Die Stimme des Verlangens
Musikästhetiche Versuche
de Herman Van Campenhout
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Introducing Die Stimme des Verlangens. Musikästhetische Aufsätze
by author Herman Van Campenout
My first discussion of music aesthetics was published as Metamorfose. Een filosofie van de muziek (Damon, 1999, no longer available). I was to discover soon enough, however, that my deconstruction of traditional and current thinking about music had not gone far enough, and that my alternative needed more and probably also a different sort of argumentation. A new and more meticulous reading of the old topoi proved necessary. The new essays try to show that the metaphors that still have sway in music philosophy – mainly music as language and music as expression, especially of emotions – do not enable us to articulate the meaning of music. In my reading of relevant texts by important authors Adorno takes pride of place, understandably so as he tried to overcome traditional aesthetic theories and to redeem their true meaning. In my reading, however, even Adorno hardly stands the test.
Deconstructing the aesthetics of the past does not lead to any fashionable market conformism of the sort “anything goes”. However, we can only introduce a new way of thinking about (objects of) art if we are able to deconstruct and replace the core concept of modernity. Indeed, when modernity and its thinking have led to destructive ideologies, the reason is to be found in its failure to articulate its basic concept adequately, and that is the concept of the subject – in other words, the concept of the human being. My view is that only a mode of thought which has taken psychoanalysis seriously is able to articulate the subject and its constitutive other. All this does not imply that these essays present a psychoanalytic study of music. The intention is thoroughly philosophical, and apart from Lacan my theorizing was fed by post-modern masters such as Derrida, Levinas, and Arendt.
The subject can only be thought on the basis of its other, i.e. of an “unsublatable” alterity. It coincides with its desire and so it is related to an always elusive object –Lacan calls it an extimate object. It differs from all other living beings in that it is constitutively a linguistic being. It has no biological or other “essence” or “nature”, and its desire is constantly in search of something to hold on to. The elusive object of its desire, which is itself outside language, only offers a makeshift, always tentative and intangible. It may present itself in many forms, one of which is the voice. Like other forms of the Lacanian objet petit a the voice is beyond language: it is not to be found in the innermost part of the subject but is always out there, beyond its grasp. Music is not to be identified with that object, of course, but it occupies the space of the object, as long as it lasts.
The introductory pages of the book try to show that the voice is not a new concept, but that it has always been an important notion in culture, in thinking and in religion.
The first large essay, Die elementarische Macht, offers the main argument of my thesis. Re-reading important old texts of Hegel, Nietzsche, Wagner, Schopenhauer and others, it presents above all a critical reading of Adorno. The thesis says that the meaning of music is not to be found in its expression or in its communication of some truth. For instance, music does not express emotions: it only arouses feelings, and this has always been misunderstood as expression. Its human meaning is that it can occupy the place of the object of desire.
Two other essays try to come to grips with two important Adorno issues. The first deals with the question of how we can articulate the humanity of music. The second endeavours to clarify what the autonomy of music might consist of.
Another large essay, Das dramatische Nebeneinander, wants to present a new philosophy of opera. Once more Schopenhauer, Wagner and Nietzsche offer the texts to be re-read. To develop my thesis I use one example, Verdi’s Il trovatore. And the main idea, which subverts nearly all current theorizing, is that music and text/dramatic action do not constitute a unity, that even expression does not unite them on a “higher” level, but that they form a side by side (Nietzsche’s Nebeneinander), and that their difference cannot be theorized away.
It is perfectly clear to me that aestheticians and musicologists will read what I want to say with astonishment and possible irritation. But many years ago Dahlhaus already concluded that the tradition of thinking about music had resulted in nothing substantial. For many decades I have been familiar with the traditional discourse and the time has come, it seems to me, to find another way of thinking about music. After Metamorfose this book is a further attempt to formulate such a new theory.
The same post-modern ideas that informed my Wagner book are implied in the essays of the present book. If the human subject and the world of human beings are to be understood in a different way from the tradition of modernity, then all thinking about music and art must start from a new reading of the aesthetic canon. All critics of my Wagner book seemed to agree that I had gone wrong in one direction: I had called into question Wagner’s Leitmotive arguing that music cannot be considered as a semantic system. This view clearly offends the “scientific” belief of Wagnerians and many musicologists. Sadly, my disagreement with current aesthetic thoughts on music is far more comprehensive, as these essays will illustrate.
