Class, Control, & Classical Music was born from Anna Bull’s formative experiences of classical music-making as a promising young cellist in her native New Zealand. Whilst this inhabited classical music ‘scene’ engendered an enduring love for ensemble performance and a strong sense of social identity and belonging for Bull, it left her questioning and battling with perceived problematic practices and values of the system of which she was a part. Class, Control, & Classical Music builds on Bull’s prior academic output within the fields of sociology and music education and opens up pathways for exploring inequalities in contemporary classical music practices. She adopts an ethnographic, deeply reflexive approach, presenting a blended musicological and sociological study of four classical youth ensembles based in the south of England. Extensive observations of participant activities are considered alongside insights into Bull’s own experiences as a classical musician and these centre the book’s narratives and objectives. A key introductory detail is the theorisation that economic barriers, so often perceived within the literature as a main factor with regard to inequalities in music education, are secondary to socio-cultural influences in establishing and maintaining inequalities of opportunity through such factors as cultural values and social identities. This assertion runs throughout the narrative of the book, as Bull explores the middle classes, their values and practices as a socially classed group, and their linked affinity with the classical music sphere. This critical angle is fitting when economic factors are so deeply ingrained in the current discourse surrounding music education’s inequalities – despite significant, and increasing, government investment in Music Education Hubs since 2011 and the proliferation of such social justice music education programmes as El Sistema (now working under the banner of ‘In Harmony’ in UK schools), debate surrounding economic inequity in music education provision continues. Bull’s theorisations on the establishment, institutionalisation and reproduction of inequalities primarily through a classed socio-cultural lens act as a framework for discussion throughout the book.
Chapter 1 introduces English social class structures, with a focus on the middle classes, and their theorised relationships with classical music infrastructures. Bull draws on sociological literatures to identify facets of middle-class values contingent with classical music’s historically institutionalised practices. Chapter 2 furthers the discussion, focusing on the concepts of boundary-drawing, specifically those impacted by organisations within classical music’s ‘institutional ecology’; how historically established institutions, in particular conservatoires (the ‘behemoths’) and graded examination boards (the ‘standardisers’), have over time institutionalised problematic discourses and subsequently entrenched values within the classical music sphere (pp. 28-30).
Chapter 3 presents a closer examination of participants’ perceptions and enactments of standards within classical music practice. Hierarchical systems of control and power are addressed, in particular the close, intimate teacher–student relationship in a ‘master/apprentice’ style of pedagogy, and a conflicting sense of finding community and social affinity within these structures. With regard to participants’ comprehensions and articulations of their experiences of classical music practice, and a recurrent theme throughout the book, values and ideals often appear as implicit, naturally occurring and, ultimately, unspoken. Bull exposes the potentially uncomfortable conditions of the classical music world that those within it – whether performer, teacher, academic or otherwise – may have felt lurked under the surface but have not openly discussed. We see this continue more explicitly in further chapters as Bull dissects the ‘getting it right’ concept (p.70) – the necessary physical and mental exertion and dedication required for classical musicians and how this is enacted across social classes, the observability of exceptional musical talent, and the impacts of a consistent desire to correct alongside the embodiment of associated fear. Bull presents persuasive theories on the physical body’s effacement and transcendence during playing, while acknowledging the evident contradictions between bodily signs of pleasure and enjoyment, and pressure to remain consistently in control of these.
Chapters 6 and 7 inhabit a more gendered narrative, presenting young female singers’ experiences of performing Mozart’s ‘The Magic Flute’, depicted by Bull as a racist, sexist and classist text (p.153). Interestingly, and likely as a result of the complex, tacit and contradictory ideals within the social of classical music, Bull’s participants recounted predominantly positive, fulfilling and empowering experiences of engagement with opera through this particular text (see ‘In Singing, It’s My Space Which Is Just Me’ – p. 133). Bull’s accounts here broach important points for debate concerning faithfulness to musical texts, how far texts can face alterations before they bear little resemblance to those on which they are based, and the justifications behind alterations of perceived ‘problematic’ texts in 21st century social discourse.
Bull’s final chapter brings together participants’ voices in exploring classical music’s capacity to create a ‘Community-in-Sound’ (p.155) – strong social connections established between group members through shared highly valued concepts. These include the characteristic aesthetics of classical music’s sonic qualities, the often ethereal, unexplainable emotional intensity of ‘being in the zone’ of performance in ensembles (p.170), and the unique acoustic spaces in which classical music most often manifests. While satisfying on both a personal and shared level, however, these concepts can entrench barriers by contributing to the formation of a ‘bourgeois self’ (p.159) and further separate classical music’s cultures from cultures outside of this scene. This concept of a ‘Community-in-Sound,’ the oft-times unvoiced exclusionary facets of the classical music world that exist despite the strong social ties held within it and between its participants, links neatly to Bull’s conclusions which are among the most significant sections of the book (pp. 174–193). Bull concludes that numerous paradoxes within the classical music world and its institutionalised history keep often contradictory and problematic values alive and unquestioned. She discusses the implications of her work for music education policy and practice, concluding that messages of accessibility and excellence within practice are at direct odds with one another. This is particularly apt within the current English system of Whole Class Ensemble Teaching provision under the National Plan for Music Education (DfE/DCMS, 2011). Bull raises concerns regarding the rather abstract concepts of, and meanings behind, ‘access’ and ‘inequalities’ and how these are manifested. Suggestions for future action include: greater acknowledgement and discussion from the profession (particularly the ‘behemoths’) about classical music’s dominance across the field of music education; further research on young people’s music-making outside of school and organised musical groups; and the ‘opening up’ of classically trained musicians’ purview to those of broader musical genres (p. 192).
Bull acknowledges the historically ingrained problems within the classical music sphere and judges that the desire to re-imagine aesthetic and practice must come from those who practise and further reproduce them. She confronts musical and social factors inherent within classical music education that may contribute to the continued inequalities we so often hear of despite effort from policy to tackle these through increased funding for music education year on year. Class, Control, & Classical Music may act as a catalyst for increased and sustained dialogue across academia, policy and practice, thus uniting often disparate ideas, with the potential to move towards solutions to the aforementioned long-established and complex issues within contemporary British music education. Further work akin to Class, Control, and Classical Music is greatly needed in understanding the boundaries of, and barriers to, music education on a micro and meso level across a broad range of social and cultural contexts.
