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Weber/Simmel/Du Bois

Musical Thirds of Classical Sociology

University of British Columbia, Canada, kemple{at}interchange.ubc.ca

Three classics of sociology are discussed for how they treat music as a social symptom of modernity's rationalization process, as a conceptual model of modern sociality, and as a generic resource for sociological writing. Where parts of Max Weber's The Rational and Social Foundations of Music focus on the distinctive `ethos' of creative composition within the rise of modern music, passages in Georg Simmel's Schopenhauer and Nietzsche address the specific `logos' of modern performance as an autonomous expression of metaphysical will, and the final chapters of W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk are concerned with the `pathos' of listening as a potential way of transcending social divisions. The social contexts, cultural contents, and personal motivations of these proto-sociologies of music are shown to articulate a contrapuntal or `lyrical' sociology which is attentive to the production, distribution, and consumption of cultural forms along with the harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic aspects of social life itself.

Key Words: Du Bois • lyrical sociology • music • Simmel • Weber

Journal of Classical Sociology, Vol. 9, No. 2, 187-207 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1468795X09102122


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