I expect neither agreement nor applause.
by author Herman Van Campenout
My first discussion of music aesthetics was published as Metamorfose. Een filosofie van de muziek (Damon, 1999, no longer available). I was to discover soon enough, however, that my deconstruction of traditional and current thinking about music had not gone far enough, and that my alternative needed more and probably also a different sort of argumentation. A new and more meticulous reading of the old topoi proved necessary. The new essays try to show that the metaphors that still have sway in music philosophy – mainly music as language and music as expression, especially of emotions – do not enable us to articulate the meaning of music. In my reading of relevant texts by important authors Adorno takes pride of place, understandably so as he tried to overcome traditional aesthetic theories and to redeem their true meaning. In my reading, however, even Adorno hardly stands the test.
Deconstructing the aesthetics of the past does not lead to any fashionable market conformism of the sort “anything goes”. However, we can only introduce a new way of thinking about (objects of) art if we are able to deconstruct and replace the core concept of modernity. Indeed, when modernity and its thinking have led to destructive ideologies, the reason is to be found in its failure to articulate its basic concept adequately, and that is the concept of the subject – in other words, the concept of the human being. My view is that only a mode of thought which has taken psychoanalysis seriously is able to articulate the subject and its constitutive other. All this does not imply that these essays present a psychoanalytic study of music. The intention is thoroughly philosophical, and apart from Lacan my theorizing was fed by post-modern masters such as Derrida, Levinas, and Arendt.
The subject can only be thought on the basis of its other, i.e. of an “unsublatable” alterity. It coincides with its desire and so it is related to an always elusive object –Lacan calls it an extimate object. It differs from all other living beings in that it is constitutively a linguistic being. It has no biological or other “essence” or “nature”, and its desire is constantly in search of something to hold on to. The elusive object of its desire, which is itself outside language, only offers a makeshift, always tentative and intangible. It may present itself in many forms, one of which is the voice. Like other forms of the Lacanian objet petit a the voice is beyond language: it is not to be found in the innermost part of the subject but is always out there, beyond its grasp. Music is not to be identified with that object, of course, but it occupies the space of the object, as long as it lasts.
The introductory pages of the book try to show that the voice is not a new concept, but that it has always been an important notion in culture, in thinking and in religion.
The first large essay, Die elementarische Macht, offers the main argument of my thesis. Re-reading important old texts of Hegel, Nietzsche, Wagner, Schopenhauer and others, it presents above all a critical reading of Adorno. The thesis says that the meaning of music is not to be found in its expression or in its communication of some truth. For instance, music does not express emotions: it only arouses feelings, and this has always been misunderstood as expression. Its human meaning is that it can occupy the place of the object of desire.
Two other essays try to come to grips with two important Adorno issues. The first deals with the question of how we can articulate the humanity of music. The second endeavours to clarify what the autonomy of music might consist of.
Another large essay, Das dramatische Nebeneinander, wants to present a new philosophy of opera. Once more Schopenhauer, Wagner and Nietzsche offer the texts to be re-read. To develop my thesis I use one example, Verdi’s Il trovatore. And the main idea, which subverts nearly all current theorizing, is that music and text/dramatic action do not constitute a unity, that even expression does not unite them on a “higher” level, but that they form a side by side (Nietzsche’s Nebeneinander), and that their difference cannot be theorized away.
It is perfectly clear to me that aestheticians and musicologists will read what I want to say with astonishment and possible irritation. But many years ago Dahlhaus already concluded that the tradition of thinking about music had resulted in nothing substantial. For many decades I have been familiar with the traditional discourse and the time has come, it seems to me, to find another way of thinking about music. After Metamorfose this book is a further attempt to formulate such a new theory.
The same post-modern ideas that informed my Wagner book are implied in the essays of the present book. If the human subject and the world of human beings are to be understood in a different way from the tradition of modernity, then all thinking about music and art must start from a new reading of the aesthetic canon. All critics of my Wagner book seemed to agree that I had gone wrong in one direction: I had called into question Wagner’s Leitmotive arguing that music cannot be considered as a semantic system. This view clearly offends the “scientific” belief of Wagnerians and many musicologists. Sadly, my disagreement with current aesthetic thoughts on music is far more comprehensive, as these essays will illustrate.
I expect neither agreement nor applause.
Características y detalles
- Categoría principal: Libros de arte y fotografía
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Características: 13×20 cm
N.º de páginas: 366 - Fecha de publicación: abr. 30, 2010
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