Sociology of Music Ils 91 by Alphons Silbermann

Author:Alphons Silbermann [Silbermann, Alphons]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781315006895
Publisher: TaylorFrancis
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

3. THE CONSUMER GROUPS

Preliminaries to the analysis of the structure of consumer groups

So far as the structural analysis of consumer groups is concerned, it would be simplest to ask the reader to employ the principles laid down for the analysis of producer groups, and to carry out the analysis for himself. In this way, repetition would be avoided. But on the other hand, such a trouble-saving suggestion would make musico-sociological principles into dogma—which cannot be the purpose of sociological research; not to mention the fact that such a procedure would flatly ignore the manifold changes and variations in the social process. Perhaps at first sight the procedure of distinguishing groups in a somewhat abstract fashion, and of structurizing the material according to interdependent elements, in a way which may appear slightly artificial, may seem unnecessary for learning about the life of music. Yet here, as in everything else, it is impossible to construct a building without having first prepared the individual parts. Naturally, it would be much simpler to state ex cathedra that ‘art as such’ has gradually withdrawn from the totality of life to become ‘an affair of the specialists, for the courts, for l'art pour l'art, for snobs’,1 and thus to believe that one had sufficiently described the consumer groups. It would also be simpler, and completely true, to say that ‘music is first and foremost a practical art and musical compositions are intended to be performed and heard’,2 and to leave it at that. But statements of this kind are no longer sufficient. Though they may contain common truths and possess a pleasing simplicity, they are in no way appropriate to an age in which the musical experience has attained—at least from a quantitative viewpoint—to so central a place in social life, that its cultural effect can penetrate into the humblest home that is provided with the technical means for its reception. Statistics show that in America in 1956 alone, more money was spent on the hearing of classical concerts (around 50 million dollars) than on visits to the popular baseball games (around 40 million dollars). The theme ‘Music and Culture’, together with all its variations—a theme which a hundred years ago was so unproblematical as hardly to be discussed at all—is today a central theme at congresses and festivals. Never a month passes in which one or another musical magazine does not augur the ‘downfall of music’, crying for aid, accusing here, making suggestions there. But no one dares approach the total system or examine the total structure; for there exists a widespread fear of any break with tradition and a corresponding hope that the solution to all our problems will one day arise from music itself.

Yet the whole system must be examined, and anyone wishing to do this must first analyse the individual aspects in order to discover the weak spots; nor may he limit himself to throwing his cap in the air when some individual composer succeeds in establishing the ‘rebirth of opera’. I

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