University of Chicago Press Composing Capital – Classical Music in the Neoliberal Era

The familiar old world of classical music, with its wealthy donors and ornate concert halls, is changing. The patronage of a wealthy few is being replaced by that of corporations, leading to new unions of classical music and contemporary capitalism. In Composing Capital, Marianna Ritchey lays bare the appropriation of classical music by the current neoliberal regime, arguing that artists, critics, and institutions have aligned themselves--and, by extension, classical music itself--with free-market ideology. More specifically, she demonstrates how classical music has lent its cachet to marketing schemes, tech firm-sponsored performances, and global corporate partnerships. As Ritchey shows, the neoliberalization of classical music has put music at the service of contemporary capitalism, blurring the line between creativity and entrepreneurship, and challenging us to imagine how a noncommodified musical practice might be possible in today's world. Review " Composing Capitalism is a great achievement, a conceptual tour de force addressing a burning issue of our times and demonstrating how musicological research can productively contribute to both the analysis of general societal problems and their possible improvement."-- "Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland" "Marianna Ritchey's Composing Capital: Classic Music in the Neoliberal Era is a well-written, detailed study of how neoliberalism has influenced the way classical music is not only composed, but also, how it is consumed and utilized as a tool for corporate interests. . . . Ritchey is an astute critic of neoliberalism--readers who want to know what is currently happening in the classical music scene will also get a clear understanding of neoliberalism"-- "Andrea Syzdek" "Composing Capital opens our eyes and ears to the unholy dance between classical music and the neoliberal economic values that underpin American political culture. In a theoretically sophisticated and hard-hitting critique, Ritchey shows how new music has unwittingly adopted capitalism's 'rhetorical benevolence, ' embracing flexibility, entrepreneurship, and disruption as positive values rather than recognizing them as destabilizing and exploitative forces. Meanwhile, giant tech conglomerates enlist Beethoven to lend their products positive associations like freedom and individuality and to provide a simulacrum of historical depth in a radically anti-historical business culture. This is an important book, and it comes at just the right time."--Anne C. Shreffler, Harvard University "According to Spotify, I streamed almost 400 genres this year, although I didn't know that many existed. (Spotify claims the existence of over 1,400-plus, including eccentricities like 'abstracto'--unhelpfully described as 'like complextro, but more abstract than rhythmic'-- and 'escape room.') Without considering the specificities, the data makes me seem progressive, diverse, culturally omnivorous. As music history professor Marianna Ritchey observes in her book, Composing Capital: Classical Music in the Neoliberal Era, music is praised when it embraces 'stylistic eclecticism, ' prioritizing broad appeal over specialization. But is skimming through 40 genres really better than engaging actively with two? Perhaps crossing borders isn't as transgressive as it seems: A globe-trotter may not be truly adventuring if in each country, he contains himself to variations on the same sleek, blandly mid-centuryish Airbnb."--Cat Zhang "The Washington Post" "An extraordinarily important book. The time is ripe for this kind of statement about the relationships between neoliberalism and contemporary classical music practice, discourse, and economic circulation; and, moreover, for such a book to be penned by the hand of a musicologist. Indeed, it is pressing. There is simply no denying the political relevance of musicology's thinking-through of its imbrications with neoliberal logistics; the dri