Rancière and Music

Jacques Rancière has emerged as one of the most influential of contemporary French philosophers writing on aesthetics and its relation to politics today. His work has excited much debate on an international scale, in particular in the visual arts, and film studies. The present volume, a collection of essays on Rancière edited by João Pedro Cachopo, Patrick Nickleson and Chris Stover, is therefore extremely timely. But what is particularly important about this collection is that it focuses on the application of Rancière’s theories to music, an art form that occupies a small but very meaningful position in Rancière’s large output. The range and diversity of the essays in this collection is remarkable. These highly original, creative and innovative contributions towards an understanding of Rancière’s seminal work will undoubtedly serve to stimulate new thinking and debate within the aesthetics and sociology of music in the Anglophone world. -- Max Paddison, Emeritus Professor of Music and Aesthetics, Durham University