Overview

Music's role in animating democracy--whether through protests and demonstrations, as a vehicle for political identity, or as a means of overcoming social divides--is well understood. Yet musicians have also been drawn to the potential of embodying democracy itself through musical processes and relationships. In this book, author Robert Adlington uses modern democratic theory to explore what he terms the 'musical modelling of democracy' as manifested in modern and experimental music of the global North. Throughout the book, Adlington demonstrates how composers and musicians have taken strikingly different approaches to this kind of musical modelling. For some, democratic principles inform the textural relationships inscribed into musical scores, as in the case of Elliott Carter's 'polyvocal' compositions. Pioneers of musical indeterminacy sought to democratise the relationship between composer and performers by leaving open key decisions about the realisation of a work. Musicians have involved audiences in active participation to liberate them from the passivity of spectatorship. Free improvisation groups have experimented with new kinds of egalitarian relationships between performers to reject old hierarchies. In examining these different approaches, Adlington illuminates the achievements and ambiguities of musical models of democracy. As a result, this book not only offers an important new perspective on modern musicians' engagement with a central political idea of the past century, but it also encourages a deeper and more critical engagement with the idea of democracy within present-day musical life.

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9780197658819

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Reviews

"Advance praise for Musical Models of Democracy ""Given the mounting threats to democracy across the globe, Adlington's book will be of considerable interest to anyone concerned by this recent turn of events. All the more so, as his book eloquently attests to how under such conditions music may serve as a repository for democratic ideals that are thwarted or suppressed elsewhere."" --Eric Drott, Associate Professor of Music, University of Texas at Austin Praise for Composing Dissent: Avant-garde Music in 1960s Amsterdam ""it is a fascinating account of a turbulent period of Dutch musical life, built on impressive research."" --Floris Schuiling, Cambridge Humanities Review ""[A] tremendously erudite and engrossing overview of ten years of Dutch music history."" --Anthony Fiumara, Trouw Praise for Sound Commitments: Avant-garde Music and the 1960s ""This book encapsulates how and why popular music engages with politics and it is an illuminating read ... [an] original, enjoyable and very readable book."" --Guy Osborn, Times Higher Education ""a wide-ranging survey, and a valuable one...Deftly edited by Robert Adlington...throws a revealing light on a movement with too many manifestos in 'a decade that saw some of its most singular and provocative manifestations.'"" --Michael Quinn, Classical Music"

"Advance praise for Musical Models of Democracy ""Given the mounting threats to democracy across the globe, Adlington's book will be of considerable interest to anyone concerned by this recent turn of events. All the more so, as his book eloquently attests to how under such conditions music may serve as a repository for democratic ideals that are thwarted or suppressed elsewhere."" * Eric Drott, Associate Professor of Music, University of Texas at Austin * Praise for Composing Dissent: Avant-garde Music in 1960s Amsterdam ""it is a fascinating account of a turbulent period of Dutch musical life, built on impressive research."" * Floris Schuiling, Cambridge Humanities Review * [A] tremendously erudite and engrossing overview of ten years of Dutch music history."" * Anthony Fiumara, Trouw * Praise for Sound Commitments: Avant-garde Music and the 1960s ""This book encapsulates how and why popular music engages with politics and it is an illuminating read ... [an] original, enjoyable and very readable book."" * Guy Osborn, Times Higher Education * a wide-ranging survey, and a valuable one...Deftly edited by Robert Adlington...throws a revealing light on a movement with too many manifestos in 'a decade that saw some of its most singular and provocative manifestations.'"" * Michael Quinn, Classical Music *"

Author Information

Robert Adlington is Professor of Musicology at the Royal College of Music. He is the author of books on Harrison Birtwistle, Louis Andriessen, and avant-garde music in 1960s Amsterdam, and is the editor of volumes on new music theatre, music and communism, and music and democracy.

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