Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 4 Number 2, July 2003
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David J. Hargreaves and Adrian C. North, Eds. The Social Psychology of Music. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1997).
Reviewed by
A review of The Social Psychology of Music can benefit greatly by some historical context, which will help to guide the less knowledgeable reader (think student here) and remind the experienced professional of a larger context. The book is a worthy contribution to the literature.
Western music has had its musicological (largely theoretical and philosophical) discussions from quite early in Western history at least as far back as Boethius. Few manuscripts then and since indicated an interest in music outside the European geographical area. With expansion and exploration in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a cultural world was being discovered different from the European states. Explorations to sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas and the Far East brought back stories of socio-musical events, but they were described in the most degrading terms. For example, a member of Captain Cook's voyage in 1778 to the Hawaiian Islands described the hula as lascivious. The music of sub-Saharan Africa for a couple of centuries or more was considered primitive and merely consisting of rhythmic noises.
It was only in the 1880s and 1890s of Europe that comparative musicology was established as a scholarly discipline. Early in the twentieth century, scholars like Otto Abraham and Eric von Hornbostel were forerunners to the now broadly populated discipline of ethnomusicology, a term suggested by Jaap Kunst. Ethnomusicologists were and are interested in music as a primary substance but in cultural context, the latter aspect differentiating themselves from musicologists.
In the west, musicology focused on music as a product to be studied for its intrinsic values that were assumed to transcend all cultural boundaries. The field of psychology took a somewhat similar pathway. From Gustav Fechner and later Wilhelm Wundt, psychology centered on the individual, basing observations on clinical tests of visual senses, timing, and other aspects of human performance. In all these experiments, the singular subject was the primary object for assessment.
Only in the last two or so decades has both musicology and psychology begun to broaden their scopes of investigations. Musicology now recognizes social aspects of music and how the course of music is frequently determined by cultural context. In this mode, gender studies are at the forefront. Likewise, psychologists are now admitting social parameters to their views of individual psychologies.
Thus, the social aspects of music are broadly explored in the book that the editors, David J. Hargreaves and Adrian C. North have assembled. It should be of paramount interest to anyone working in psychology of music, education in music, scholarly research in the humanities, and in fact, even in the fields of neurological studies. The collection of recognized authors is an invaluable contribution to the present discussions of humankind (individually and collectively) and music. After all, as W. Ray Crozier begins his chapter: "The enjoyment of music is essentially a social experience."
The Social Psychology of Music begins with the editors' overview of the field, which lays an excellent foundation for the remaining chapters. Part I comprises individual differences in musical behaviour, and gender and music. Part II looks at social groups and music in two more chapters. Part III in three chapters examines social and cultural influences, with an excellent view of the roles in society through the ethnomusicological perspective. Developmental issues during youth and over a lifetime are discussed in Part IV. Part V utilizes two chapters to survey musicianship through performance. Finally, Part VI has three chapters on real world applications.
Wherever one begins to read, there is a provocative and stimulating discussion that raises many more questions than those considered. Graduate students should be pleased to see prospective theses dancing before their eyes. Chapter 6 on historiometric analysis presented an approach I was not familiar with and one whose value I'm still assessing for my understanding of music history. How repertoires developed and their expressed values to the culture examined in Chapter 5 through experimental aesthetics should be collated with Chapter 6 for a deeper understanding of musical preference. Both chapters presented some new thoughts about social research that we might weigh more closely.
I found the Introversion/Extraversion explanations of Anthony Kemp not quite in tune with my own understanding of Jung and the development of the Type Indicator by Meyers and Briggs. Jung drew extreme pictures of introversion and extraversion, presumably to illustrate with clarity these two dimensions of personality. However, later writers found that most people adapt to different situations by using their auxiliary function (opposite of the primary attribute) to meet the needs of varying environments. Therefore, to classify musicians without taking into consideration development of the auxiliary properties might misdirect understanding of the musician's personality. Although, as Kemp points out, there may be some greater understanding yet to be gained through Eysenck's theory of arousal. There is still much to be done in plumbing the depths of musicians' personality through Jungian perspectives, however, we might also investigate the personality characteristics vis-à-vis the listener, and perhaps even whole cultures in like manner.
All in all, this is a valuable entry to a field that is finally gaining a much-needed recognition. Wholeheartedly and without reservation, this work is highly recommended reading. Any faults one may find in the individual chapters cannot be significant enough to warrant any negative criticism. The editors should be commended for work well done.
Anthony J. Palmer, Boston University