Musik & Ästhetik, 2008, Jg. 12, Ausgabe 46

Theory of Musical Postmodernity

This theory is based on three premises: firstly it must follow on from the postmodernism discourse in the other arts and place itself within a philosophical context; secondly it is only possible if a successor (Second Modernity) is established; thirdly it must be tested through application to concrete works. By going through these steps it gains a profile of necessary internal differentiations for postmodern music and the characteristics of formal heteronomy pluralistic material application non-truth hedonism and narrativity. In doing so the systematic difficulties of transferring extra-musical postmodern arguments to music are shown. The two case studies are Sinfonia by Luciano Berio and BRANNG! by Michael Beil.

Time History and the Present in Adorno and Lyotard

Taking Adorno and Horkheimer's interpretation of The Odyssey and Lyotard's thoughts on Joyce's Ulysses as its point of departure this text examines the significance of the two authors' understanding of time for their philosophy of art with a contrasting comparison of central categories for both modern and postmodern aesthetics: Adorno's view of history homecoming the moment farewell childhood and modernity as well as Lyotard's conception of return postmodernity history childhood the moment and a new beginning. The engagement with time history and the present essential to the thought of both figures contains two fundamental connected dimensions: firstly a critique of their respective historical present; secondly a view of the present moment in art that in opposition to critically one-dimensional progress-oriented thinking focuses on the new as that which has never before existed. Both ultimately aim for an altered experience of the present as revealed by art.

Music in Wittgenstein

Ludwig Wittgenstein had a strong biographical affinity to music. Though Wittgenstein cannot be credited with an outright aesthetics of music music is omnipresent in his work as an inspiration as a source of analogies and as a characteristic element of his style. The contribution analyses the changing roles music and musical analogies play in the evolution of Wittgenstein's thought. While the references to music in the philosophy of the Tractatus and the Notebooks mostly reflect Schopenhauer's philosophy of music the musical examples in the Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics the Philosophical Investigations and Zettel are remarkable both for their originality and their appropriateness in illuminating central features of his conception of linguistic meaning.

The Aesthetics of Popular Music

The discipline of musical aesthetics has always been neglected in the history of popular music research. Due to (understandable) reservations about tendencies in musical aesthetics to underline timeless values allegedly unbiased research and presumably immanent qualities aesthetics has become the enemy for pop researchers with their strong orientation towards cultural and social science - with the unfortunate result that pertinent questions as to the specific aesthetic attraction of popular music have so far not been adressed. In order to reduce this »blind spot« of popular music research at least to some extent this paper attempts to apply more recent theories of philosophical aesthetics to the field of pop music. Current publications by the German philosopher Martin Seel in particular can be used to gain an understanding of the assessment and customary reception of popular music and also to answer questions about the aesthetic functions of this musical style and its attraction and significance for pop music fans.

Where is the Voice?

This text shows that the accusation of excessive theoretical baggage levelled at Dolar's book His Master's Voice. Eine Theorie der Stimme by reviewers in his field is not the result of a particular method but rather the effect of an unquestioned routine. Though on the surface there is an impression that Lacan's work constitutes the most important theoretical influence little of its complexity remains in the book. In other words: a ›theory of the voice‹ is precisely what Dolar's book is not; it is more like a prelude or an arabesque. For the book's analytical and discursive profile remains too vague in spite of all its literary qualities.

Visions of the Theatrical. Adolphe Appia's musical revolution of the stage

The German translation of Richard C. Beacham's work biography of the Geneva scenographer is the first study to explore the entire range of Adolphe Appia's projects and shows their formative influence amid the web of stage reforms around 1900. The close exchange with Edward Gordon Craig and the central co-operation with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze in the then famous Hellerau rhythm school are especially important examples of previously underrepresented aspects of this context. Appia's concepts not only revolutionised stage lighting; following the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk they affectedhe musicalisation of theatre per se. This not only makes it necessary to carry out a thourough appraisal of his visionary work's history of effect; there must also be a broader contextualisation of his work incorporating media-culture-historical aspects for example concerning the affiliations between the musical metaphysics of the 19th century and the (theatrical) ritual constructions of the early 20th century.

Psychoanalysis as a Part of Fundamental Musicological Reflection. An Assessment

This article begins with an examination of Johannes Picht's essay Beethoven and the Crisis of the Subject (Musik & Ästhetik 2007/08 no. 44/45). The author agrees with Picht on the necessity of transcending musical analyses through philosophical and psychoanalytical categories but criticises the understanding of the subject presupposed by Picht as too narrow both systematically and historiographically. In a second step he also criticises the conventional approach to music among psychoanalytical authors and the defensive stance of musicology as a discipline towards psychoanalysis in order to emphasise in opposition to both the fundamental possibility of incorporating psychoanalysis into a reflection on musicological fundamentals.