Page 266 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2024. Glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes ▪︎ Music Criticism – Yesterday and Today. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 7
P. 266
glasbena kritika – nekoč in danes | music criticism – yesterday and today
These days we would also need to add the internet. Britannica offers
the following definition: “Musical criticism, branch of philosophical aesthet-
ics concerned with making judgments about composition or performance or
both.”17 The Encyclopedia.com entry for music criticism reads as follows:
Diverse literary genres emerged in the early modern period that voiced
opinion on works of music or their performance, and as such constitut-
ed the field of music criticism. The genres most commonly associated
with such writing in the present day, the formal, critical review of a con-
cert, opera, edition, or recording, were, however, only beginning. The
main genre in music criticism as a whole was the essay, usually done in
polemical terms.18
Finally, the Music Encyclopaedia of the Yugoslav Lexicographical In-
stitute: “Music criticism: the public expression of reflections on the value of a
musical work and the manner of its performance in the daily, weekly or spe-
cialist press.”19
From these definitions of music criticism, we may conclude that music
criticism has two essential components:
– writing about music (a composition, a concert, a performance, a
recording)
– evaluation
The first element, then, is writing, and here it is possible to agree with
Alex Ross, who says: “Cultural criticism is a form of journalism – odd jour-
nalism, but journalism nonetheless.”20 It is certainly a hybrid genre, which
some people would even like to classify as literature or art. In contempo-
rary practice we often find a mixture of very different journalistic genres
under the label of music criticism, including news, reports, commentary
and reviews. Similarly, in the field of art criticism, Elkins identifies seven
types of art criticism, where he particularly highlights “descriptive” criti-
cism as an important product of the twentieth century.
The second essential element of criticism or the critical approach is
evaluation, and it is here that we find the most problems in the present age.
17 Alan Walker, “Musical Criticism,” Encyclopedia Britannica, October 8, 1998, https://
www.britannica.com/topic/musical-criticism.
18 “Music Criticism,” Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/ency-
clopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/music-criticism.
19 Josip Andreis, “Muzička kritika,” Muzička enciklopedija, vol. 2 (Zagreb: Jugoslo-
vanski leksikografski zavod, 1958), 244.
20 Ross, “The Fate of the Critic in the Clickbait Age.”
266
These days we would also need to add the internet. Britannica offers
the following definition: “Musical criticism, branch of philosophical aesthet-
ics concerned with making judgments about composition or performance or
both.”17 The Encyclopedia.com entry for music criticism reads as follows:
Diverse literary genres emerged in the early modern period that voiced
opinion on works of music or their performance, and as such constitut-
ed the field of music criticism. The genres most commonly associated
with such writing in the present day, the formal, critical review of a con-
cert, opera, edition, or recording, were, however, only beginning. The
main genre in music criticism as a whole was the essay, usually done in
polemical terms.18
Finally, the Music Encyclopaedia of the Yugoslav Lexicographical In-
stitute: “Music criticism: the public expression of reflections on the value of a
musical work and the manner of its performance in the daily, weekly or spe-
cialist press.”19
From these definitions of music criticism, we may conclude that music
criticism has two essential components:
– writing about music (a composition, a concert, a performance, a
recording)
– evaluation
The first element, then, is writing, and here it is possible to agree with
Alex Ross, who says: “Cultural criticism is a form of journalism – odd jour-
nalism, but journalism nonetheless.”20 It is certainly a hybrid genre, which
some people would even like to classify as literature or art. In contempo-
rary practice we often find a mixture of very different journalistic genres
under the label of music criticism, including news, reports, commentary
and reviews. Similarly, in the field of art criticism, Elkins identifies seven
types of art criticism, where he particularly highlights “descriptive” criti-
cism as an important product of the twentieth century.
The second essential element of criticism or the critical approach is
evaluation, and it is here that we find the most problems in the present age.
17 Alan Walker, “Musical Criticism,” Encyclopedia Britannica, October 8, 1998, https://
www.britannica.com/topic/musical-criticism.
18 “Music Criticism,” Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/ency-
clopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/music-criticism.
19 Josip Andreis, “Muzička kritika,” Muzička enciklopedija, vol. 2 (Zagreb: Jugoslo-
vanski leksikografski zavod, 1958), 244.
20 Ross, “The Fate of the Critic in the Clickbait Age.”
266
