.
S. Jones, Antonio Gramsci. London: Routledge, 2006. see Heubert H. Neubert, Antonio Gramsci, Hegemonie - Zivilgesellschaft - Partei ; eine Einführung. Hamburg: VSA-Verl., 2001.
comparing the two introductions on Gramsci (Jones and Heubert), Jones clearly wins. His approach is more scholarly, while Heubert focuses on locating Gramsci in the political marxist movement to which he himself apparently belongs. This is nice, but I am simply not that much interested in it. Jones focuses on the topics from Prison notebook and discusses them in some length:
- Hegemony,
- Intellectuals,
- Crisis,
- Americanism and Fordism
Neubert has different topics and he refers more to "external factors" related to what might be called "practical marxism", such as the relationship of Gramsci and Lenin, the relationship of the official party line and Gramsci etc. In contrast to Jones, Neubert nicely shows Gramsci's concept of revolution and his understand of the role of the party. These topics tend to be less important for today's analytical perspective and the methodolocial tool-box, it seems to me.
In their biographical sections Jones focuses on Gramsci's position towards the Southern Question and thereby creates a lively and convincing background for his protagonist, while Neubert keeps his biographical section really short; interesting might be, however, Neubert's discussion of where G. deviates from Lenin.
Eastern Europe and Russia
D.Anne Buchanan, Performing democracy: Bulgarian music and musicians in transition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
B. Groys, Gesamtkunstwerk Stalin: Die gespaltene Kultur in der Sowjetunion. München: Hanser, 1988.
M. Juzl, "Music and the Totalitarian Regime in Czechoslovakia", International Review of the Aestethics and Sociology of Music, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 31–51, Available at http://www.jstor.org/pss/3108370.
V. Karbusicky, Ideologie im Lied, Lied in der Ideologie: Kulturanthropologische Strukturanalysen. Köln: Gerig, 1973.
V. Karbusicky, Widerspiegelungstheorie und Strukturalismus: Zur Entstehungsgeschichte und Kritik der marxistisch-leninistischen Ästhetik. München: Fink, 1973.
Romania
A. Pleşu, "Intellectual Life Under Dictatorship", Representations, vol. 49, pp. 61–71, Available at http://www.jstor.org/pss/2928749.
V. Sandu-Dediu, Rumänische Musik nach 1944. Saarbrücken: Pfau, 2006.
I liked the Karbusicky book and currently I like Groys's book on art in the Stalinist era. I should write a small summary
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