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Lisa McCormick considers the history of classical music competitions and their role in society today by examining highlights and controversies.
List of contents
Introduction; 1. The rise and near demise of the international music competition; 2. Competitions enter the civil sphere; 3. Narrating the competition; 4. The presentation of musical self; 5. Producing sound judgments; 6. Voicing opinions; Conclusion: what is the future of music competitions?; Appendix A. Selected competitions: facts and figures; Appendix B. Membership of the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC), 1957-2012; Appendix C. Putting the 'performance perspective' in perspective.
About the author
Lisa McCormick is a Lecturer in the department of sociology at the University of Edinburgh. She has published widely in the sociology of the arts and serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Cultural Sociology and Music and Art in Action. She is co-editor, with Ron Eyerman, of Myth, Meaning and Performance (2006). Her first article on music competitions, which appeared in Cultural Sociology in 2009, won the SAGE prize in excellence and/or innovation. She is also a Faculty Fellow with the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University, Connecticut and a Research Associate with the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath.
Summary
Lisa McCormick considers the history of classical music competitions and their role in society by examining their highlights and ongoing controversies. She explains why, despite a widespread belief that performances cannot be ranked, aspiring musicians still enter them, professionals still judge them, and audiences still invest emotionally in the results.
