Music and the Politics of Negation

A political & philosophical critique of the contemporary academy’s pervasive postmodern ideologies, and an analysis of the relevance of the founding principles of modernity and their articulation within the music of the Viennese Classics.

“Currie represents the next generation of musicologist. He seeks to push against the intellectual barriers of music studies to engage how music works as a powerful social agent. Ultimately, Music and the Politics of Negation makes it abundantly clear why music matters.” ―Richard Leppert, University of Minnesota

Over the past quarter century, music studies in the academy privilege postmodern methodologies, insisting that our scholarly engagements start and end by placing music firmly within its various historical and social contexts. In Music and the Politics of Negation, James R. Currie sets out to disturb the validity of this now quite orthodox claim. Alternating dialectically between analytic and historical investigations into the late eighteenth century and the present, he poses a set of uncomfortable questions regarding the limits and complicities of the values that the academy keeps in circulation by means of its musical encounters. His overriding thesis is that the forces that have formed us are not our fate.

“Although many authors have sought to bring together critical studies and music, Currie’s book is original in both style and substance. Erudite and loquacious, Currie is a gifted storyteller whose work merits study by advanced scholars. His individual approach to the impasse created by the new musicology establishes a model by which that gulf might be bridged without returning to the status quo.” ―Choice