A Social History of English Music by E. D. MacKernessReview by: Robert DoningtonJournal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Autumn, 1965), pp. 423-425Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/830715 .

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REVIEWS 423

show basic approaches to the analysis of music in general, but a simple folksong is a naive illustration of the process. In- strumental music poses problems of its own, solutions to which are not to be found in techniques of analysis of vocal music, especially monody.

One may also take exception to Nettl's continued use of terminology associated primarily with techniques of Western art music to describe aspects of non- Western musics. Such a term is "poly- phony," which even in Western music is ambiguous. Its essential meaning of "many-voiced" might be thought de- scriptive of the music of the gong-chime cultures of Southeast Asia. If the term is understood to imply the use of many independent voices, however, as it is often understood in Western music, it is inappropriate. The technique used in Southeast Asia is the combination of a theme with abstractions of itself, elabora- tions, and variations, as well as inde- pendent but melodically (not harmoni- cally) related lines.1 Such a phrase as a "kind of polyphony" (pages i37 and 138, for example) is fundamentally inac- curate, whether or not the author deems it "best initially to class all non-Western music in which more than one pitch is heard at a time as one type of music, which we may for convenience call po- lyphony" (page I52). By analogy it would be just as inaccurate to describe music as harmonic if two tones are sounded simultaneously.

Finally, Nettl recommends (on page 36) those sections in the New Oxford History of Music, Volume 1: Ancient and Oriental Music that deal with the Asiatic art cultures by saying that al- though "there is some variation in quality among these chapters . . . all together they form a good survey of Asian art music." There is much variation: Colin McPhee held that the section on Bali is very poor, and I can attest that the sec- tion on the area of my own research,

Thailand, is worse. Nettl's recommenda- tion contrasts with Seeger's definitive review.2 Moreover, in paraphrasing (on page 168) a section of Bake's article on the music of India in volume I of the New Oxford History of Music (page 2o6), Nettl simplifies in a very mislead- ing way.

Distorted and incomplete, Nettl's book seems to aspire not to the augmentation of the knowledge of the specialist, nor to the integration of opposing theories, but simply to the sketching of certain aspects of the field. The best parts of the book are the chapter on bibliographic resources, most of the chapter on tran- scription, and particularly the last two chapters on music in culture. Here, the author is at home in his anthropologi- cally-oriented environment, and produces expositions that, although not lengthy, are rewarding.

DAVID MORTON

University of California, Los Angeles

1 To describe this technique more precisely, the term "polyphonic stratification," which was used earlier in this review, was coined recently by Mantle Hood.

2 Ethnomusicology III, 2 (May, 1959), pp. 96-97.

E. D. Mackerness. A Social History of English Music. London: Rout- ledge and Kegan Paul; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1964. X, 307 PP. THIS IS A GOOD EXAMPLE of a class of book standing at the boundary of two sub- jects: musicology and sociology. By trade, the author is a distinguished teacher of a third subject: English liter- ature. He writes very well: a strong advantage. His approach is decidedly not that of a professional musicologist, and this brings both advantages and disad- vantages.

The book makes a bad start. To write an account either of "Music" or of "So- ciety in the Middle Ages" takes a finely specialized knowledge and skill; to relate the two in one chapter takes a special sort of historical imagination which can only grow at all in long accumulated knowledge of this special kind. It was

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424 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

perhaps a mistake to go so far back, and the result as a whole is rather inaccurate and amateurish. But there are good passages, too, particularly about the li- turgical dramas at Coventry and else- where. Here the professional scholar of literature takes a hand, and we sense a surer touch at once.

No professional scholar of music would be likely to write that "ideally, a full and detailed musical score contains explicit directions as to how the music itself must sound: it represents the com- poser's intentions in their totality" (p. 6). It does no such thing, ideally or other- wise: the performer's contribution not only must but should be individual, per- sonal and independently creative. The inferences which follow this misconcep- tion are unfocused, and where right, no better than obvious. There are a number of passages in the book which are simi- larly unfocused and dubious, because written not from the center of the sub- ject by a writer whose life's work it is, but from the periphery by an observer from another field.

But I hope the reader will not be put off by this disadvantageous aspect; for the advantageous results of thus seeing a musical subject from an outside angle are very conspicuous in this quite un- usual book. Chapter One is a mixture of the perfunctory and the over-confident: but already with the Renaissance in Chapter Two Mr. Mackerness seems more at ease, and by the Age of Reason in Chapter Three, he is plainly on home territory. Indeed, he writes almost like a man of that attractive age: reasonable; no doubt a little more reasonable than the dark underside of life quite warrants; but with a commitment to the cause of reason admirably passionate in its in- tensity. Passion is not reasonable; but there can be a passion for reason, luckily, and Mr. Mackerness has it. Hence the value of his insights, wherever his sym- pathies are deeply engaged. And they are so through most of the remainder of the book.

The subject of opera in the Age of Reason is introduced, with a pleasantly

ironic touch, by quoting Dr. Johnson's view of it as "an exotic and irrational entertainment which has always been combated, and has always prevailed." Ex- actly: and Mr. Mackerness is as delighted as he is fascinated by its irrationality, of which he is very well able to see the underlying human truthfulness. He com- municates his delight: it is all very good reading, never quite what a professional music historian would have thought of saying, and not infrequently more il- luminating. The breadth of interest and the width of reading here evident are most refreshing and stimulating: very few music historians are as generally cul- tured, and it is excellent to have these novel vistas opened up. There are still weaknesses due to reliance (which the Bibliography confirms) on out-dated au- thorities, or to mere insufficiency of musical background; but the continual gain in freshness outweighs the occa- sional loss in accuracy.

A highly individual chapter follows on the connections between music and the Industrial Revolution. That was a socio- logical shift if ever there has been one: radically changing conditions of living for large numbers of plain folk, few of them with any comprehension of what was happening to them beyond the un- escapable facts that things were not as they had been before, and that hardship was prevalent. But so was enterprise prevalent; and the result of this enter- prise in musical activities makes wonder- ful reading. Again the story is well told, and it gets better and better as it is carried down through the nineteenth century and on into modern times.

The connection between educational progress and musical accomplishment makes a further chapter; for hardship stimulated reforms, and the new literacy was prominent among them: a reform only established gradually; but bringing profound consequences in its train.

The climax of the book comes with a thoughtful discussion of our modern context. We now reap not only the fruits of universal education, but the fruits of universal radio and phono-

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REVIEWS 425

graph. That some of these fruits are evil fruits is a problem raised by Mr. Mack- erness, but not very boldly faced. He rightly points out that music, through mechanical reproduction, has become a "cheap commodity"; and he seems, again rightly, to suspect that here as elsewhere cheapness often brings under-valuing. But he does not trumpet it out, as he might have done, that the experience of music mechanically reproduced is not the same as the experience of music directly undergone. Good as it may be in its different way, it is different, and to mistake the reproduction for as good as the original is like mistaking a love

letter for as good as a lover's meeting. That is the main sociological problem

connected with music at the present time, and it would be unfair to criticize Mr. Mackerness for not stating it more plainly, since not many musicologists by profession do so either. As for solving it, that will come from no individual, but slowly, if at all, from our collective wis- dom, and no one does more than con- tribute his small share of that. With all its flaws, Mr. Mackerness's book is a good contribution.

ROBERT DONINGTON

University of Iowa

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