Bücher der Reihe Musik und Gesellschaft

Music sociology occupies a special position in the social and cultural sciences. On the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the Department of Music Sociology at the mdw - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna - probably the only one in the world to bear the name as a separate department - decided to clarify the state of music sociology.

This anthology contains seven texts by Kurt Blaukopf (1914-1999) that exemplify the sociological and epistemological position of this pioneer of Austrian music sociology. Blaukopf's efforts were aimed at a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach and analysis of music as a cultural phenomenon and as social practice.

If art, and especially music, has been framed in cultural sociology as a collective production relying on a variety of actors, technicians have been mostly framed as "support personnel" marginally impacting the meaning of a cultural production.