Communication

Musicologists in a situation of mediation: comings and goings.

The objective of this communication is to ask under what conditions the epistemology of the mediation of music could play a constructive role in the world of classical music. The cases studied will be drawn from concrete situations experienced by the author as a musicologist. According to reflective methodological principles, mediation situations will be analyzed insofar as they have structuring effects on the mediator’s research path, tending to reverse the a priori balance of power between a mediator and his audience. This will lead to an epistemological exploration of the mediation of music, inspired by the pragmatist aesthetic of Richard Shusterman re-reading John Dewey.

Biography

Théophile Bonjour is a doctoral student in sociology and musicology at the University of Limerick (Ireland). His thesis focuses on the musical practices of football (soccer) supporters in France. He works as a teacher (CRR de Boulogne) and mediator of music. He was a student in the history and careers of musical culture classes at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris. He studied sociology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. It was during a stay at the University of Montreal that he decided to turn to sociology, after having attended a conference by Emmanuel Pedler with whom he would work later. As a researcher, he also studies the history of music in European spas in the 19th century, about which he has published several chapters in journals and edited volumes.