Unmasking Masculine Domination

Paper Title: "Unmasking Masculine Domination: Schopenhauer Thoughts While Listening to Mozart’s Symphony No. 40"

Music Selection: Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor

For entire performance, please see: http://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/

The Words on Schoopenhauer for "In Vain" and leading into Nietzsche Birth of Tragedy

"...music derives its force from its special relation to the will. It is, like the other arts, a phenomenon, an appearance--not some impossible objectified noumenon. Unlike them, however, music is as direct a representation of the will as human perception can find. Other arts are copies of copies of the will, twice removed from it by virtue of representing the Platonic Ideas that are, as most general objectifications of will, already once removed. Music alone bypasses these Ideas to achieve a direct objectification of will. Music is not a mimesis of other phenomenon but rather connected to the noumenal realm as directly as are the Ideas themselves." Gary Tomlinson, "Overcoming Operatic Metaphysics," p. 110

IN VAIN--FUll Performance--With words on Schopehauer

Georg Friedrich Haas "IN Vain"--Spectral Music

During Haas's "In Vain," the listener experiences a heightened state of awareness, becoming acutely attuned to the intricacies of a psychedelically beautiful soundscape that unfolds in total darkness...Mr. Haas is an Austrian composer associated with the French spectral school, which evolved in the 1970s as a rebellion against the strictures of serialist music. Timbre and resonance are central in the spectral aesthetic, initially influenced by French composers, like Messiaen, Debussy, Ravel....Spectral composers use computer analysis of the acoustic properties of sound as compositional building blocks, with the overtones created by a note used to produce shimmering sonorities...."The spectral composers wanted to create beautiful, lush, physical, sensuous sounds...." Vivien Schweitzer, "Unearthly Harmonies, Best Heard in the Dark," New York Time, 2/16/11

Butler on Ownership

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n05/judith-butler/who-owns-kafka

This is a short and recent piece written by 'our very own' Judith Butler. The article discusses the discussion on works of art as national or cultural 'assets.' The main focus is on Kafka as an 'asset' of Israel - so it would be very easy to imagine this scenario using Dylan. It does not deal with music explicitly - but it is a nice way to brush up on art as commodity with 'ownership' as well as Judith's thoughts on this (-- as well as your thoughts as to whether this can be applied directly to music, I don't mean for 'art' to be an identical domain for all 'arts')

Oh, and I also I wanted to thank Aaron very much for running the blog. I have no idea how you manage your time so well, but you should give me some tips. I really appreciate your work.

Odetta "Baby, I'm in the Mood for You"

With the reading of Self-Portrait and Schopenhauer, I have been prompted to think a lot about how I value and distinguish "covers" of songs and imitation in music in general. Of course the question always is, what makes a song authentic? How is it that one cover can be just as good as the original or better, while another fails to capture the original genius of the song?
So far we have just been exposed to Dylan's covers of others and what Greil Marcus (often) sees as the failures of those covers; I thought it might be interesting to look instead at other people covering Dylan songs.
The above song is sung by Odetta, whom is most known for participating in the folk revival and Black Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Dylan has often cited her as an inspiration for his own work. To repay the compliment, in 1965 Odetta recorded Odetta Sings Dylan: a tribute to the Bard and the first album ever dedicated to covers of his songs.
Personally, I love this album (I also have a soft-spot for Dylan as well. . .what can one do?). I love Odetta's bluesy, full voiced nuanced interpretations of the song(s). I struggle though with questions of hierarchy: is it better or worse than Dylan's? does it capture something that which Dylan doesn't or can't? In the end, I am not quite convinced that it matters. I love Odetta for Odetta and I love Dylan for Dylan.

On Parasites, Critics, Deconstruction, and More!

The role of the critic seemed a bit troublesome for some. Might I offer a rather well-regarded essay held dearly by most literary critics and deconstructionists?

http://www.colorado.edu/English/courses/engl5019/Readings/MillCritic.pdf

Dylan Goes Electric and Some History Before that

Dylan on his Reception

Dylan, cont.

I continued to think about the enigma of Dylan after leaving class on Thursday (it might have been the rain) and how perfectly he fit into popular post-modern thought, the ability to have everything fall back upon itself, endlessly. The move of establishment and erasure is a particularly annoying paradox to me (but how strange it is to manifest itself as a human?!) since it seems to have the convenient ability to always account for itself (i didn't mean that, but that is what i meant, to not mean that, so if you think i meant it, i did, and if you think i didn't, i didn't, etc.) I needed to be a little more reassured as to why I would spend time thinking about him, as I was willing to leave him spiraling alone around himself in some corner of my neglect. The reassurance came in the form of reading for another class:

"Precisely a philosophy of concrete life must not withdraw from the exception and the extreme case, but must be interested in it to the highest degree. The exception can be more important to it than the rule, not because the seriousness of an insight goes deeper than the clear generalizations inferred from what ordinarily repeats itself. The exception is more interesting than the rule. The rule proves nothing; the exception proves everything: It confirms not only the rule but also its existence, which derives only from the exception. In the exception the power of real life breaks through the crust of a mechanism that has become torpid by repetition."
- Carl Schmitt, on something that doesn't really have anything to do w/ music.

