Listen: A History of Our Ears

by Peter Szendy, Jean-Luc Nancy (Foreword), Charlotte Mandell (Translator)

In this intimate meditation on listening, Peter Szendy examines what the role of the listener is, and has been, through the centuries. The role of the composer is clear, as is the role of the musician, but where exactly does the listener stand in relation to the music s/he listens to? What is the responsibility of the listener? Does a listener have any rights, as the author and composer have copyright? Szendy explains his love of musical arrangement (since arrangements allow him to listen to someone listening to music), and wonders whether it is possible in other ways to convey to others how we ourselves listen to music. How can we share our actual hearing with others?

Along the way, he examines the evolution of copyright laws as applied to musical works and takes us into the courtroom to examine different debates on what we are and aren’t allowed to listen to, and to witness the fine line between musical borrowing and outright plagiarism. Finally, he examines the recent phenomenon of DJs and digital compilations, and wonders how technology has affected our habits of listening and has changed listening from a passive exercise to an active one, whereby one can jump from track to track or play only selected pieces.

Genres: Music, Philosophy, Nonfiction, France

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Peter Szendy is a French philosopher and musicologist. He is the David Herlihy Professor of Humanities and Comparative Literature at Brown University. His Écoute, une histoire de nos oreilles is a critique of Romantic and Modernist conceptions of listening.

Reviews

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Szendy gives good account of history and how musics are heard in a practical sense, but the biggest thing I found missing is the meaning behind it all - why do we listen in the ways we do, and when does our listening become a doing, a signature in its own right? Some reference to Adorno, but with understanding of the product/object of music that Adorno understood. Some reference to DeNora with music as an everyday doing, but nothing on Small's musicking, which may have been able to make up for Adorno's static view of music. Altogether, wanted sociology, got musicology with a side of music trivia.

[Penny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've only read the into thus far since I am on a serious citation plunder. Just go ahead and read 'Listening' instead.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Traces the development of the modern listener but stops tantalisingly short of a full account.