On the Disability Aesthetics of Music

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Metadata sources used for this reference

OpenAlex Crossref
Learn more about the sources used

Howe, B., Jensen-Moulton, S., Straus, J. N., Iverson, J., Holmes, J. A., Bakan, M. B., Dell'Antonio, A., & Grace, E. J. (2016). On the Disability Aesthetics of Music. Journal of the American Musicological Society, 69(2), 525-563. https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2016.69.2.525

Publication date: 1 Jan 2016 Added to AutiHub: 14 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
8
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 8 (12.5%)
  1. Blake Howe
  2. Stephanie Jensen-Moulton
  3. Joseph N. Straus
  4. Jennifer Iverson
  1. Jessica A. Holmes
  2. Michael B. Bakan
  3. Andrew Dell'Antonio
  4. Elizabeth J. Grace *

Abstract

Research Article| August 01 2016 On the Disability Aesthetics of Music Blake Howe, Blake Howe Convenor BLAKE HOWE is Assistant Professor of Music at Louisiana State University. He is coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies (Oxford University Press, 2016) and Recording Reviews Editor for Nineteenth-Century Music Review. His writings have appeared in this Journal, Music Theory Spectrum, the Journal of Musicology, and the Musical Quarterly. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, Stephanie Jensen-Moulton Convenor STEPHANIE JENSEN-MOULTON is Associate Professor of Musicology and American Studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY. Her edition of Miriam Gideon's 1958 opera Fortunato was published by A-R Editions in 2013, and she is coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies (Oxford University Press, 2016). Her writings on music and disability have appeared in American Music, Music Theory Online, and American Music Review. Her current book project focuses on opera and disability in twentieth-century America. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Joseph N. Straus, Joseph N. Straus JOSEPH N. STRAUS is Distinguished Professor of Music at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He is the author of Extraordinary Measures: Disability in Music (Oxford University Press, 2011) and coeditor of Sounding Off: Theorizing Disability in Music (Routledge, 2006) and The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies (Oxford University Press, 2016). He is currently completing a monograph on modernist music and the representation of disability. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Jennifer Iverson, Jennifer Iverson JENNIFER IVERSON is Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago. In 2015–16 she was External Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center, where she was working on a book on electronic music in the mid-twentieth century. Her articles have appeared in Twentieth-Century Music, Music Analysis, Tempo, and Music Theory Online, with another forthcoming in Music Theory Spectrum. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Jessica A. Holmes, Jessica A. Holmes JESSICA A. HOLMES is a PhD candidate in Musicology at McGill University, where she is completing a dissertation on disability and contemporary music performance with a particular focus on music and deafness. She is a former recipient of the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (2012–15), and has presented her research at the annual meetings of the American Musicological Society, the Society for American Music, and the Society for Disability Studies. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Michael B. Bakan, Michael B. Bakan MICHAEL B. BAKAN is Professor of Ethnomusicology at Florida State University. His research on the ethnomusicology of autism has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and other agencies. His books include World Music: Traditions and Transformations (McGraw-Hill, 2007) and Music of Death and New Creation (University of Chicago Press, 1999). He is currently completing a book entitled Speaking of Music: Conversations with Autistic Thinkers. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Andrew Dell'Antonio, Andrew Dell'Antonio ANDREW DELL'ANTONIO is Distinguished Teaching Professor of Musicology at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the way different modes of listening influence the social uses and cultural meanings of music. In addition to a collaboration with Elizabeth Grace, he blogs at http://www.theavidlistener.com, and is the editor of Beyond Structural Listening? Postmodern Modes of Hearing (University of California Press, 2004), author of Listening as Spiritual Practice in Early Modern Italy (University of California Press, 2011), and coauthor of the textbook The Enjoyment of Music (12th ed., W. W. Norton, 2015). Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Elizabeth J. Grace Elizabeth J. Grace ELIZABETH J. GRACE is Assistant Professor of Education at National Louis University in Chicago. Interested in performance and disability studies, she is currently working with Andrew Dell'Antonio on an ethnographic oral history of neurodivergent musicking and experience, and is completing an autoethnographic monograph about theater training and autistic ethical thought. She serves on the board of directors of the Society for Disability Studies. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the American Musicological Society (2016) 69 (2): 525–563. https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2016.69.2.525 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Blake Howe, Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, Joseph N. Straus, Jennifer Iverson, Jessica A. Holmes, Michael B. Bakan, Andrew Dell'Antonio, Elizabeth J. Grace; On the Disability Aesthetics of Music. Journal of the American Musicological Society 1 August 2016; 69 (2): 525–563. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2016.69.2.525 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the American Musicological Society Search in memoriam Tobin Siebers Drawing on diverse interdisciplinary perspectives (encompassing literature, history, sociology, visual art, and, more recently, music), the field of disability studies offers a sociopolitical analysis of disability, focusing on its social construction while shifting attention from biology (the traditional object of study for science and medicine) to culture (the object of study for humanists).1 Within this cultural perspective, scholars usually operate under two methodologies: ethnography, to profile disabled persons (contemporary or historical) and investigate the ways in which their bodies contribute to their sense of identity and social reception; and hermeneutics, to examine artistic representations of disability that reflect contemporaneous attitudes and prejudices (e.g., Captain Ahab's prosthetic leg, Darth Vader's cyborg body). Both approaches have given rise to the observation that disability has historically been conceived as a fragmentation or corruption of an able-bodied norm, as a deviation from some conformational standard: think of Lucia di... You do not currently have access to this content.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 19 Sep 2026 01:01.

