SOC461 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Kapellmeister, Wind Instrument, Monophony
13 Dec 2016
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Soc 461 – Nov 1, 2016: Weber
2c. The division of society
• Society divides into distinct spheres, previously closely linked.
o State
o Economy
o Law
o Science
2d. The rise of the experts
Professionalization: Growing dominance of specialsts within any given field, focused exclusively on that
field, rather than extraneous concerns.
• Historically, music serverd other purposes:
o Religious, ceremonial, military.
o Thus, fors of usi ere goered eg. Deads to ake sared souds, rouse
emotions, etc.
• Weber identifies gradual rise of professional musicians, focused entirely on music as such
(rather than its religious purposes):
o Aoidoi of ancient Greece, or Bach as Kapellmeister were still entwined in social
institutions, but focused only on music.
▪ Travelling singers who would go from city to city and sing stories.
▪ Not driven by conerns about religion, but driven by only musical concerns. This
leads to music itself (all aspects of music) come to be dictated by musical
demands.
• Consequentally, they were driven only by musical concerns in the composition of their works.
2e. A Self-reinforcing process?
• Weber points to changes in manufacture of musical instruments in numerous societies across
history.
o Historically, things affecting the sound of an instrument – eg. Spacing of holes on wind
instrument – ere ditated setr or deoratio: usi sujet to alie rules.
o Gradual change as musical issues start to shape instruments: how best can they
reproduce necessary scales etc?
• This leads to a self-reinforcing spiral of rationalization:
o More usiall-orieted istruets ake usial eleets learer…
2f. The importance of theory
Theoretical Rationalization: Organization of different bodies of knowledge around core substantitve
principles of their own, and formal development of these theories.
• Music professionals, concerned exclusively with music, are able to develop musical theories
concerning the underlying rules of harmony, melody, etc.
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