Strategies of Conquest and Defence

Encounters with the Object in Twentieth-Century Music

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4408908
AutoresSamuel Wilson (0000-0001-9113-7763), Samuel J Wilson (0000-0001-8780-6266, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume145
Fascículo2
Páginas457-484
Data de publicação2020-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of the Royal Musical Association (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0269-0403 • E-ISSN: 1471-6933
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/rma.2020.18
OpenAlexW3099910635
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas24

Reacting to recent materialist developments in music studies and beyond, I argue for the value of dialectics in accounting for compositional orientations vis-à-vis their objects - be these objects sound-producing, non-human entities, such as musical instruments, or the object that is 'sound itself '. Engaging the compositional thought and practice of Busoni, Russolo, Varèse, Cage and Tudor by way of example, I highlight two intersecting tendencies: the first constitutes a presumed mastery over the object in question; the second is suggestive of an exploration of the object on its own terms. Interweaving aspects of post-Marxist and psychoanalytic theory, I argue that, ultimately, our orientation towards the object manifests a negotiation of the self in a changing material world

Aesthetics · Art · Dialectic · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Marxist philosophy · Materialism · Musical · Political science · Politics · Law · Music History and Culture · Music Technology and Sound Studies · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy