It would be quite wrong to reduce her oeuvre to soundbites-but hey, here goes! With her early research based in baroque music, she notes the historical contingency, mutability, of musical signifiers. Her insights also get a mention in my post on Ute Lemper. So far I’ve mainly written about Susan McClary in the context of her provocative analysis of the extraordinary harpsichord solo of Bach’s 5th Brandenburg concerto. Similarly, while many critics (not least feminist authors) have disputed and refined McClary’s work, the thrust of her argument has practically become mainstream-but her thoughts remain most perceptive. Of course, many female performers have continued exploring the trail that Madonna blazed, and she no longer has such power to shock. But given that academics are mostly lumbered with writing, she does at least rejoice in the physical. here), it may seem a tad cerebral to celebrate by revisiting the work of the great Susan McClary (notably her classic 1991 book Feminine endings: music, gender, and sexuality). Since the party for Madonna’s 60th birthday has already begun (see e.g. Right: Susan McClary-less futuristically. Left: I found this postcard in Ireland in the mid-1990s though still drôle, it no longer seems quite so fantastical.
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