International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music - June 2011 [antikvár]

L. Blackstone: Remixing the Music of the Spheres: Listening to the Relevance of an Ancient Doctrine for the Sociology of MusicIRASM 42 (2011)1:3-31Remixing the iViusic of the Spheres:Listening to the Relevance of an Ancient Doctrine for the Sociology of MusicLee Blackstone Department of Sociology SUNY College at Old Westbury P.O. Box 210 OLD WESTBURY. NY 11568-0210, U.S.A. E-mail:[email protected]: 78.01:78.067 Original Scientific Paper Izvorni znanstveni rad Received: May 2, 2010 Primljeno: 5. svibnja 2010. Accepted: November 1, 2010 Prihva6eno: 1. studenog 2010. no law can oblige the subject to take his pleasure wherehe does not want to go (whatever the reasons might be for his resistance), no law is in a position to constrain our listening: freedom of listening is as necessary asfreedom of speech.Roland Barthes (1976)I heard Your voice in the garden, replied [the man], and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. - Genesis 3:10Cum On Feel The Noize.Slade (1973)The German director Wim Wenders captures extraordinary moments of listening in his 1987 film Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin). The angels Damiel (played by Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) wander the wall-divided city of Berlin, privy to ordinary mortals' cascading thoughts that permeate the city much like the frequencies of a shortwave radio. The angel Damiel has a longing to become corporeal, and he falls in love with a trapezeAbstract - Résumé Pythagoras' ancient principle of the 'music of the spheres' established linkages between people, nature, and the heavens. The idea of a musical universe operating according to principles of beauty and truth became foundational to the development of Western civilization. I argue that this doctrine has also exerted influence on sociological theories concerning listening to music. I assert that as the modern vi/orld was transformed by the division of labor and scientific rationality, people's relationship with music was likewise altered. New sounds destabilized the older hierarchy of unification. Listening to music emerges in this study as a social construction, subject to power and control, which delineates social boundaries. However, I argue that the conception of music as a vehicle of transcendence persists in musical theorizing from Pythagoras' time to the contemporary age. Keywords: listening Pythagoras modernity noise Utopia