The Passion for Music: A Sociology of Mediation

352 Pages·2016·13.247 MB·English

by  Antoine Hennion, Margaret Rigaud, Peter Collier

The Passion for Music:
a sociology of MediaTion
Music and change:
ecological Perspectives
Series Editors:
gary ansdell, director of education, nordoff robbins Music Therapy, uK
Professor Tia denora, department of sociology & Philosophy, huss,
university of exeter, uK
Series Advisory Board:
Kenneth aigen, Temple university, usa
Jane davidson, university of Western australia
Timothy dowd, emory university, usa
lucy green, institute of education, uK
lee higgins, Boston university college of fine arts, usa
raymond Macdonald, edinburgh university, uK
Mercédès Pavlicevic, nordoff robbins, uK
even ruud, university of oslo, norway
Brynjulf stige, university of Bergen, norway
henry stobart, royal holloway, university of london, uK
Music and Change: Ecological Perspectives, is a cross-disciplinary, topic-led series
for scholars and practitioners. its aim is to explore the question of how, where and
when music makes a difference. if music is a dynamic ingredient of change, what
are the processes and mechanisms associated with music’s powers, and how can
ecological perspectives help us to understand music in action? Book proposals are
welcome in any of the following areas: healthcare, social policy, political activism,
psychiatry, embodiment, mind and consciousness, community relations, education
and informal learning, management and organizational cultures, trauma, memory
and commemoration, theories of action, self-help, conflict and conflict resolution,
the life course, spirituality and religion, disability studies, palliative care, social
criticism, governance, resistance, protest, and utopian communities.
Published titles in the series
Music Asylums: Wellbeing Through Music in Everyday Life
Tia denora
How Music Helps in Music Therapy and Everyday Life
gary ansdell
The Passion for Music:
a sociology of Mediation
anToine hennion
Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation, École des Mines – CNRS;
Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University, France
Translated by
MargareT rigaud and PeTer collier
First published 2015 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
copyright© 2015 antoine hennion, Margaret rigaud and Peter collier
antoine hennion, Margaret rigaud and Peter collier have asserted their right under the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author and translators of
this work.
originally published in french as La passion musicale by antoine hennion (editions
Métailié, 1993).
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Notice:
P roduct or corporate names may be trademarks orregistered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanationwithout intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
library of congress cataloging-in-Publication data
hennion, antoine.
[Passion musicale. english]
The passion for music : a sociology of mediation / by antoine hennion ; translated by
Margaret rigaud and Peter collier.
pages cm. -- (Music and change: ecological perspectives)
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-1-4724-1810-4 (hardcover) 1. Music--Philosophy and aesthetics. 2.
aesthetics. 3. Music--social aspects. i. rigaud, Margaret, translator. ii. collier, Peter,
1942-, translator. iii. Title.
Ml3845.h5313 2015
306.4'842--dc23
2014042700
isBn 9781472418104 (hbk)
contents
List of Figures vii
Preface to the English Edition ix
introduction 1
1 lasting Things: durkheim as a founding father of the
sociology of culture 15
Transition restoring the Mediators: one Method for Two Programmes 39
2 Before Mediation: social readings of art 45
3 sociology and the art object: Belief, illusion, artefacts 69
4 The social history of art: reinserting the Works into society 101
5 The new history of art: The social in the art Work 119
Transition linear causes or circular causalities? 153
6 The Baroque case: Musical upheavals 165
Transition ‘unhappy Music’ Which ‘fade[s] away as soon as it is
Born’…: Painting-and-objects versus Music-and-society? 209
7 ‘What can you hear?’: an ethnographic study of a
solfège lesson 221
Transition Music as a Theory of Mediation 245
8 ‘Bach Today’ 247
intermezzo a sociologist at the Zénith concert hall … 261
9 Music lovers: Taste as an activity 267
vi The Passion for Music: A Sociology of Mediation
Conclusion: The Representation of Music: In Praise of Musical Artifice 281
epilogue ‘Vor deinen Thron’… 295
Bibliography 303
Index 331
list of figures
1.1 The square of belief 25
1.2 The circle of causalities 31
5.1 a global, circular causality 154
5.2 Partial, linear causalities 155
5.3 The object, the social, partial causes: a triangle
enclosing mediations 158
7.1 a classroom 223
7.2 Time 1, an indifferent class: What does he want? 227
7.3 Time 2, a heckling class: We’d rather laugh together! 228
7.4 Time 3, an inter-ested class: Mediators have entered the place … 233
7.5 Bouncing back against the envelope … 234
7.6 … or entering it 234
7.7 Time 4, a crystallised class: Music is appearing … 237
7.8 The children’s musical stave 240
c.1 a given world, or a world still to be done? 282

Preface to the english edition
This book is the translation of La Passion musicale, first published in 1993,
comprehensively revised and rewritten. The book itself derived from a doctoral
thesis entitled ‘la Médiation musicale’ (ehess 1991). it was translated into
spanish in 2003. a new, revised and corrected, edition of La Passion musicale
appeared in 2007. over the years, several ultimately unsuccessful attempts were
made to translate it into english. This created a rather curious situation. although
my research was becoming known to english readers through translated papers
of mine or publications which referenced my work, one of their main sources
remained inaccessible to english-speaking readers. it is for this reason that i am
so pleased to welcome this edition. i express my gratitude particularly towards the
colleagues, translators and publishers whose efforts have led to its publication,
first and foremost Tia de Nora, who has worked with such conviction over the
years to bring this project to fruition.
It is both satisfying and frustrating to look back over a text whose first version
is 20 years old. although i was thankfully often reassured by my arguments, there
were some which retrospectively i regret not having developed further in the book.
conversely, i feel some remorse on detecting signs of equally interesting lines of
research which i have never taken further. i felt a strong urge to censor a clumsy
argument here, add a helpful reference there, or complete an unfinished debate.
and even sometimes to start all over again …. i have tried to resist this temptation.
it would not have been the same book: a book belongs to its time. its insights,
arguments and conclusions, but also its blind spots and obsessions, are part of its
baggage. They no longer belong to the author.
in revising the text, i have adopted the stance of an editor. above all, i wanted
to make it more fluent, while staying close to the mission of La Passion musicale,
which was to present a broad argument, with far-reaching implications. The book
seeks to redefine the sociology of music, taking as its theme and material the
complex relationships between the social sciences and the arts. it proceeds by
comparing and contrasting the sociology of music with art history, the social
history of art, the sociology of culture, and the sociology of arts other than
music. in the original edition, i felt it was necessary to include a large number
of case studies, in order to strike the right balance between theoretical analysis
and empirical study. some of these case studies have dated, while others were
elaborated for separate publication. it seems to me now more helpful to show the
relevance and the pertinence of the argument by focusing this new edition on the
book’s central premise: elaborating a theory of mediation. i chose to focus on the
case studies – the reinterpretation of Baroque music, the ethnographical study of