From Handel to Hendrix ― The Composer in the Public Sphere

Filmmaker, writer, and teacher Chanan investigates the relationship between music and society. He examines composers in the light of philosopher Jnrgen Habermas's study of the public sphere, in particular his remarks about the bourgeois concert audience, the emergence of criticism and the development of autonomous music. Drawing upon recent work in feminist and gay musicology, he covers themes such as subjectivity and identity in Schubert and Chopin, the ascendancy of the Romantic personality, the lure of the exotic in Milhaud's work, and the political economy of music. Finally, he charts both the dramatic change in the listening audience and, simultaneously, the composer's progressive marginalization from the center of music life. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Michael Chanan is a filmmaker, writer and teacher. He has written books on various aspects of film and music, including Repeated Takes, The Dream that Kicks and The Cuban Image.