Review of Wayne Bailey, In Performance

Abstract

Wayne Bailey’s In Performance(2016) aims to expose music appreciation students to art music by examining the spaces in which it is created and heard. As a professor of conducting and instrumental music, Bailey emphasizes that the historical narrative used in traditional music appreciation textbooks often distances students from the listening experience. To replace this method “mired in historical facts†(xvii) he suggests an alternative approach that gives primacy to performance venues and music makers. Although the notion is both intriguing and promising, especially in light of recent scholarly discussions of performance as a master narrative in music history (JMHP 3/1), Bailey’s work reads as a reorganization of style history and analysis, rather than a reconceptualization of it.