The Decline of Music History: A Case Study of the Grieg Research

Abstract

Abstract It is the hypothesis of this article that a case study of Grieg’s ‘Forbidden symphony’, probably the most discussed work in Grieg research during the last four decades, can offer new answers not only to the question of why academic interest in Grieg has declined, but to the broader question of why music history has lost its privileged position in musicology. In revealing how Grieg research was ordered and disciplined into a set of fixed argumentative steps (or cadences) which disallowed other perspectives, this article problematizes the musicological quest for systematization, the use of general (analytical) methods and the misuse of authority. In this respect, the present case study of Grieg research may also reveal tendencies that are likely to have relevance for other research topics within musicology and the humanities. To combat these inhibiting forces and disenchanting tendencies, the conclusion is that the prime agency in the humanities must be found in the material – the particular – and never in the model or method, nor in the personal authority of leading researchers. It further makes an appeal to investigate the aesthetic and ideological values that are unconsciously present in the way we actually do research.

Keywords

• Music history as practice
• Grieg research
• music and discursive analysis
• national historiography
• ‘forbidden’ symphony