Contemporary Music : Theoretical and Philosophical Perspectives

This collection of essays and interviews addresses important theoretical, philosophical and creative issues in Western art music at the end of the twentieth- and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries. Edited by Max Paddison and Irène Deliège, the book offers a wide range of international perspectives from prominent musicologists, philosophers and composers, including Célestin Deliège, Pascal Decroupet, Richard Toop, Rudolf Frisius, Alastair Williams, Herman Sabbe, François Nicolas, Marc Jimenez, Anne Boissière, Max Paddison, Hugues Dufourt, Jonathan Harvey, and new interviews with Pierre Boulez, Brian Ferneyhough, Helmut Lachenmann, and Wolfgang Rihm. Part I is mainly theoretical in emphasis. Issues addressed include the historical rationalization of music and technology, new approaches to the theorization of atonal harmony in the wake of Spectralism, debates on the'new complexity', the heterogeneity, pluralism and stylistic omnivorousness that characterizes music in our time, and the characterization of twentieth-century and contemporary music as a'search for lost harmony'. The orientation of Part II is mainly philosophical, examining concepts of totality and inclusivity in new music, raising questions as to what might be expected from an autonomous contemporary musical logic, and considering the problem of the survival of the avant-garde in the context of postmodernist relativism. As well as analytic philosophy and cognitive psychology, critical theory features prominently, with theories of social mediation in music, new perspectives on the concept of musical material in Adorno's late aesthetic theory, and a call for'an aesthetics of risk'in contemporary art as a means'to reassert the essential role of criticism, of judgment, and of evaluation as necessary conditions to bring about a real public debate on the art of today'. Part III offers creative perspectives, with new essays and interviews from important contemporary composers who have mad Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 List of Music Examples......Page 10 List of Figures and Tables......Page 12 Contributors......Page 14 Preface......Page 20 Introduction: Contemporary Music: Theory, Aesthetics, Critical Theory......Page 22 PART I: Theoretical Perspectives and Retrospectives......Page 38 1 The Principles of Music and the Rationalization of Theory......Page 40 2 Atonal Harmony: From Set to Scale......Page 72 3 In Search of Lost Harmony......Page 98 4 Against a Theory of Musical (New) Complexity......Page 110 5 Heterogeneity: Or, On the Choice of Being Omnivorous......Page 120 6 Varèse, Serialism and the Acoustic Metaphor......Page 138 7 ‘I Open and Close’?......Page 154 8 A Period of Confrontation: The Post-Webern Years......Page 164 PART II: Philosophical Critiques and Speculations After Adorno......Page 194 9 A Philosophy of Totality......Page 196 10 Possibilities for a Work-Immanent Contemporary Musical Logic......Page 204 11 Postmodernism and the Survival of the Avant-garde......Page 226 12 Material Constraints: Adorno, Benjamin, Arendt......Page 250 13 Towards an Aesthetics of Risk......Page 270 14 Music and Social Relations: Towards a Theory of Mediation......Page 280 PART III: Creative Orientations......Page 298 15 Music, Ambiguity, Buddhism: A Composer’s Perspective......Page 300 16 Artistic Orientations and the Limits of Explanation: An Interview with Pierre Boulez......Page 326 17 Failed Time, Successful Time, Shadowtime: An Interview with Brian Ferneyhough......Page 340 18 Sound Structures, Transformations, and Broken Magic: An Interview with Helmut Lachenmann......Page 352 19 Hunting and Forms: An Interview with Wolfgang Rihm......Page 370 Postlude: Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm and the Austro-German Tradition......Page 382 Index of Names......Page 392 Index of Subjects......Page 400 This collection of essays and interviews addresses important theoretical, philosophical and creative issues in Western art music at the end of the twentieth- and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries. The book offers a wide range of international perspectives from prominent musicologists, philosophers and composers and includes new interviews with Pierre Boulez, Brian Ferneyhough, Helmut Lachenmann, and Wolfgang Rihm. Contributions with a theoretical emphasis consider the historical rationalization of music and technology, new approaches to the theorization of atonal harmony in the wake of Spectralism, debates on the 'new complexity', the heterogeneity, pluralism and stylistic omnivorousness that characterizes music in our time, and the characterization of twentieth-century and contemporary music as a 'search for lost harmony'. The philosophical contributions examine concepts of totality and inclusivity in new music, raising questions as to what might be expected from an autonomous contemporary musical logic, and considering the problem of the survival of the avant-garde in the context of postmodernist relativism. As well as analytic philosophy and cognitive psychology, critical theory features prominently, with theories of social mediation in music, new perspectives on the concept of musical material in Adorno's late aesthetic theory, and a call for 'an aesthetics of risk' in contemporary art as a means 'to reassert the essential role of criticism, of judgment, and of evaluation as necessary conditions to bring about a real public debate on the art of today'.

This collection of essays and interviews addresses important theoretical, philosophical and creative issues in Western art music at the end of the twentieth- and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries. Edited by Max Paddison and Ir The predicament of contemporary music today and the philosophical and theoretical questions related to it are the focus of this volume of essays by leading international musicologists and philosophers 9780754604976,(hardcover:,alk.,paper),978-1-4094-0416-3,(ebook) Ashgate