Cited references
62
With a DOI
48
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
0
3 / 62 (4.8%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
8 / 62 (12.9%)
References with detected author names
54 / 62 (87.1%)
Without detected author names
8
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
0
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
69
From DOI or external metadata
69
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
12 / 69 (17.4%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 57 / 69 (82.6%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
3 / 69 (4.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 3 / 12 (25.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 2 / 61 (3.3%).
  1. Linton, Simi (1998). Claiming disability: knowledge and identity . Choice Reviews Online, 35(11), 35-6303-35-6303. American Library Association.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.5860/choice.35-6303 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W230540954
    OpenAlex
  2. Lennard J. Davis (1995). Enforcing normalcy: Disability, deafness, and the body .
    Type: Book OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W356539818
    OpenAlex
  3. Philip M. Smith (2013). Both sides of the table: autoethnographies of educators learning and teaching with/in [dis]ability .
    Type: Book OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W412537445
    OpenAlex
  4. Schweik, Susan (2010). The ugly laws: disability in public . Choice Reviews Online, 47(06), 47-3516-47-3516. American Library Association.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.5860/choice.47-3516 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W417234214
    OpenAlex
  5. Carrie Sandahl , Philip Auslander (2005). Bodies in Commotion . University of Michigan Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.3998/mpub.92455 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W565685763
    OpenAlex
  6. David Mitchell , Sharon L. Snyder (2001). Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and the Dependencies of Discourse .
    Type: Book OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W595744252
    OpenAlex
  7. (2011). Music, disability, and society . Choice Reviews Online, 48(10), 48-5600-48-5600. American Library Association.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.5860/choice.48-5600 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W605201994
    OpenAlex
  8. Matthew Wappett , Katrina Arndt (2013). Foundations of Disability Studies . Palgrave Macmillan US.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.1057/9781137363787 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W614076309
    OpenAlex
  9. (2011). Extraordinary measures: disability in music . Choice Reviews Online, 49(01), 49-0187-49-0187. American Library Association.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.5860/choice.49-0187 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W616713790
    OpenAlex
  10. (2003). Bending over backwards: disability, dismodernism, and other difficult positions . Choice Reviews Online, 40(06), 40-3471-40-3471. American Library Association.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.5860/choice.40-3471 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W625872219
    OpenAlex
  11. (2002). Clinical Linguistics . John Benjamins Publishing Company.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.1075/cilt.227 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W631996828
    OpenAlex
  12. Carol Padden , Tom Humphries (2009). Inside Deaf Culture . Harvard University Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvjz83v3 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W637306486
    OpenAlex
  13. Henri-Jacques Stiker (2019). A History of Disability . University of Michigan Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.3998/mpub.11575987 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W639761633
    OpenAlex
  14. David Lewin (2006). Studies in Music with Text . Oxford University Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195182088.001.0001 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W652566876
    OpenAlex
  15. Trevor Wishart (1996). On sonic art .
    Type: Book OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W652889451
    OpenAlex
  16. Rachel Adams , Benjamin Reiss , David Serlin (2020). Keywords for Disability Studies . New York University Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9781479812141.001.0001 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1193411788
    OpenAlex
  17. Michael B. Bakan (2014). The musicality of stimming: Promoting neurodiversity in the ethnomusicology of autism. MUSICultures, 41(2), 133.
    Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1493433631
    OpenAlex
  19. H-Dirksen Bauman , Philosophy Documentation Center (2008). Listening to Phonocentrism with Deaf Eyes . Essays in Philosophy, 9(1), 41-54. Philosophy Documentation Center.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.5840/eip20089118 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1508743134
    OpenAlex
  20. Lennard J. Davis (2016). The Disability Studies Reader . Routledge.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.4324/9781315680668 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1553527595
    OpenAlex
  21. Arnie Cox (2011). Embodying Music . Music Theory Online, 17(2). Society for Music Theory.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.30535/mto.17.2.1 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1557357087
