Music and the Myth of Wholeness: Toward a New Aesthetic Paradigm

275 Pages·2016·3.325 MB·English

by  Tim Hodgkinson

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Music and the Myth of Wholeness

Music and the Myth of Wholeness
Toward a New Aesthetic Paradigm
Tim Hodgkinson
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2016 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Stone by the MIT Press. Printed and bound in the United States
of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hodgkinson, Tim.
Title: Music and the myth of wholeness : toward a new aesthetic paradigm /
Tim Hodgkinson.
Description: Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press, [2015] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015038318 | ISBN 9780262034067 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Music--Philosophy and aesthetics. | Aesthetics. |
Aesthetics--Social aspects.
Classification: LCC ML3845 .H62 2015 | DDC 781.1/7--dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015038318
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Micol

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
I Word and Body
1 Prelude 3
2 Information 15
3 From Semantics to Imagination 25
4 Subjectivation 33
5 Dreams and the Oneiric Subject 43
6 Imagination Space 51
7 Topography of Culture 55
8 Discourse as Cultural Phase 63
Polarization of Order and Indeterminacy 66
Discursive Subject 67
Indeterminacy in Contemporary Art 70
Silences 73
9 The Sacred as Cultural Phase 75
Ritual Body/Ritual Subject 79
Transition and Affliction 82
Ontological Moment of Ritual 90
Anthropology 93
10 Art as Cultural Phase 99
Sociology versus the Aesthetic Object 99
Formalism 103
Art and Ritual 105
Incubation of Western Art Music 109
viii Contents
Art and Society 114
Musical Space in the Renaissance 118
Social Difference and Subjectivity 121
II Music and Ontology
11 Toward a Materialist Ontology of Art 127
12 On Listening 131
On the Sensations of Tone 133
Ici-bas 136
Your You versus Your Brain 137
Recursivity in Aesthetic Production 139
Aesthetic Worlds (1) 143
Hamburg, January 2010 146
Field Recordings, Xenochrony, and Charles Ives 147
Aesthetic Worlds (2) 149
The Fifteenth Quartet 150
The Other of Music (1) 151
Ut at the Luminaire 152
The Other of Music (2) 153
Form and Formativity 154
Aesthetic Risk 157
Ontological Power of Music 159
Expression 164
13 Three Poietics of Music 169
John Cage and the Wandering Subject 169
Pierre Schaeffer and the Sonorous Object 176
Helmut Lachenmann and the Learning Subject 182
14 Conclusion 191
Ethnomusicology 192
Embodiment and Enactive Aesthetics 196
Notes 201
Bibliography 229
Index 249
a
Acknowledgments
A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
This is a book that has come together gradually over a long period. Phases
of writing have been scattered through the working life of a musician.
Countless people over years have therefore unwittingly contributed to it:
chance remarks, turns of conversation, mentions of musics, films, books, A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s
and a new connection is made. I cannot name them all, but here are a few.
Micol Vacca, who introduced me to a whole tradition of Italian aesthetic
thought—Pareyson, Vattimo, Perniola—made numerous criticisms, inter-
ventions, and suggestions; provided material on psychology, critical the-
ory, and linguistics; gave me working space; and goaded me along. I tried
out ideas, argued, or corresponded with David Connearn, Harry Gilonis,
Keith Howard, Kersten Glandien, Chris Cutler, Valentina Suzukey, Chris
Frith, Tom Lubbock, Carole Pegg, Ben Piekut, and Malise Ruthven, all of
whom gave me encouragement. Ben Piekut deserves a medal for reading
and criticizing an entire early draft that was more or less unreadable; Malise
Ruthven also; Tiggy and Malise for much hospitality; Ken Hyder for sev-
eral helpful reads and rereads at various stages; Iancu Dumitrescu and Ana-
Maria Avram for day-long discussions about music, phenomenology, and
much else; Lu Edmonds, Phil Minton, Odile Jacquin, and Robert Worby
for various helps; Peter Hodgkinson and Noele Bellier and Bella the dog for
inspiration; Robert Reigle for his encyclopedic knowledge of contemporary
music and discussions on ethnomusicology and spectralism; and Doug Sery
at the MIT Press for warm support for this project.
Ken Hyder and Gendos Chamzyryn, whom I joined in the K-Space proj-
ect, and many friends and acquaintances in Tuva and throughout Siberia
and Russia, including Boris Podkosov, Anatoly Kokov, Spartak Chernish,
Tania Jamatshuk, Boris Tomilov, Tamara, Boris Tolstobokov, Valentina
Ponomareva, Konstantin Gogunsky, Sainkho Namtchylak, Chai-Su, Ai-
Churek, Vladimir Rezitsky, Eugene and Olga Kolbashev, Nicolai Michailov,
Yeremi Hagayev, Kunga-Boo Tash-Ool, Mongush Kenin-Lopsan, Doptchun