Musik & Ästhetik, 2007, Jg. 11, Ausgabe 44

Beethoven and the Crisis of the Subject Parts I-IV

In Beethoven's oeuvre one finds different phases of constitution and endangerment of the musical subject unfolding. In the late works its illusory character can no longer be ignored: the musical structures of subjectivity are still in place but their transcience becomes evident and the subject is replaced by an I that is existentially dependent on a you and thus under a constant irreducible threat of negation. The metaphysical horizon formerly occupied by this I as the subject therefore has dissolved and violence can be understood as follows: their signatures become traceable in the musical details. Negation encompasses the two poles of denial (logical operation the subject remains intact) and obliteration (logic is suspended the subject is destroyed); violence appears as a biologically-based reaction to the threat of obliteration. An analysis of the Hammerklavier sonata (op.106) brings to light many different musical signatures of violence and negation.

Cézanne on the Toilet. Marcuse on art everyday culture and Duchamp

For Marcuse Duchamp was an affirmative institutionaltheorist of art. He failed to see that Duchamp's critical practice was a counterpart to the critical theory of modernity's aesthetic aporiai. This article - drawing on Duchamp - problematises the fixation of Marcuse's aesthetics on the form of the autonomous work. Dissolving the form of the work of art need not lead to the dissolution of art's critical potential. Distortion and alienation can also be forms of aesthetic practice that go beyong the formal guise of the work. The argumentation here does not however abandon Marcuse's idea that the aesthetic dimension forms a counterworld to the reality principle that is quasi-transcendet but also has practical consequences. Accordingly the essay - using Marcuse - makes the semantic ambivalence of Duchamp's ready-mades transparent.

Parataxis. On a compositional Strategy in the GDR

In this article the author argues that the composition-aesthetic concept of >parataxis< advocated by Paul-Heinz Dittrich since the 1980s based on Adorno's reception of Hölderlin is closely connected to the compositional location of the former GDR. It can be shown in examplary fashion that aesthetic preferences and compositional decisions are sometimes due to a related political impulse: the rejection of the >dialectical< sonata form can thus be understood as a subtle rejection of certain (philosophical and political) concepts of identity. Like Adorno who once described identity as the »archetype of ideology« and viewed the sonata form reprise with particular scepticism Dittrich too is guided by the impulse to confront concepts of unity and uniformity with the greatest compositional differentiation. Accordingly parataxisis intended to lead to a sensation of perception.

SOund Process and »Skeleton« - on the first movement of Handel's Concerto Grosso op.6 1 in G major

The fact that the composers of Viennese Classcism expressed great admiration for Handel suggests that he also had an influence on their compositional techniqque. This analysis seeks to show in exemplary fashion that Albrechtsberger's idea of the »skeleton« is a composition-technical constant and that in the first movement of the first Concerto Grosso op.6 1 this skeleton is shaped in a manner that generates a process affecting several parameters. The skeleton thus not only acts as a framework but also determines the musical surface and the affective experience of the music to a decisive extent.

Don Juan in Kierkegaard's Interpretation

For E.T.A. Hoffman Mozart's Don Giovanni was »the opera of all operas«. This opinion was shared by Kierkegaard whose treatise On the Musical-Erotic contains reflections on the media of the fine arts the relationship between music and language and the concepts of »sensuality« and »immediacy«. In his view music is a more sensual medium than language. Based on the criterion of desire his theory of the musical-erotic distinguishes between three phrases. Don Juan is not a concrete individual but rather a myth the idea of sensuality which is expressed through the music. There are a number of indications that Kierkegaard's tract should be understood autobiographically as a form of compensation for a life he did not live himself.

»My head is a nightclub ...«
Four lines from »Why Are We Sleeping?« by Soft Machine

This analysis of a well-known piece from the rock avant-garde of the late 1960s examines taking the influence of the >mystic< Gurdijeff on the song's author Kevin Ayers as its point of departure a particularly highlighted part of the song: four lines that describe a nightclub. This leads to a detailed interpretation of the lines that also incorporates the >psychedelically< oriented subculture of those years. One of the resulting insights is that the song here reflects uopn itself as apiece of music its lyrics developing an allegory of the musical space (A. Wellek) created in the mind to the listener during musical reception. Beyond this the allegory can possibly also be understood as a plea for music as the reserve for everything unresolved in the life of the listener.

The Aesthetics of Music Sociology. Is musical life just an industry?

The handbook Musik und Kulturbetrieb. Medien Märkte Institutionen [Music and the Culture Scene: Media Markets Institutions] edited by Frieder Reininghaus and Arnold Jacobshagen leaves a mixed impression. On the one hand it is admirable in its clearly-presented wealth of information which makes it an extremely useful tool for an investigation of this field. On the other hand one can sense a strong conflict throughout the book between the majority of the authors who are concerned with apurely factual representation and a handful of others who contribute various theoretical keywords and argue in a very ideologically-loaded manner. Furthermore their strategy of dispensing with anadequate concept of the musical work distorts the representation of the relationship between music and society.