Rethinking Rationalisation: Evolutionism and Imperialism in Max Weber's Discourse on Music.

Max Weber as a sociologist of music?

Scrutinising an array of nineteenth-century discourses on the concept of 'development' in music, Ana Petrov focuses on Max Weber's theory of rationalisation in music, which led him to see 'rationalised' music as the most 'developed', the most 'complex' and the 'best' music that the whole of civilisation had ever achieved. Weber was convinced that his analysis could prove that the 'peak' of the rationalisation process was to be found in the 'great' masterp...