Politics, Feminism, and Contemporary Music Theory

Abstract

I s music inviolate? Can it withstand indefinitely 275 our search for an explanation of its appeal? Is there a point at which this scrutiny, directed not only at the structure and context of music, or at the psychology of perception and cognition, but also at our socio-political and psychological profiles as listeners, might inhibit our ability to respond freely and naturally to the stimulus? The immunity referred to above is not unlike that which may accompany religious convictions and experiences of love, a blanket that insulates these forms of inwardness from arbitration, from the detours of reason and abstract, conceptual thought. With varying degrees of intensity, musical works can become objects of affection, faith, and love. They can speak to us directly, cut through to the heart without deliberation, without verbal approximation. And they can speak to us as individuals, as single beings, not as representatives compromised by partisanship. Indeed, they may appear to serve no purpose beyond that of the relationship that is struck. And the latter, neither willed nor forced, is entered into freely, naturally, and spontaneously. Although not necessarily private, it is personal, inward, and spiritual. Music is a language, as Hanslick observed, and composing is a working of spirit in material fit for spirit.'

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