Extraordinary Measures: Disability in Music (Hardback)

Joseph N. Straus (author)

£49.49

Hardback 224 Pages / Published: 14/04/2011

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Synopsis

Approaching disability as a cultural construction rather than a medical pathology, this book studies the impact of disability and concepts of disability on composers, performers, and listeners with disabilities, as well as on discourse about music and works of music themselves. For composers with disabilities-like Beethoven, Delius, and Schumann-awareness of the disability sharply inflects critical reception. For performers with disabilities-such as Itzhak Perlman and Evelyn Glennie-the performance of disability and the performance of music are deeply intertwined. For listeners with disabilities, extraordinary bodies and minds may give rise to new ways of making sense of music. In the stories that people tell about music, and in the stories that music itself tells, disability has long played a central but unrecognized role. Some of these stories are narratives of overcoming-the triumph of the human spirit over adversity-but others are more nuanced tales of accommodation and acceptance of life with a non-normative body or mind. In all of these ways, music both reflects and constructs disability.

Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
ISBN: 9780199766451
Number of pages: 224
Weight: 454 g
Dimensions: 238 x 161 x 21 mm

MEDIA REVIEWS

A meticulously researched book that connects disability narratives with composing, theorizing, performing, and hearing music. * Journal of the American Musicological Society *
A work of intellectual virtuosity, Extraordinary Measures will change the way we think about music and the way we think about disability. Joseph Straus shows us how disability appears not only in musical performance and narrative, but most fully in musical form. * Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Emory University *
A leading figure in the field of music theory, Straus has applied his considerable talents not only as a writer and critical thinker, but also as a humanist in the most profound sense, to virtually single-handedly create the field of disability studies in music scholarship. This book is both engaging and moving, as Straus expertly draws current literature in disability studies into a new, musical context and examines our deepest beliefs and prejudices about music, musicians, and the worlds they create and inhabit. * Dave Headlam, Eastman School of Music *
A veritable music-theoretical page-turner, this book surveys a wondrously defamiliarized landscape of music reception, theory, and performance through the transformative lens of disability. It is nothing short of a major landmark, destined to exert a profound impact on the field. * Floyd Grave, Rutgers University *
Breaks new ground...A powerful and moving piece of social activism in the music arena...As Extraordinary Measures persuasively shows, it's time we consider disabled musicians and listeners not as defective, but merely as different. * Chamber Music *