Political implications of the material of new music

Abstract

in the period following the 1968 protests, the question arose of how a transparent music could be conceived, especially one which it would be impossible to misunderstand, and which would therefore be protected against political misuse. this was very often the object of discussion. in a paper delivered at the ‘musik und politik’ symposium held in vienna in 1991, i developed four political aspects of music: function, content, means of production, and the poetic.to explain:function: music composed for ritual and representation, etc, or music composed to increase productivity, or enable an increase of consumption, either in the workplace, the cowshed, or the shopping centre.external content/subject: music with text, plot, or programme.means of production and distribution: free art or dependent work.the methods by which the music is made, its poetry and its style (spahlinger, 1991).as a composer, i am most interested in the final point. i would like to explore this as posing the main set of problems for this paper, as well as posing the question of which processes effect meaning in a new music that can be differentiated from traditional music. i shall devote the first third of this article to this issue. i will then be in a position to question whether analogies exist with political thought. i will briefly examine the other three political aspects, in particular the means of production.