ABSTRACT
Art and Agency poses a challenge for a discussion of music, for Alfred Gell’s interpretive framework specifically addresses visual art rather than performance. In ‘Western’ classical music, however, there is a differentiation of artist roles between composer and performer. James Young states the ideals of the historical performance movement succinctly: Members of the early music movement tend to regard the quest for authentic performance as a process of solving musicological difficulties of a practical nature. The idea of a systematic and informed return to our musical past is relatively recent, and the drive to reinstitute old instruments and performance practice is even more recent. The historical performance movement is of course an aspect of the ‘classical’ genre of music that was an aspect of the cultures of Europe, North America and European colonies, but which has since diffused more widely. The museum culture, of which the virtual museum of musical works is but one aspect, links art to science.
