de la Fuente, Eduardo (1996) Book review of "Rationalizing Culture: MCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde" by Georgina Born, Berkley, CA, USA, University of California Press, 1995. Culture and Policy, 7 (2). pp. 173-178.

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Abstract

[Extract] Georgina Born's Rationalizing Culture: MCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde is an impressive study of the renowned centre of avant-garde and computer music, the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM).

Based on research towards a doctoral thesis that included a year-long ethnographic visit to IRCAM, the book provides a detailed portrait of how the Institute operates and how its many participants - its composers, engineers, computer scientists, directors, bureaucrats and administrative staff - conceive of their own roles and that of IRCAM as an institution of French high culture and international musical avant-gardism. Even if it is unduly 'gossipy' at times, her laborious recounting of conversation after conversation with informants (who are recognised only by initials, except for the odd damning photograph) provides one of the few ethnographies of an institution of high culture. Born is also to be commended for providing readers with one of the first examples of an English-language study of twentieth century art-music from the perspective of critical theory, cultural studies and the sociology of culture.

Item ID:	40485
Item Type:	Article (Book Review)
ISSN:	1033-8713
Keywords:	rationalisation; culture; commodity; art music; cultural sociology; IRCAM
Date Deposited:	08 Oct 2015 02:49
FoR Codes:	16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY > 1608 Sociology > 160899 Sociology not elsewhere classified @ 50% 19 STUDIES IN CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING > 1904 Performing Arts and Creative Writing > 190409 Musicology and Ethnomusicology @ 50%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970116 Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society @ 100%
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