Classical Music and the Subject of Modernity

This lecture took place on 06 November 2007

A British Academy Aspects of Art Lecture given by Professor John Butt, FBA, Gardiner Professor of Music, University of Glasgow and chaired by Professor Nicholas Cook, FBA, Professorial Research Fellow in Music, Royal Holloway, University of London.

This lecture presents the thesis that what is generally understood by western ‘classical music’ is of a piece with ‘modernity’, something that makes it exceptional rather than the norm within the context of world music. While classical music is difficult to isolate entirely from all other forms of music in terms of its materials and structure, it is more securely defined in relation to a particular historical tendency which embraces an ensemble of cultural practices. One of the ways it relates in particular to modernity is through its association with a particular range of human subjects.

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