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In her essay, Sexual Politics in Classical Music, Susan McClary brings up a controversial argument which suggests that subjects of sexual politics, gender roles and class structure can often be found in classical music. ... So to McClary, classical music, as it is a form of art, is no exception to this. With her argument, McClary would like to break down the conventional thought of the academic music disciplines and show that classical music, similarly to its counterpart genre pop music, is equally bound up in these issues of gender and sexuality. This argument has brought up much debate due to music scholars’ position that European classical music, as it is a form of high culture, can transcend the body and is only concerned with the “nobler domains of imagination and even metaphysics.”
To support her argument, McClary uses two well-known pieces of classical music from the mid-1870s, Georges Bizet’s Carmen (1875) and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony (1877). Going beyond her basic argument that classical music involves the presence of expressive components, McClary will further her point to say that this very expression has had much influence on countless works since their introduction to the present day.
Bizet’s Carmen and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony serve McClary well in her argument and she uses many strong examples in the music to set up her convincing claim. ... As a firm base for her argument she informs the reader that one of her main focuses in the essay is the deconstruction of the thought that “Absolute Music,” or music without words, does not have any political or social influences, which has prevented any criticism of this type of music.
Approximate Word count = 1330
Approximate Pages = 5.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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