SOURCE: "Georg Simmmel and the Sociology of Music," in Social Forces, Vol. 43, No. 1, October, 1964, pp. 101-7.

In the following essay, Etzkorn looks at Simmel's first published study as it relates to the modern sociological study of music.

Articles in sociological journals and books contain many references to the manifold aspects of Georg Simmel's work. Indeed the recent centenary of his birth (1858) occasioned several reappraisals of his various contributions to sociology in the light of contemporary scholarship. One significant aspect of his work, though, has to our knowledge been neglected. It is of sufficient merit to be brought to the attention of contemporary scholars, especially since there seems to be a growing interest in the sociology of artistic life. This is Simmel's extensive early work in what today might be called the sociology of music or ethnomusicology.

In his later life Simmel's discourse on artistic and aesthetic subjects tends...