Class, Control, & Classical Music was born from Anna Bull’s formative experiences of classical music-making as a promising young cellist in her native New Zealand. Whilst this inhabited classical music ‘scene’ engendered an enduring love for ensemble performance and a strong sense of social identity and belonging for Bull, it left her questioning and battling with perceived problematic practices and values of the system of which she was a part. Class, Control, & Classical Music builds on Bull’s prior academic output within the fields of sociology and music education and opens up pathways for exploring inequalities in contemporary classical music practices. She adopts an ethnographic, deeply reflexive approach, presenting a blended musicological and sociological study of four classical youth ensembles based in the south of England. Extensive observations of participant activities are considered alongside insights into Bull’s own experiences as a classical musician and these centre the book’s narratives and objectives. A key introductory detail is the theorisation that economic barriers, so often perceived within the literature as a main factor with regard to inequalities in music education, are secondary to socio-cultural influences in establishing and maintaining inequalities of opportunity through such factors as cultural values and social identities. This assertion runs throughout the narrative of the book, as Bull explores the middle classes, their values and practices as a socially classed group, and their linked affinity with the classical music sphere. This critical angle is fitting when economic factors are so deeply ingrained in the current discourse surrounding music education’s inequalities – despite significant, and increasing, government investment in Music Education Hubs since 2011 and the proliferation of such social justice music education programmes as El Sistema (now working under the banner of ‘In Harmony’ in UK schools), debate surrounding economic inequity in music education provision continues. Bull’s theorisations on the establishment, institutionalisation and reproduction of inequalities primarily through a classed socio-cultural lens act as a framework for discussion throughout the book. Chapter 1 introduces English social class structures, with a focus on the middle classes, and their theorised relationships with classical music infrastructures. Bull draws on sociological literatures to identify facets of middle-class values contingent with classical music’s historically institutionalised practices. Chapter 2 furthers the discussion, focusing on the concepts of boundary-drawing, specifically those impacted by organisations within classical music’s ‘institutional ecology’; how historically established institutions, in particular conservatoires (the ‘behemoths’) and graded examination boards (the ‘standardisers’), have over time institutionalised problematic discourses and subsequently entrenched values within the classical music sphere (pp. 28-30). Chapter 3 presents a closer examination of participants’ perceptions and enactments of standards within classical music practice. Hierarchical systems of control and power are addressed, in particular the close, intimate teacher–student relationship in a ‘master/apprentice’ style of pedagogy, and a conflicting sense of finding community and social affinity within these structures. With regard to participants’ comprehensions and articulations of their experiences of classical music practice, and a recurrent theme throughout the book, values and ideals often appear as implicit, naturally occurring and, ultimately, unspoken. Bull exposes the potentially

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Anna Bull 的课堂、控制和古典音乐。牛津大学出版社，2019 年。264 页，精装本，47.99 英镑。国际标准书号：9780190844356

Class, Control, & Classical Music 诞生于 Anna Bull 在她的祖国新西兰作为一位有前途的年轻大提琴家的古典音乐创作经历。虽然这种有人居住的古典音乐“场景”产生了对合奏表演的持久热爱以及对布尔的强烈社会认同感和归属感，但它让她质疑并与她所参与的系统的有问题的做法和价值观作斗争。Class, Control, & Classical Music 建立在 Bull 在社会学和音乐教育领域的先前学术成果的基础上，为探索当代古典音乐实践中的不平等开辟了道路。她采用民族志、深刻反思的方法，对位于英格兰南部的四个古典青年乐团进行了音乐学和社会学的混合研究。对参与者活动的广泛观察与对布尔自己作为古典音乐家的经历的见解一起被认为是本书的叙述和目标的中心。一个关键的介绍性细节是这样一种理论，即经济障碍在文献中经常被视为音乐教育不平等的主要因素，在通过文化价值观和社会身份。这一断言贯穿于本书的叙述中，因为布尔探索了中产阶级、他们作为社会阶层群体的价值观和实践，以及他们与古典音乐领域的密切联系。当经济因素在当前围绕音乐教育不平等的讨论中根深蒂固时，这一批判角度是合适的——尽管自 2011 年以来政府对音乐教育中心的大量投资不断增加，以及诸如 El Sistema（现在英国学校的“和谐”旗帜下工作），围绕音乐教育提供的经济不平等的辩论仍在继续。布尔关于不平等的建立、制度化和再生产的理论主要通过分类的社会文化视角作为贯穿全书的讨论框架。第 1 章介绍了英国社会阶级结构，重点关注中产阶级及其与古典音乐基础设施的理论关系。Bull 利用社会学文献来确定中产阶级价值观的各个方面，这些方面与古典音乐的历史制度化实践相一致。第 2 章进一步讨论，侧重于边界绘制的概念，特别是那些受古典音乐“制度生态”中的组织影响的概念；历史上建立的机构，特别是音乐学院（“庞然大物”）和分级考试委员会（“标准化者”）如何随着时间的推移将有问题的话语制度化，并随后在古典音乐领域根深蒂固（第 28-30 页）。第 3 章对参与者对古典音乐实践中标准的看法和制定进行了更深入的研究。控制和权力的分层系统得到解决，特别是关闭，“大师/学徒”式教学法中的亲密师生关系，以及在这些结构中寻找社区和社会亲和力的矛盾意识。关于参与者对古典音乐实践经验的理解和表达，以及贯穿全书的反复出现的主题，价值观和理想往往表现为含蓄的、自然发生的，最终是不言而喻的。公牛暴露了潜在的