Musicologia e critica musicale: specificità, interazioni, implicazioni pedagogico-didattiche

Abstract

Those of the musicologist and the music critic are two distinct and well-characterised professional profiles, but they can be complementary and a possible meeting can be hoped for. This contribution focusses on the specificity of the two professions, on the knowledges necessaries for both and on their differentiated but, if necessary, interchangeable functions. A fruitful circularity can in fact trigger when both activities set themselves the primary objective of «manifesting through the word the specific musical experience and the specific qualities of the work» (Adorno), addressing the challenge of verbal transcoding and providing the reader with interpretation and access keys. The training of music professionals and their role in italian society are themes that are inevitably linked to the issues of music teaching and the marginal position it occupies in our school system, with heavy repercussions on the daily work of those who work professionally in the musical field. Despite the practical problems that affect journalistic production, critical discourse should not be mere news, but a link in the hermeneutic chain. Any serious criticism about performance is also an exegesis of the work performed. The musicological competence would allow the critic to regain authority in the free spaces of the web and to maintain his own function within a cultural scenario that has profoundly changed in recent years. In the same way, the critical-aesthetic judgement should be among the components of any musicological exercise that aspires to some cultural breath and that knows how to make itself capable of creating a connection with a bigger audience. No less important issue is the involvement in contemporary thought and creativity: the current absence of critical debate on new music is in fact a problem that affects both the ethical-political mandate of the music critic and the relationship between musicology and civil society.