Abstract Music: A Very Short Introduction is a study of music and thinking about music, focusing on its social, cultural, and historical dimensions. It draws on a wealth of accessible examples, ranging from Beethoven to Chinese zither music. This VSI also discusses the nature of music as a real-time performance practice; the role of music in social and political action; and the nature of musical thinking, including the roles played in it by instruments, notations, and creative imagination. Digital technology has had a massive impact on the production and consumption of music, including transforming participatory music-making and the music business. This in turn has affected music’s position in a globalized world. In many ways music has changed out of all recognition over the last twenty years.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 385 citations exist upstream.