ABSTRACT
In recent years we have, one might suppose, seen the publication of more than enough navel-gazing collections exploring the current state of the disciplines of music studies. Why another? The idea for this book arose in a quite specific moment. Members of the newly formed Musics and Cultures Research Group at The Open University in Britain found that, although their work as individuals stemmed from a variety of disciplinary positions, they shared a sense that, to quote the book proposal:
It is more than five years since the original discussions, and the degree of programmatic clarity signaled, however hesitantly, in that statement already looks premature. The contents of this book could certainly not be taken to justify the announcement of any new paradigm (even though they do map many of the trajectories, approaches, and changes that we had in mind); but that was to be expected. More disappointing is the fact
that, in the discipline at large, the process of reconfiguration seems to have slowed markedly. This alone would justify engagement with the questions that initially exercised us, especially when so many other essays in intradisciplinary reassessment concentrate on one perspective alone (gender, the canon, history, musical analysis, or whatever the case may be).
