Music and Musicology in the Light of Intermediality and Intermedial Studies

TY - JOUR

T1 - Music and Musicology in the Light of Intermediality and Intermedial Studies

AU - Arvidson, Mats

N1 - Journal Editor: Erik Wallrup and Jacob Derkert

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - In this article I show how aesthetic disciplines, to which musicology belongs, have suffered from a crisis of creativity for the past decade or so. By crisis of creativity I mean the development of new theories, which can contribute to new knowledge about music, from both historical and contemporary prespectives. With help from theories that normally lies outside of the institutional discourse of musicology, I argue that what is known as an intermedial perspective can contribute to a new understandning of music. The aim with this article is thus to introduce the concept of intermediality and the discipline of intermedial studies into the discussion of musicology as a discipline. Two parallel strands are followed through which four questions are raised. The two strands are: 1) the ”interarts” strand, and 2) the Cultural Studies/media studies strand. The four questions are: 1) What characterises the intermedial perspective? 2) Which theories appear? 3) What are the similarities and differences between the ”interarts” and ”Cultural Studies/media studies strands? and finally, 4) Is there a place for a ”new” humanities discipline now and in the future? Question number four deals with the premise that society today is characterised by an intensive media culture, in which all cultural expressions are woven into one another, i.e. a multimodal and intermedial culture. If we to accept this premise, then for an intended humanities discipline to understand this culture, a specific, clearly formulated body of theory is needed. There appears to be an increasing demand for such a body of theory within different disciplinary fields that already has been formulated within the field of intermedial studies. My suggestion is that intermedial studies can function as a supplement to the other aesthetic disciplines.

AB - In this article I show how aesthetic disciplines, to which musicology belongs, have suffered from a crisis of creativity for the past decade or so. By crisis of creativity I mean the development of new theories, which can contribute to new knowledge about music, from both historical and contemporary prespectives. With help from theories that normally lies outside of the institutional discourse of musicology, I argue that what is known as an intermedial perspective can contribute to a new understandning of music. The aim with this article is thus to introduce the concept of intermediality and the discipline of intermedial studies into the discussion of musicology as a discipline. Two parallel strands are followed through which four questions are raised. The two strands are: 1) the ”interarts” strand, and 2) the Cultural Studies/media studies strand. The four questions are: 1) What characterises the intermedial perspective? 2) Which theories appear? 3) What are the similarities and differences between the ”interarts” and ”Cultural Studies/media studies strands? and finally, 4) Is there a place for a ”new” humanities discipline now and in the future? Question number four deals with the premise that society today is characterised by an intensive media culture, in which all cultural expressions are woven into one another, i.e. a multimodal and intermedial culture. If we to accept this premise, then for an intended humanities discipline to understand this culture, a specific, clearly formulated body of theory is needed. There appears to be an increasing demand for such a body of theory within different disciplinary fields that already has been formulated within the field of intermedial studies. My suggestion is that intermedial studies can function as a supplement to the other aesthetic disciplines.

KW - Johan Fornäs

KW - Lars Elleström

KW - Nicholas Cook

KW - Claus Clüver

KW - Jørgen Bruhn

KW - Walter Bernhart

KW - Irving Babbitt

KW - Daniel Albright

KW - Theodor W. Adorno

KW - multidisciplinary

KW - interdisciplinary

KW - media studies

KW - Cultural Studies

KW - intermedial studies

KW - interarts studies

KW - comparative literature studies

KW - new musicology

KW - musicology

KW - music

KW - Lydia Goehr

KW - Clement Greenberg

KW - Joseph Kerman

KW - Lawrence Kramer

KW - Ulla-Britta Lagerroth

KW - Mikko Lehtonen

KW - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

KW - Simon Shaw-Miller

KW - W. J. T. Mitchell

KW - Steven Paul Scher

KW - Werner Wolf.

M3 - Article

VL - 15

JO - Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning STM-SJM

JF - Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning STM-SJM

SN - 1653-9672

ER -