Music criticism/journalism Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

This essay examines the interactions between militant criticism and musicology in the production of historian and music critic Massimo Mila. The interactions are analyzed with respect to the idea of the role and function of the intellectual in society, in the context of a debate that already started in Italy in the first half of the century, and further developed after the Second World War, reaching its climax during the so-called "years of political commitment "(1965-1975).
The study of the relationship between Militant Criticism and Musicology is based on a comparative reading of Mila’s writings published in three periodicals, which have been selected for their representativeness and for the long-standing collaboration he had with them: a weekly magazine, "L’Espresso", a newspaper, "La Stampa", and a musicological review, "Nuova Rivista Musicale Italiana".
The essay refers back to the author’s ethical-political intellectual matrices and examines the quality of the interactions between music criticism and musicology to bring into focus Mila’s critical methodology. The latter proceeds from the outside in, that is from the chronicle of contemporary phenomena (compositions, concerts, publications, events) – which involves a rigorous examination not only of the phenomena, but also of their effects on composers, musicians, critics and the public – to a reflection on the values exemplified by those phenomena. To give some examples, the essay tests Mila’s historicist thinking against the production of one of the most politically committed composers, Luigi Nono, considering the relationship between the intentions of composers and the public outcomes of their avantgarde compositions, as well as the heated debate that took place in Italy following the publication of some works by Adorno. The essay also identifies the category of “taste” as the common ground between the notions of “art” and “culture”, which Mila distinguishes, and the vantage point from which the author observes various trends in composition and problematizes works and musical phenomena. The result is an idea of music history as a history of compositional poetics explored through reception, and in this the author somehow anticipates the theory of Rezeptiongeschichte. What also emerges is Mila’s anachronistic position in the debate on political commitment, and hence a vision of musicology as not exclusively academic, but as having social and civil implications, since its aim is to raise awareness among readers and form their consciences – in this respect, musicology is always politically engaged.