Musik & Ästhetik, 1999, Jg. 3, Ausgabe 11

Mourning – Presence – History. Nerve points of modern aesthetics

The text deals with two philosophical approaches that are relevant for the comprehension of the problems of modern aesthetics. First there is the term »aesthetic mourning « as developed by Ludger Heidbrink in his book Melancholie und Moderne. Zur Kritik der historischen Verzweiflung München 1994. Second there are Günter Figal´s thoughts on »time and presence« »presence and history« which are to be found predominantly in Der Sinn des Verstehens. Beiträge zur hermeneutischen Philosophie Stuttgart 1996 and Für eine Philosophie von Freiheit und Streit. Ästhetik – Politik – Metaphysik Stuttgart/Weimar 1994. Heidbrink and Figal have a shared interest in establishing intellectual and practical possibilities that can stand up to the acceleration dynamics in modern society and furthermore to the predominance of historical time. The authors differ however in where they lay their emphasis: Whereas Heidbrink holds to a primacy of temporal motion and performance categories over temporariness and presence Figal´s interest lies more in the moment of presence although he orients himself toward Plato and Nietzsche when basing his argument on a dual merging of time and presence. Heidbrink´s »aesthetic mourning« moves in a complex manner along the limits between life-time and world-time between society and existence whose ability to rest and pause in the face of the real acceleration force of the modernity however has to retain a moment of the fictive metaphorical and artificial. Figal´s thoughts on »time and presence« on the other hand take aim at a real trust in the world which is based on a vacuum vis-a-vis time and transitoriness and therefore need not close its eyes to the catastrophic potentials of the modern age. Both of them keep art the aesthetics in the center of their attention.

»Frozen tongues delicate fires«: Processes in Liza Lim´s »Voodoo Child«

Despite its streamof- consciousness subject matter and foreground material Liza Lim´s Voodoo Child exhibits a carefully ordered overall structure. The dominant ordering principle is one of expansion from an initial point. In the first of the work´s sections the expansion operates in terms of pitch with a steady expansion from a single note to the widest available range; across the entire work expansions in timbral range are also incorporated with a continual undermining of pitched argument. With both pitch and rhythm ensemble textures are constructed by adding new lines empirically to an initial reference line. The text (two stanzas from Sappho) is in ancient Greek the use of a language no longer spoken allowing the composer freedom from any need to illustrate the text at the verbal level. The subject matter (in essence inarticulacy) is nevertheless closely mirrored in the gradual expulsion from the foreground of structures concerned with pitch in favour of less coherent ›inarticulate‹ timbral explorations. Within the timbral explorations undertaken throughout the course of the work a trajectory is discernible from transformations leaving the pitched argument recognisable to those which partially and eventually wholly obscure pitch. The combinations of instrumental techniques chosen also develop: from unanimity to disparty with later passages dominated by heterogeneous textures.

The question of »expression« in Anton Webern´s late works

Hardly any other works have caused as many problems regarding the relation between structure and expression of hermeneutics as those of Anton Webern´s late works. If previous Webern research has in general reduced its scope to the formula »structure equals expression« then this essay would like to show that the analysis of the dodecaphonic construction is not a priori identical with the outline of a musical poetics; that is to say it does not touch the expressive ›layer‹ of the work. This problem is dealt with paradigmatically using as an example Webern´s Symphony Op. 21 which inaugurates his late works.

A theory of artistic action. Friedrich Schleiermacher´s philosophy of art and music

Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher is mainly perceived as a distinguished theologian and theorist of hermeneutics. His aesthetical approach gains in originality and relevancy by concentrating on the artistic action rather than on its products. Creating art is interpreted as an anthropological need for self-manifestation. Genuine artistic production ensues from non-artistic manifestations of individuals and differentiates itself from the latter by the addition of circumspection (»Besonnenheit«). On the one hand music is considered an immediate expression of the self-consciousness and thus even more so than the other arts are considered a medium capable of communicating the basic human form of being a specified by religion: the ›feeling of absolute dependence‹; on the other hand music is in danger of becoming deficient regarding the identically constructed conception of artistic action by its subjective even »isolating« momentum and losing its reference to the ›world‹ (i.e. the totality of individual entities) by its vagueness. In describing the artistic action Schleiermacher focuses predominantly on the aspect of art as expression of the moved self-consciousness which strives toward representation and for ethical reasons has to do so. Viewing the production of art as a communicative act (with parallels to language) has again become relevant in our century: by elaborating the mutualities and differences between two later theorists (Croce and Luhmann) it may seen where the contemporary discussion might profit from a re-reading of Schleiermacher.

Dreams of Flight and Higher Trigonometry – Ernst Jünger´s Writing

This essay is an attempt to elucidate the fundamental intention of Ernst Jünger´s thinking and writing. The intention consists in giving an interpretation of the world in its totality an interpretation which is essentially poetical and is as such meant to be the legitimate successor of speculative metaphysical philosophy. Jünger´s poetical intention is reflected in his thoughts on language and it is most clearly articulated in his self-characterization as an »author«.

Arnold Schönberg and the Music Institute of Kranichstein

Schönberg´s relationship to Darmstadt consists of four undertakings that are closely interwoven with one another yet as far as their intentions are concerned are relatively independent. Wolfgang Steinecke tried to engage Schönberg as a lecturer; Schönberg´s works were performed in Darmstadt and some people closest to him were present there as performers and teachers; Darmstadt became the headquarters of the Arnold Schönberg Kuratorium which awards the Schönberg Medal; Wolfgang Steinecke and the persons responsible in the city council nearly received the Schönberg estate from his widow Gertrud in order to start a Schönberg Archive in Darmstadt.

The Political Profiles of a Composer. Comments on Gottfried von Einem

As a contribution to a critical biographics aspects of the Austrian composer Gottfried von Einem´s life work and reception are presented showing their reciprocal penetration of social and politico-cultural lines of development. The personal as well as political experiences the young von Einem had with National Socialism are described. In addition interrelationships between »music and politics« after 1945 are illustrated both as regards von Einem´s exertion of influence upon the Salzburg Music Festival and as reflected in his meeting with Bertolt Brecht. To sum up the paper illustrates the extent to which formative experiences under a dictatorship restauration and renewal (Nazi period »Cold War« 1968-generation movement [68er-Bewegung]) on the one hand and the collaboration with literary figures such as Dürrenmatt on the other resulted in the composition of operas and finally defined von Einem´s position in the cultural public.