Susan McClary
Susan McClary is a musicologist often associated with the "New Musicology" because of her work combining musicology and feminism in Feminine Endings, a once commonly used term for weak cadences.A 1995 winner of a MacArthur Fellowship, McClary set the feminist arguments of her early book in a broader context with Conventional Wisdom. She argues that the tradition musicological assumption of the existence of 'purely musical' elements, divorced from culture and meaning, is a conceit used to veil the social and political imperatives of the world view which produces the classical canon most prized by supposedly objective musicologists. However, one should not receive the impression that McClary ignores the "purely musical" in favor of cultural issues, it must still be analyzed as part of what creates cultural meaning. She examines the creation of meanings, some oppresive and hegemonic, some affirmative and resistant, in music through the reference of musical conventions in the blues, Vivaldi, Prince, Philip Glass, and others.
While seen by some as extremely radical, her work is influenced by musicologists such as Edward T. Cone, gender theorists and cultural critics such as Teresa de Lauretis, and people who, like McClary, fall in between such as Theodor Adorno.
Quotes:
- "Most people have music in the center of their lives. I believe my work sheds light on how music affects us and why it is so influential."
