Musicology and Dance
Musicology and Dance
Long treated as peripheral to music history, dance has become prominent within musicological research, as a prime and popular subject for an increasing number of books, articles, conference papers and special symposiums. Despite this growing interest, there remains no thorough-going critical examination of the ways in which musicologists might engage with dance, thinking not only about specific repertoires or genres, but about fundamental commonalities between the two, including embodiment, agency, subjectivity and consciousness. This volume begins to fill this gap. Ten chapters illustrate a range of conceptual, historical and interpretive approaches that advance the interdisciplinary study of music and dance. This methodological eclecticism is a defining feature of the volume, integrating insights from critical theory, film and cultural studies, the visual arts, phenomenology, cultural anthropology and literary criticism into the study of music and dance.
- A collection of essays that focuses on dance and dance music and adds to the growing awareness of the body's contribution to the process of music making
- Examines well-known pieces from the repertory of Western art music through the lens of dance
- Recognizes the importance of engaging music in the context of not only words and social context, but in relationship to dance, the visual arts, and philosophy
Reviews & endorsements
‘An engaging, erudite, and brilliantly edited collection of important essays on music and dance. Here the producers and process of art are valued as much as the product. While honoring the embodied knowledge of dancers themselves and respecting the all too human aspects of dance, the authors also, in complementary ways, address the sublime – the beauty beyond our mortal ken.' Simon Morrison, Princeton University, New Jersey
‘This refreshing and thoughtful book contributes to the body of research that has been synthesizing dance and music for more than 30 years … Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.’ A. E. Handfield, Choice
‘Dance has proved an increasingly rich site of musicological study since the 1980s, and a new collected volume edited by Davinia Caddy and Maribeth Clark from Cambridge University Press makes a valuable contribution to that growing body of literature … Scholars in this interdisciplinary space will welcome a work brimming with the diversity of conceptual, historical, and interpretative approaches that this text provides.’ Lena Leson, Revue de musicologie
‘The glimpses of live performance directly referenced in Musicology and Dance are not only informative but, dare it be said, entertaining too … [The book] offers many fresh insights into relationships between dance and music.’ Jeremy Barlow, Dance Chronicle
Product details
June 2022Paperback
9781108469951
325 pages
245 × 168 × 20 mm
0.55kg
12 b/w illus. 7 tables 25 music examples
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction Davinia Caddy and Maribeth Clark
- Part I. Conceptual Studies:
- 1. J. S. Bach and the dance of humankind John Butt
- 2. Dance as 'other': contrasting modes of musical representation Suzanne Aspden
- 3. Thinking on our feet: a somatic enquiry into a Haydn minuet Joseph Fort
- 4. Making moves in reception studies: music, listening and Loie Fuller Davinia Caddy
- Part II. Case Histories:
- 5. The 'splendid and shameful art': dancing in and around the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk Thomas Grey
- 6. Hymnody, dance and the sacred in the illustrated song Marian Wilson Kimber
- 7. Pavanes and passepieds in the age of the cancan Carlo Caballero
- Part III: Critical Readings:
- 8. Nijinsky, modernism, repression: the Faune ballet – once again – under analysis David J. Code
- 9. Choreographing Mahler songs at the centenary Wayne Heisler, Jr
- 10. Embodied heritage: English country dance in Austen screen adaptations Maribeth Clark.