    OpenAlex
  22. Arden Neisser (1983). The Other Side of Silence: Sign Language and the Deaf Community in America .
    Type: Book OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1563812113
    OpenAlex
  23. Emily J. Adamowicz (2011). Subjectivity and Structure in Milton Babbitt’s Philomel . Music Theory Online, 17(2). Society for Music Theory.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.30535/mto.17.2.6 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1589362309
    OpenAlex
  24. Anabel Maler (2013). Songs for Hands . Music Theory Online, 19(1). Society for Music Theory.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.30535/mto.19.1.4 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1590217376
    OpenAlex
  26. Corbett OToole (2013). Disclosing Our Relationships to Disabilities: An Invitation for Disability Studies Scholars . Disability Studies Quarterly, 33(2). The Ohio State University Libraries.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.18061/dsq.v33i2.3708 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1621016293
    OpenAlex
  27. Mike Levin , Tobin Siebers (2010). The Art of Disability: An Interview with Tobin Siebers . Disability Studies Quarterly, 30(2). The Ohio State University Libraries.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.18061/dsq.v30i2.1263 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1640911468
    OpenAlex
  28. Jim Sinclair * (2013). Why I dislike “person first” Language . Autonomy, the Critical Journal of Interdisciplinary Autism Studies, 1(2), 2.
    Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1829568558
    OpenAlex
  29. William E. Webster , Theodor W. Adorno (1976). Philosophy of Modern Music . The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 35(2), 242. JSTOR.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.2307/430389 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1969906072
    OpenAlex
  30. Katherine Meizel (2011). A Powerful Voice: Investigating Vocality and Identity . Voice and Speech Review, 7(1), 267-274. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1080/23268263.2011.10739551 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W1971335317
    OpenAlex
  31. Andrew Mead (1994). An Introduction to the Music of Milton Babbitt . Princeton University Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.1515/9781400863334 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2025455396
    OpenAlex
  32. Michele Friedner , Stefan Helmreich (2012). Sound Studies Meets Deaf Studies . The Senses and Society, 7(1), 72-86. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.2752/174589312x13173255802120 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2029637612
    OpenAlex
  33. Joseph N. Straus (2008). Disability and “Late Style” in Music . Journal of Musicology, 25(1), 3-45. University of California Press.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1525/jm.2008.25.1.3 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2030280949
    OpenAlex
  34. Blake Howe (2010). Paul Wittgenstein and the Performance Of Disability . Journal of Musicology, 27(2), 135-180. University of California Press.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1525/jm.2010.27.2.135 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2062374109
    OpenAlex
  35. Ann Folwell , Rosemarie Garland Thomson (1998). Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature . American Literature, 70(1), 187. JSTOR.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.2307/2902469 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2067886807
    OpenAlex
  36. Michael B. Bakan (2014). Ethnomusicological Perspectives on Autism, Neurodiversity, and Music Therapy . Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 14(3). Universtity of Bergen Library.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.15845/voices.v14i3.799 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2101166128
    OpenAlex
  37. Joseph N. Straus (2006). Normalizing the Abnormal: Disability in Music and Music Theory . Journal of the American Musicological Society, 59(1), 113-184. University of California Press.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1525/jams.2006.59.1.113 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2108307755
    OpenAlex
  38. Charles Keil , Christopher Small (2000). Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening . Ethnomusicology, 44(1), 161. University of Illinois Press.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.2307/852662 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2108639793
    OpenAlex
  39. George McKay (2013). Shakin' All Over: Popular Music and Disability .
    Type: Book OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2111320111
    OpenAlex
  40. (2000). Music of death and new creation: experiences in the world of Balinese gamelan beleganjur . Choice Reviews Online, 37(11), 37-6182-37-6182. American Library Association.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.5860/choice.37-6182 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2167097646
    OpenAlex
  41. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (2004). The Cultural Logic of Euthanasia: “Sad Fancyings” in Herman Melville's “Bartleby” . American Literature, 76(4), 777-806. Duke University Press.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1215/00029831-76-4-777 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2168920496
