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This engaging book explores the dynamic relationship between evolutionary science and musical culture in Victorian Britain, drawing upon a wealth of popular scientific and musical literature to contextualize evolutionary theories of the Darwinian and non-Darwinian revolutions. Bennett Zon uses musical culture to question the hegemonic role ascribed to Darwin by later thinkers, and interrogates the conceptual premise of modern debates in evolutionary musicology. Structured around the Great Chain of Being, chapters are organized by discipline in successively ascending order according to their object of study, from zoology and the study of animal music to theology and the music of God. Evolution and Victorian Musical Culture takes a non-Darwinian approach to the interpretation of Victorian scientific and musical interrelationships, debunking the idea that the arts had little influence on contemporary scientific ideas and, by probing the origins of musical interdisciplinarity, Evolution and Victorian Musical Culture shows how music helped ideas about evolution to evolve.
Introduction
1. Zoomusicology
2. Ethnomusicology
3. Folk musicology
4. Music pedagogy
5. Music biography
6. Music history
7. Music theology
Epilogue
Bennett Zon is Professor of Music at the University of Durham, Director of Durham's Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies and Co-Director of the International Network for Music Theology. He is General Editor of Nineteenth-Century Music Review and of the book series Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain. His own publications include The English Plainchant Revival (1999), Music and Metaphor in Nineteenth-Century British Musicology (2000) and Representing Non-Western Music in Nineteenth-Century Britain (2007).
