
Kramer vs. Tomlinson
Postmodernism Shakedown
Kramer says...
- He's a postmodernist
- Music is the locus of musicology
- Cardinal point: words are inadequate to describe experiences (Repercussions 10)
- Where is the music? We can only get to it by getting beyond it. (Repercussions 18)
- Uses Mozart piece to demonstrate this point (Repercussions 11-17)
Mozart K 563 IV Andante
Tomlinson says...
- Kramer is a modernist, not a postmodernist, because "instead of postmodern doubt, play, and problematizing of the communicative relation, Kramer offers a too-familiar modernist mastery." (Current Musicology, 21)
- 4 Topoi
- Seek alternatives to the internalism and formalism that have dominated musicology (21)
- Become more sensitive to realms of musical culture making beyond individual subjective agency (22)
- "Art," "Music," "Aesthetic," and "Work" are cultural constructs, darkly tinted for us with modernist ideology (23)
- We should begin to interrogate our love for the music we study (24)
Kramer counters with...
- Well you are like something out of Dr. Seuss.
- And you're a modernist, too.
- Worse, you're a positivist.