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January 2, 2006
Blockquote Juxtaposition: Cultural Theory Edition
Though my readership hates it when I blockquote, I want to present two things side by side, with commentary forthcoming. Eventually.
But what makes music special -- what makes it special for identity -- is that it defines a space without boundaries (a game without frontiers). Music is thus the cultural form best able both to cross borders -- sounds carry across fences and walls and oceans, across classes, races and nations -- and to define places; in clubs, scenes, and raves, listening on headphones, radio and in the concert hall, we are only where the music takes us.
-- Simon Frith, "Music and Identity," in Questions of Cultural Identity ed. Stuart Hall and Paul de Gay (London : Sage, 1996)
For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,
The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.....
-- T.S. Eliot, The Four Quartets, "The Dry Salvages," V
(online here)
Interestingly, the Eliot is quoted as the inscription to Douglas Shand-Tucci's biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner, The Art of Scandal. Definitely a nod to intuitions about the relationship between music and identity (or culture and identity). Notice also this idea again about boundaries and games, and their relationship.....something that's come up on this page before. Further development in my senior thesis on Debussy's music in Boston....
Posted by David Richmond at January 2, 2006 3:05 AM EST
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Comments
David,
You know how much I hate it when you block quote. Knock it off.
Grandma Richmond
P.S. I kicked the shit out of the Lions on All-Madden yesterday, can't wait to rock you when you come visit on Easter :)
Posted by: Your Grandmother at January 2, 2006 11:39 PM
MANAAAAAVVVVVVVVVVV
Posted by: David Richmond at January 2, 2006 11:56 PM