zetetic

Phenomenology, Adorno's Negative Dialectics and Formalist Musical Aesthetics.

In this study I will be addressing the problem of how aesthetic philosophy attempts to ascribe meaning and value to a musical encounter both in terms of the subjective experience and the music experienced. Strictly analytic, formalist accounts eschew extra-musical content, either as an intrinsic property of music or as a substantive aspect of musical experience. Meaningful analysis is thereby restricted to the problematics of the formal aspects of the music. My thesis will examine to what extent this position is both philosophically tenable and an adequate methodological approach to the complexity of musical encounter.

Although there has been much debate concerning the epistemological status and value of supposedly extra-musical qualities such as metaphor, musical narratives and emotional content in music, much of this analysis has engaged with formalism within the bounds of analytic aesthetics. Phenomenology and Adorno's negative dialectics offer alternative methodologies that not only serve to problematize the formalist approach but also disclose contrasting territories of philosophical enquiry.

I will develop my analysis within the context of the contemporary avant-garde [read bastard heavy music or - the shit we listen to!] which not only challenges the formal structures of music, but also the values and emotional parameters of musical experience. The experiential qualities of volume, repetition, spatial awareness, physical and emotional discomfort, as expressed in such music, appear to confound the critical possibilities of formalist methodology. By contrast Phenomenological method is ideally suited to such an aesthetic exploration. In addition, Adorno's dialectics would appear a paradigmatic method for examining the socio-economic antagonisms imprinted within the structural problematics of contemporary music. Furthermore, both of the aforementioned methods seem better suited to exploring the complex relationship between noise, sound and 'music', and thereby re-situating the very practice of musical aesthetics.

Not only would this thesis provide a stimulating addition to contemporary aesthetic theory, I would attempt to position the analysis within broader philosophical concerns. The deployment of alternative methodologies, in problematizing both the traditional context of formalist aesthetic analysis and introducing novel problematics, may shed new light on the relationship between aesthetics and other spheres of valuation such as ethics. In departing from a strict formalist account, one may be better positioned to relate questions of normativity, and metaethics to arena of aesthetic evaluation. In so doing this thesis would be helpful in the growing debate concerning the relationship of ethics and aesthetics.

This sort of thing:

Cecil Taylor, Converge, Capt. Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Fantomas, John Zorn/Naked City, Einsturzende Neubauten, Maldoror, Stockhausen, Swans, Merzbow, Boris, Sunn O))), Final, Venetian Snares, Autechre, Berio, Webern, Bertwistle, Godspeed, Khlyst, Xenekis, Satie, Glass, John Cage, Haino, Bobo Stenson, Heiner Goebbels, Galas, Tappa Zukkie.

Those are some examples but there's shit loads more to add to it. I'm trying to get a good spread and I also want to show some good lineages. But you get the picture. So please, any suggestions...