Musical Formalism as Radical Political Critique: From European Modernism to African Spirit Possession
Dissertation, Columbia University (
2001)
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Abstract
This thesis explores ways in which formal music analysis can be put to productive political use in various diverse social contexts, ranging from music of European modernism to music associated with African spirit possession. The thesis elaborates a deconstructive argument against a currently-held methodological split in musicology between formalism , and hermeneutic criticism