    OpenAlex
  42. Heinrich Schenker , William Drabkin (1994). The masterwork in music .
    Type: Book OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2177710972
    OpenAlex
  43. Laurie Stras (2006). The organ of the soul: voice, damage and affect . In ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (pp. 173-184).
    Type: Book chapter OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2202802594
    OpenAlex
  44. Léo Kanner (1943). Autistic disturbances of affective contact . Nervous Child, 2(3), 217.
    Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2255119171
    OpenAlex
  45. Jane Coppock (1975). Ideas for a Schoenberg Piece . Perspectives of New Music, 14(1), 3. JSTOR.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.2307/832543 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2313883892
    OpenAlex
  46. Suzanne G. Cusick (1994). Feminist Theory, Music Theory, and the Mind/Body Problem . Perspectives of New Music, 32(1), 8. JSTOR.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.2307/833149 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2316047365
    OpenAlex
  47. John Hollander (1967). Notes on the Text of Philomel . Perspectives of New Music, 6(1), 134. JSTOR.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.2307/832415 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2316769638
    OpenAlex
  48. Susan McClary (2017). Terminal Prestige: The Case of Avant-Garde Music Composition . In Reading Music (pp. 85-109). Routledge.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.4324/9781315089140-4 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2323653926
    OpenAlex
  49. Nina Sun Eidsheim (2011). Sensing Voice . The Senses and Society, 6(2), 133-155. Informa UK Limited.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.2752/174589311x12961584845729 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2324777252
    OpenAlex
  50. Milton Babbitt (1976). Responses: A First Approximation . Perspectives of New Music, 14(2), 3. JSTOR.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.2307/832619 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2331036721
    OpenAlex
  51. Arnie Cox (2001). The Mimetic Hypothesis and Embodied Musical Meaning . Musicae Scientiae, 5(2), 195-212. SAGE Publications.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1177/102986490100500204 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2342321971
    OpenAlex
  52. (2016). The Oxford handbook of music and disability studies . Choice Reviews Online, 53(12), 53-5197-53-5197. American Library Association.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.5860/choice.197455 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2413439850
    OpenAlex
  53. (2009). Concerto for the left hand: disability and the defamiliar body . Choice Reviews Online, 46(05), 46-2462-46-2462. American Library Association.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.5860/choice.46-2462 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2476456695
    OpenAlex
  54. Joseph N. Straus (2016). Autism and Postwar Serialism as Neurodiverse Forms of Cultural Modernism . In The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies (pp. 684-706). Oxford University Press.
    Type: Book chapter DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199331444.013.44 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2480881410
    OpenAlex
  55. Nina Sun Eidsheim (2015). Sensing Sound: Singing and Listening as Vibrational Practice . Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University).
    Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2485622258
    OpenAlex
  56. Davis L (2014). The end of normal: identity in a biocultural era . Choice Reviews Online, 51(12), 51-6817-51-6817. American Library Association.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.5860/choice.51-6817 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2488177343
    OpenAlex
  57. Margaret Price (2011). Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life . Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University).
    Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2492750601
    OpenAlex
  58. Neil Lerner , Joseph N. Straus (2006). Sounding Off: Theorizing Disability in Music . Routledge.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.4324/9780203961421 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2526440819
    OpenAlex
  59. (2010). The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education, Vol. 2 . Oxford University Press.
    Type: Book DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195390032.001.0001 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2576914760
    OpenAlex
  60. Blake Howe (2016). Music and the Agents of Obsession . Music Theory Spectrum, 38(2), 218-240. Oxford University Press (OUP).
    Type: Article DOI: 10.1093/mts/mtw014 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2587418825
    OpenAlex
  61. Julia Davids , Stephen A. LaTour (2012). Vocal Technique: A Guide for Conductors, Teachers, and Singers .
    Type: Article OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2798658397
    OpenAlex
  62. Guimarães,Cayley (2008). Open your eyes: deaf studies talking . Choice Reviews Online, 46(02), 46-1201-46-1201. American Library Association.
    Type: Article DOI: 10.5860/choice.46-1201 OpenAlex: https://openalex.org/W2977331686
    OpenAlex