Introduction

The plethora of apparently related entries suggests a topic pervasively relevant in musicology. There is no self-standing entry on aesthetics in Grove Music Online. The term absolute music as a designation for autonomous instrumental art music emerged in the nineteenth century, although it became standard terminology only in the twentieth. A realistic, politically engaged music would only be possible if it could be separated from romanticism. A notably broad range of musical reference, which moves widely in historical and geographical focus, includes discussion of the workings of censorship and propaganda in the Bolivian Andes, the Griot or Jali musicians of West Africa, music in North Korea, Iran, South Africa and Tibet. The investigation of the aesthetics associated with virtuosity necessitates several steps, beginning with an exploration of the concepts origins and historical meanings. Slow-burning questions of music and narrative have long concerned musical criticism, but more recently they have ignited into debates engulfing leading contributors to contemporary musicology.