A phenomenology of electronic music
May 25th, 2008, search relatedRelated posts :: a phenomenology of electronic music :: perhaps a phenomenology of discursive practices as well as electronic musics? :: A phenomenology of electronic music :: perhaps a phenomenology of discursive practices as well as electronic musics?
Hi Malcolm,
After checking the list-archive i wondered if this post came through.
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send on Sun, 11 May 2008 03:17:04 +0100
Thanks for your detailed and persuasive post. You are far better
informed and up to date about the technology and equipmental
expertise of electronic music than i am. I am more of a listener.
Over the years i have taped hundreds of cassettes, collected more
than thousand LP’s and my CD collection is fast reaching that same number.
What i try to do is cultivate the art of listening, well art,
better maybe is the pleasure of listening. When i was in my early
twenties i wanted to become a musician (who not 
), tried to
master the piano but failed. Then i tried composing and after some
finger exercises wrote a (serious) fugue, but my music teacher
deemed it unplayable … and that was that. After these disillusions
all that was left was the pleasure of listening and the joy of collecting
and -praise our modern technology- there is not one day without music.
You asked about my home grown perspective on the Dutch electronic
milieu. I am no expert and haven’t followed the latest developments.
But as far as i can tell it isn’t a big thing here in Holland. Most of the
major contemporary Dutch composers i know of still write in a rather
traditional modern idiom. There are ‘funny’ experiments though, some
days ago i heard about the establishment of a siren orchestra. These
particular sirens are partly mechanical and electronic and based on the
ideas of some early 20thC Dutch physicists who initially used them as
sound measurement devices. A artists company called “De Veen Fabriek”
asked some technicians to build the sirens and also commissioned some
composers to write new pieces for the siren orchestra. Their first
performance will be somewhere the coming months, i’ll let you know
when i know more.
But to keep this thread in it’s philosophical track, i want to ask you
some questions. First, some posts ago you mentioned the “French
phenomenological interpretation …”, what do you mean by “French”
here ? Do you see a distinct difference between f.i. French and German
phenomenologists/phenomenology, in thematics, in strategy etc. ? I am
very interested to know what you and others have to say on this. Second,
what is your take on minimalist music (Adams, Glass, Reich, Riley etc.)?
Do you see a (accidental or necessary) relationship with electronic music
And, to complicate it further, what is your view on twelve-tone music
(Schoenberg, Webern, Berg) and serialism in all of this. What are your
philosophical ideas about this (un)holy trinity, i.e. twelve-tone +
minimalist + electronic music, in the overall context of the modern
western world ? The first words that come to mind are a dialectic web
of war, peace, optimism, pessimism, loss, identity, care and (will-to-)
power. A propos, have you ever heard Nietzsche’s little piano piece “Das
‘Fragment an Sich’”, minimalism avant la lettre.
cheers,
Jan
