The Christopher Small Reader

by Christopher Small, Robert Walser (Editor)

A rich representation of the transformative work of an influential scholar of music studies

The Christopher Small Reader is the fourth and final book in Christopher Small's legacy as a composer, pianist, teacher, friend, provocateur, and influential outsider in classical music studies. It is at once a compendium of, a complement to, and an important addition to Small's prior books: Musicking; Music, Society, Education; and Music of the Common Tongue. The Christopher Small Reader brings previously published work, some of it available in disparate locations, together with key excerpts from his three books, and other writings that remained unpublished at his passing in 2011, making available ideas that were not included in the earlier books and presenting an overview of his thought over the course of his life. The collection is a fitting capstone, providing rich insights into Small's understanding of musicking as a crucial way of relating to the world.

Hardcover is un-jacketed.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published July 12, 2016

Reviews

[oregontrash · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a requirement for a senior class in my undergraduate degree in music school. The ideas put forward in reading only some of the articles seemed basic but yet extraordinary for its time. Christopher Small has wonderful ideas on viewing secular music and the music education of the working class and changing not only the perception of music but the downfalls of modern education and creativity and individuality within. Like any music student that studies anything other than classical, you find yourself agreeing with the simplicity of classical music being solipsistic and almost destructive to society while African-American music and dance being for the betterment of the community.
The last articles seemed his best for certain reasons. “Six Aphorisms and Five Commentaries” explain in an easy way the whole basis of his entire work and all the articles in this book preceding it. Music is an action, a moment in time where the community are together, joining in a universal ode to creativity. Without the dry, pedagogical texts from the previous essays, he explains his points and ideas in a way that an uneducated musician can not only understand, but cling onto.
His penultimate essay, “Afterword on Music Education”, is by far the “Divine Comedy” of Music Education rhetoric. Like previously stated, and almost lightly sprinkled, throughout his other essays, Small shows the downfall of trying to standardize something so beautiful and vibrant as the artistic value of dance and music. This essay is not only a bashing and slashing of current music education but a short historic account of the middle class using public education and classical music to hold back and process the working class. Simply building this essay on the fact that education on the arts, or education in general, should be fashioned for the user, not the provider.
Lastly, Robert Walser ends this collection of Small’s essays with two fairly personal endings. An afterword written by their colleague Susan McClary gorgeously depicting the last years of Christopher Small and his husband, Neville Braithwaite’s lives and careers. On the other hand, “Pelicans” being written toward the end of Small’s life more shows his personal connection to his ideas rather than his ideas period. One of the underlying themes of his essays is that music should not be objectified or reified but that it is the aesthetic, the intangible connection it creates that makes it so beautiful. One of the most beautiful sentences in this book lies here, stating, “Artistic creation is concerned not with the creation of beauty or of beautiful objects ... but with the articulation of ideal, or perhaps desired, relationships. The sensation of beauty arises from the appreciation of those relationships. Charles Ives said that art has nothing to do with beauty, and from this point of view he was right.”