Music as Ethics

Abstract

Abstract This book is a comparative ethnography of music as ethics in four communities in Virginia, covering a wide range of demographic contexts and musical repertoires. Holy Cross Monastery in Berryville, Virginia, is a small community of 15 Trappist monks who follow the rule of Saint Benedict, composed in the early 6th century. Twin Oaks in Louisa, Virginia, is a 90-member intentional community, founded in 1967, dedicated to egalitarianism. The “Sanctuary” in the Richmond city jail is a community of approximately 40 residents drawn from two of the facility’s dorms. Richmond is the state capital of Virginia, with a fraught history of racial inequality. To say that people can experience music “as” ethics means that they can hold several, culturally informed attitudes about music’s ethical meanings and functions. Although music’s relationship to ethical life differs between each community, evidence from them suggests that we can all grow as ethical individuals and communities if we pay close attention to music’s ethical potential. But as long as our experience of music as ethics remains implicit and vague, we miss out on fully realizing its ethical affordances. More than that, we also expose ourselves to manipulation by those who would wield music (and other “affective” means) for their own social agenda.