This week, on Thursday 11/13 at 4:30 in Harper 145, Professor Seth Brodsky will present work from his book manuscript. Please see below for his note and materials, and go here to access his paper (email Marcy, Rachel, or Aleks for the password). As always, ample snacks will be provided.
From Seth:
The text I’m sending along comes from a talk I gave last May, and which I’m now reworking as part of my book manuscript. The talk was part of a conference in Basel called “Tonality since 1950”—a rather thing for me, since since tonality, as a centuries-long, language-like historical practice in western music, is generally the purview of music theorists. Of which I am not one.
In the end, I decided to use the topic as an excuse to rethink the old saw of modernism’s “language crises” from a Lacanian angle. I talk in particular about a German composer named Wolfgang Rihm (b. 1952), someone who most people in the world probably haven’t heard of, but who is “kinda a big deal” in Germany, Europe, and in the global new music scene. Rihm is considered in many ways a postmodernist, in that he “likes all kinds of music”, and avails himself (allegedly) of any and all styles and historical periods. I am skeptical of this position, as I am of postmodernist labels in general, and try to argue that Rihm is still engaged—rightly, wrongly, or beyond good and evil—with a problematic opened up by musical modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The talk is not especially technical. But I’m still a little worried that all the brilliant English and Art History practitioners in this group, who’ve mustered such wonderful discussion in past sessions, might be put off by the musical examples and, perhaps, by the music itself. As at least an aid, I’ve uploaded a few supplementary materials:
1) a quicktime movie of my slides for the talk, which allows you to pause over slides, scroll ahead, and actually hear musical examples along with scores.
2) Some music: I’ve uploaded a .zip folder of the entire Rihm song cycle I discuss—creepy/funny stuff!—and a few other things discussed near the talk’s end. I’m more than happy to share more of Rihm’s music if anyone wants. It’s extraordinary stuff.
3) For those who have the Apple iWork program Keynote, here’s the original presentation, and here are the slides in PDF form (no audio).
Thanks so much for your time, and for braving into—for some if not most of you—unknown territory. Truth be told, I am dying to know what English/Lit/Art History folks think of this material, especially the weird act of talking about stuff from the 1980s as … modernist (!?). Be in touch if you have questions, and thanks again!