Synopses & Reviews
Sexed Texts explores the complex role that language plays in the construction of sexuality and gender, two concepts often discussed separately but, in practice, closely intertwined. It locates sexuality and gender as socially constructed, and examines language use in terms of socio-historical factors, linking changing conceptualisations of identity, discourse and desire to theories surrounding regulation, globalisation, new technologies, marketisation and consumerism. This book draws on a range of theoretical perspectives and published research, and takes examples from written, spoken, internet, non-verbal, visual, mediascripted and naturally occurring texts. Some of the questions addressed in the book include: how do people construct their own and other's gendered or sexual identities through the use of language? What is the relationship between language and desire? In what ways do language practices help to reflect and shape different gendered/sexed discourses as 'normal', problematic or contested? Taking a broadly deconstructionist perspective, the book progresses from examining what are seen as preferable or acceptable ways to express gender and sexuality, moving towards more 'tolerated' identities, practices and desires, and finally arriving at marginalized and tabooed forms. The book locates sexuality and gender as socially constructed, and therefore examines language use in terms of socio-historical factors, linking changing conceptualisations of identity, discourse and desire to theories surrounding regulation, globalisation, new technologies, marketisation and consumerism.The early seventeenth century, when the first operas were written and technical advances with far-reaching consequences--such as tonal music--began to develop, is also notable for another shift: the displacement of aristocratic music-makers by a new professional class of performers. In this book, Andrew Dell'Antonio looks at a related phenomenon: the rise of a cultivated audience whose skill involved listening rather than playing or singing. Drawing from contemporaneous discourses and other commentaries on music, the visual arts, and Church doctrine, Dell'Antonio links the new ideas about cultivated listening with other intellectual trends of the period: humanistic learning, contemplative listening (or watching) as an active spiritual practice, and musical mysticism as an ideal promoted by the Church as part of the Catholic Reformation.
Review
"Listening as Spiritual Practice alignsand#160;in new ways many of our understandings of early modern musical culture."
Synopsis
The early seventeenth century, when the first operas were written and technical advances with far-reaching consequencesand#151;such as tonal musicand#151;began to develop, is also notable for another shift: the displacement of aristocratic music-makers by a new professional class of performers. In this book, Andrew Delland#8217;Antonio looks at a related phenomenon: the rise of a cultivated audience whose skill involved listening rather than playing or singing. Drawing from contemporaneous discourses and other commentaries on music, the visual arts, and Church doctrine, Delland#8217;Antonio links the new ideas about cultivated listening with other intellectual trends of the period: humanistic learning, contemplative listening (or watching) as an active spiritual practice, and musical mysticism as an ideal promoted by the Church as part of the Catholic Reformation.
Synopsis
and#147;How might virtuosity make one virtuous? In this new brilliant new study, Delland#8217;Antonio takes the reader into the heart of elite masculine circles in post-Tridentine Rome, where listening to the and#145;new musicand#8217; was an active process, and music, like the art objects collected by noble patrons, provided a path to spiritual enlightenment. A major contribution that enhances our understanding of seventeenth-century music and its relationship to theology, rhetoric, and the visual arts.and#8221;
and#151;Wendy Heller, author of Emblems of Eloquence: Opera and Womenand#8217;s Voices in Seventeenth-Century Venice
and#147;This highly intelligent, deeply researched, and fascinating book is an important contribution to the cultural history of early seventeenth-century Italy, and especially to new interdisciplinary approaches to the historiography of musical aesthetics. Its exploration of the construction of late Renaissance and early Baroque cultural and spiritual mentalities through the medium of listening breaks new ground and provides a wealth of fresh perspectives that help to elucidate early modern understanding of the links between senses and sensibilities.and#8221;
and#151;Richard Wistreich, Dean of Research and Enterprise, Royal Northern College of Music
About the Author
Andrew Delland#8217;Antonio is Professor in the Musicology/Ethnomusicology Division at the University of Texas at Austin, Butler School of Music. He is a former Mellon Fellow at the Harvard-Villa I Tatti Center for Italian Renaissance Studies and the editor of Beyond Structural Listening? Postmodern Modes of Hearing (UC Press).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Listening as Spiritual Practice
1. Rapt Attention
2. Aural Collecting
3. Proper Listening
4. Noble and Manly Understanding
Envoy: From Gusto to Goand#251;t
Appendix: Lelio Guidiccioni, and#147;Della Musicaand#8221;: Transcription and Translation
Notes
Bibliography
Index