The Silent Network—The Music of Wandelweiser
2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 30; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/07494467.2011.676895
ISSN1477-2256
Autores ResumoAbstract This essay examines Wandelweiser as a unique social and artistic formation while considering the social import of the group's artistic works. Tracing Wandelweiser's history and analyzing a selection of its musical works, the group is considered in relation to historical avant-garde movements and contemporary network theory. Though lacking an official manifesto, Wandelweiser's aesthetic program can be located largely in its interpretations of John Cage's silent composition 4′33″. Expressed in the various interviews, writings, and musical works of Wandelweiser members, these readings of Cage's work—largely consonant with the consideration of 'silence as an autonomous musical phenomenon'—are contrasted with existing and original interpretations of 4′33″ which underline its potential as a conceptual, discursive, and socially engaged musical work. Keywords: Artistic AutonomyAvant-GardeConceptual MusicJohn CageMusic CollectiveWandelweiser Notes See Schlothauer, 1992 Schlothauer, A. 1992. Die Diktatur Der Freien Sexualität: AAO, Mühl-Kommune, Friedrichshof, Wien: Verlag Für Gesellschaftskritik. Retrieved 3 July 2011, from http://www.agpf.de/Schlothauer-AAO-Muehl.htm [Google Scholar], pp. 19–20; Fleck, 2003 Fleck, R. 2003. Die Mühl-Kommune: Freie Sexualität und Aktionismus. Geschichte Eines Experiments, Köln: Walther König. [Google Scholar], pp. 50–51. My translations of both texts are used throughout. My thanks to Taylan Susam for his translation from the Dutch original. Or was it a quiet music seminar? The multiple translations of Stille add a subtle ambiguity to the character of the event. My thanks to Nicholas Melia for providing information pertaining to the Stille Musik seminar. In Germany at least, Schnebel has been associated with Cage to the extent that Stille Musik jury member Marianne Schroeder was compelled to wonder if he could be called 'Ein deutscher Cage?' (in Grünzweig, Schnebel, Schröder & Supper, 1990, pp. 65–67). It is not clear, however, to what extent Schnebel saw the work of Cage as related to the seminar theme. For example, George Brecht: Werder in Müller (2002 Müller, P. 2002. Manfred Werder. Contemporary Swiss composers, Zürich: Pro Helvetia. [Google Scholar]) and Werder, M. (2012 [forthcoming]), and Jürg Frey (1999 Frey, J. 1999. Material. Positionen, 38: 22–25. Reprinted. In E. Houben & B. Schlothauer (Eds.), MusikDenken: Texte der Wandelweiser-Komponisten (pp. 12–25). Zürich: Edition Howeg [Google Scholar], p. 14); George Brecht, James Tenney, La Monte Young: Pisaro (2004a Pisaro, M. 2004a. "Elf Thesen zum Stand der Neuen Musik (nach Alain Badiou)". In MusikDenken: Texte der Wandelweiser-Komponisten, Edited by: Houben, E. and Schlothauer, B. 98–115. Zürich: Edition Howeg. Retrieved 3 July 2011, from http://www.timescraper.de/pisaro/mp11theses.pdf [Google Scholar], p. 101). Closely associated with Wandelweiser, the work of Hungarian-born Swiss artist and composer István Zelenka contains many ostensible similarities with Fluxus. See, for example, his Versuchen wir die Sachen so zu ordnen, dass das Resultat nie endgültig wird (2005), a score containing a broad range of instructions for producing various actions, and instrumental and vocal sounds. Of course, one might also appropriately cite Adorno in this regard. In his Sociology of Music (1962), it is precisely music's claim to autonomy since the Enlightenment, which is seen as false consciousness in light of its commodity status (Adorno, 1976 Adorno, T. 1976. "Introduction to the sociology of music". Edited by: Ashton, E. B. Ashton, New York: Seabury. [Google Scholar], p. 63; for further commentary, see Paddison, 2001 Paddison, M. 2001. Adorno's aesthetics of music, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar], p. 184). However, there are perhaps enough aesthetic divergences between Wandelweiser and the music championed by Adorno, the 'classical avant-garde', that warrant a theoretical departure as well. While Malfatti's comment refers to what in his view are similarities shared by 'MTV music' and the 'classical avant-garde', Pisaro (2004b Pisaro, M. 2004b. "Hit or miss (Treffer oder daneben)". In MusikDenken: Texte der Wandelweiser-Komponisten, Edited by: Houben, E. and Schlothauer, B. 55–59. Zürich: Edition Howeg. Retrieved 28 October 2011, from http://www.wandelweiser.de/pisaro/MPTexte_e.html#hit [Google Scholar]) describes his ongoing appreciation of rock 'n' roll and Motown (p. 56). It may be argued, however, that the music of Wandelweiser does not meaningfully problematize the construction of the category of Western art music either in relation to popular music or non-Western music. Containing a 1960 copyright, the score's 1961 publication date has been contested; see Kotz (2007 Kotz, L. 2007. Words to be looked at: Language in 1960s art, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [Google Scholar], pp. 268–269, fn. 10). For an opposing view, see Douglas Kahn's (1997 Kahn, D. 1997. John Cage: Silence and silencing. The Musical Quarterly, 81(4): 556–598. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) analysis of 4′33″. Noting the composer's self-purported shift during the 1960s 'from musical to social issues', Kahn argues that for Cage, 'there was no corresponding shift to reconceptualize the sociality of sounds' (p. 557). A full consideration of Kahn's attempt to question Cage's ideas 'from the vantage point of sound instead of music' (p. 556, my emphasis)—Kahn's casting of music as a conservative site over which sound is privileged—is beyond the scope of this essay. However, there are perhaps clear drawbacks to Kahn's self-conscious overinvestment in Cage's views on his own work. For a perspective which to its credit does not as strictly '[take] Cage at his word' (Kahn, 1997 Kahn, D. 1997. John Cage: Silence and silencing. The Musical Quarterly, 81(4): 556–598. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], p. 557), see Katz (1999 Katz, J. 1999. John Cage's queer silence or how to avoid making matters worse. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 5(2): 231–252. Retrieved 27 June 2011, from http://www.queer culturalcenter.org/Pages/KatzPages/KatzWorse.html[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Katz argues for an understanding of Cage's silence as a mode of 'historically specific queer resistance' during the Cold War and the homophobic oppression of the McCarthy era. See also Gentry (2008 Gentry, P. 2008. "The age of anxiety: Music, politics, and McCarthyism, 1948–1954 (Doctoral dissertation, UCLA, 2008)". In No such thing as silence: John Cage's 4′33″, Edited by: K., Gann. 220–fn 18. New Haven: Yale University Press. [Google Scholar]). Recently, in the US press, Wandelweiser were called 'a small coterie of mostly European post-John Cage composers' (Margasak, 2011 Margasak, P. 2011. "Best place to hear work by Wandelweiser group composers | Best of Chicago 2011 | Music & Nightlife | Chicago Reader". In Chicago Reader | Chicago's Guide to Music, Movies, Arts, Theater, Restaurants, and Politics Retrieved 27 June 2011, from http://www. chicagoreader.com/chicago/best-place-to-hear-work-by-wandelweiser-group-composers/BestOf?oid=4102977 [Google Scholar]). In this respect, silence literally frames the musical work. My translation. My thanks to Lindsey Lodhie for her suggestions pertaining to this interpretation. John Cage / 4′33″ andrestorresREVOC. Retrieved 3 July 2007, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYQhXN1UFbU. Statements made by Ultra-red situate their work in relation to sound art (Ultra-red [2000]), and classify it explicitly as such (see 'PS/o6.b Encuentro, Los Angeles.' Ultra-red. Retrieved 3July 2011. http://www.ultrared.org/pso6b.html; see also the biographical blurb found at 'Vera List Center for Art and Politics" Organized Listening: Sound Art, Collectivity and Politics.' Vera List Center for Art and Politics. 18 November 2010. http://www.veralistcenter. org/currentprograms/?p=1972). Hallas (2009 Hallas, R. 2009. Reframing bodies: AIDS, bearing witness, and the queer moving image, Durham: Duke University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) refers to Ultra-red as a 'sound collective' (p. 242). In this case, however, the score was in fact displayed to the audience following Werder's 20101 performance at the Incidental Music event in Zürich.
Referência(s)