Musik & Ästhetik, 2003, Jg. 7, Ausgabe 27

Dylan in Manchester 1966. The aesthetic-political background of a sensation

This contribution is the first chapter of a forthcoming book about Bob Dylan. The first thesis claims: There is the sign of a double character in Dylan's music; that is it is aesthetic and at the same time political political however primarily in its genuinely aesthetic composition and effect. The second thesis: Dylan creates and reflects upon mixtures of style; his music is inherently ›impure‹. And in this way it shows its criticism of racism. Dylan's move toward rock music in 1965-66 is not a rejection of folk but its critical expansion.

Figures of the performer. On Heinz Holliger's flute composition

Like virtually no other contemporary musician Heinz Holliger (*1939) unifies the characteristics of writing and interpreting music in a fertile symbiosis. This applies not only to his biography but also to his compositions which in many cases were written with a specific performer in mind. Holliger's oeuvre includes several works for flute (including both solo pieces and chamber or orchestral music) all of which are dedicated to Aurèle Nicolet. This article discusses four of these pieces (Lied [1971] Quodlibet pour Aurèle [1986] Sonate (in)solit(air)e [1995/96] and petit Air pour flûte solitaire [2000] with particular attention paid to the way in which the dedicatory aspect is reflected on an aesthetic level.

The art of the repetition and the variation. Ligeti in light of Mondrian and Klee

Ligeti's works often demonstrate references to visual phenomena. This can be seen in several titles and also by the fact that they have often been inspired by pictures and even visions. This paper investigates these references. It examines among other things the similarities between the effect that the observation of rhythmical condensing in Piet Mondrian's work had on his work as well as the effect of the evolutionary repetitions and polyphonic mutations in Paul Klee's work and of the effects that are aroused by such works of Ligeti's as Ramifications Continuum or the Kammerkonzert. The correspondence betweeen the works that Ligeti example is astonishing. The techniques of repetition of polyphonic mutation and of slow chromatic layering create a special effect in the eye or in the ear of the observer or listener: The beginning motion expands brings to light a third dimension and finally creates a so-called »trompe-l'oeil«.

On the edifying character of sacred music between Schütz and Bach

The author discusses the question regarding the way in which edification occurs - a persistent requirement of sacred music in the 17th and early 18th centuries - and how it appears in the structure of sacred music. In the 17th century music was considered edifying only when a legitimate subject of edification (a biblical saying or chorale) is immediately present in the work. This does not change until the Neumeister type of church cantata in which a biblical saying may appear indirectly namely through a fictional text or human reflection. In the middle of the 18th century feeling and edification merge. In Bach's Clavierübung III edificaiton in a self-reflective turn is after all an aesthetic component of the work itself. An outlook shows the reversal of the edifying character with Kierkegaard - while preserving its aesthetic character.