Power, agency, deference and difference Examining the politics of composer–performer relationships in the wake of recent innovations

John Aulich

doi:10.5920/fields.2016.2116

Abstract

With a view to uncovering the political implications of notational, technological and musical innovation in composer–performer relationships within Western art music, this paper examines three disparate works: Christian Wolff’s Duo for Pianists II (1958); Brian Ferneyhough’s Unity Capsule (1975); and Georg Hajdu’s Schwer… unheimlich Schwer (2009). By first exploring two innovative 20th century works, Duo for Pianists II and Unity Capsule, the paper establishes a framework for a discussion of the political and ethical dimensions of composer–performer relationships in relation to the 21st century innovation manifest in Schwer… unheimlich Schwer (2009). This multidimensional examination draws on Warren’s (2014) examination of the relationships between ethics and music, Godlovitch’s (1998) philosophy of performance, and research carried out by practitioners such as Couroux (2002), Schick (2006) and Eigenfeldt (2011; 2014). The paper concludes that all three pieces demonstrate the potential for notation to have strong political implications, and that composers are ultimately responsible for the political implications of the performance experience.

Highlights

It is my contention that music, like all other expressions of culture, is a social practice. Such a Marxist reading, if that is what it is, carries with it the inference that music is produced by dynamic structures of power activated and informed by the late capitalist social conditions and divisions of labour in which we currently find ourselves. It is from this vantage point, on the shoulders of the giants of critical theory, among them Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Pierre Bourdieu, Janet Wolff and Terry Eagleton, that I will go some small way towards showing that such power relationships strongly influence the creative possibilities available to all those who engage in Western art music
Analysing the politics of composer–performer relationships in two aesthetically and contextually divergent works, Christian Wolff’s Duo for Pianists II (1962) and Brian Ferneyhough’s Unity Capsule (1975), establishes a comparative framework for the discussion of more recent work made possible by technological advancement, namely, Georg Hajdu’s Schwer... unheimlich Schwer (2009)
Duo for Pianists II The politics of performance it is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of Western art music as a whole, the division of labour between composer and performer became increasingly prevalent throughout the 20th century, and served to ‘[remove the performer] from a creative position’ (Couroux, 2002, p. 56)

Summary

Introduction

It is my contention that music, like all other expressions of culture, is a social practice. Analysing the politics of composer–performer relationships in two aesthetically and contextually divergent works, Christian Wolff’s Duo for Pianists II (1962) and Brian Ferneyhough’s Unity Capsule (1975), establishes a comparative framework for the discussion of more recent work made possible by technological advancement, namely, Georg Hajdu’s Schwer...

Results

Conclusion