Dylan's Let It Be Me (xref with Everly Brothers' Version)

Elmore James--It Hurts Me Too

This is Elmore James' recording of "It Hurts Me Too." Eric Clapton also covered this song numerous times (fyi, if you want to listen to it). Marcus writes of Dylan's version: "My ten-year-old nephew thought "It Hurts Me Too" sounded fake but he was sure this was for real." (Marcus, Self-Portrait, p. 21, #19

The Everly Brothers' Version of "Let it Be Me"

"The Everly Borthers version of 'Let it Be Me' is enough to make you cry, and Bob Dylan's version is just about enough to make you listen. For all the emotion usually found in his singing, there is virtually none here. It is a very formal performance." (Marcus, Self Portrait, #7, pp. 10-11)

Billie Holiday Sings Blue Moon (See Dylan and Presley Version)

Ode to a Pre-Schopenhauer Nostalgia

Aphex Twin - "Avril 14th"

The excerpt I've responded to is taken from Schopenhauer's "Metaphysics of the Beautiful and Aesthetics". After a brief diatribe against the complications which arise from merging music and text, he compares the varied purposes of music to that of architecture's. Music and architecture must subordinate their status of high art in order to adapt to utilitarian purposes. According to Schopenhauer, text in music equates to unnecessary embellishments in architecture -- both of which impede our view of the "very few, clear, penetrating, and touching" ideas that may found within the core of the artwork (121). On pages 122-123, he describes how music should be properly received:

Indeed, to be properly interpreted and enjoyed, the highest productions of music demand the wholly undivided and undistracted attention of the mind so that it may surrender itself to, and become absorbed in, them in order thoroughly to understand its incredibly profound language.

The language of music, he continues, is one without picture or image. In the immersive experience of listening to music, we must limit the effects to which intuition or imagination conjures up images from our experience.

For this reason, I've chosen to include a recording of Aphex Twin's "Avril 14th", a very simple piano composition. I think it encapsulates the idea that the universal language of music, devoid of text, image, or embellishment, can yield a message that is purely musical and still remarkably moving.

Mozart Symphony 41

Excerpt in Metaphysics of the Beautiful and Aesthetics, last paragraph on page 117 starting with, "The origin of the fundamental idea for a work of art has been very appropriately called..." onto the next page, ending with, "Yet ultimately everything turns on our own strength; and just as no food or medicine can impart or replace vital force, so no book or study can furnish an individual and original mind" (118).

I chose this song to express the point made in Schopenhauer's passage. The paragraph mostly concerns how a work of art seems to develop through "procreation" and "conception" through "mood and opportunity" as well as through the "fruitfulness" derived from the interactions between a male (the object) and female (the subject). Particularly in this piece, the lower, deeper tones seem to serve as Schopenhauer's object. Whenever the light, almost flittering, notes come into play, the two separate "gendered" stream of notes seem to play with each other, much like the "call-and-response" relationship we had discussed in lecture last week. This fruitfulness as a result from such gendered interactions inevitably lead to what Schopenhauer describes to be a "vivid, penetrating, and original idea," and thus gives birth to a "great and beautiful work." This work is original and illuminating, trifling yet beautiful, for it illuminates the "innermost depths of nature."

Relaxing music as the music of will

From "Metaphysics of the Beautiful and Aesthetics" p.121: "Thus our music gives us much noise, many instruments, much art, but very few clear, penetrating and touching ideas." In the next paragraph he says, "In present-day compositions more account is taken of harmony than of melody. Yet I hold the opposite view and regard melody as the core of music."
I have chosen this music to represent the music of will because I believe that it is not descriptive and that the melody is more important in it than harmony. Moreover, Schopenhauer's ideas about how to truly know something reminded me of meditation practices, and this music is the kind that puts me in a similar to meditation state.

Schopenhaur Vs. Frusciante

"And so with the disappearance of all willing from consciousness, there yet remains the state of pleasure, in other words, absence of all pain and here even absence of the possibility thereof. For the individual is transformed into a subject that merely knows and no longer wills; and yet he remains conscious of himself and of his activity precisely as such" (Schopenhauer, p. 104). This is "Enter a uh," the opening track off of John Frusciante's second solo album Smile From the Streets You Hold. I'm not even sure if I enjoy this song, but it remains one of the saddest pieces of music I've ever heard. I've never looked up the lyrics, but I don't think they are important to the experience of the song; that important aspect of imagination Schopenhauer talks about.

This second song, the title track off the album, epitomizes the quote I opened with. In an interview Frusciante explains that during this recording he completely opened up and felt the spirits message in him. He was no longer playing his own music but communicating their Will. He was so moved by this that he breaks down and starts crying in the studio. His quote, found on his wikipedia page: "The title song was a very intense moment, because I was having verbal communication with the spirits while I was recording; and I started crying at the end of it. The spirits give you ideas for things, and what's important to them is what's important to me. I'm much more concerned with my fame in their world than with my fame in this one. That's why it's been difficult for me to adjust to being alive at all."

Perfect for what Schopenhaur is saying about pure Will. If you listen to either of these songs all the way through, make sure it's this one. Very moving.

Rusty the Skatemaker by Rasputina

In "Metaphysics of the Beautiful and Aesthetics," Schopenhauer writes that "a fine piece of music, played only in 4 parts, may sometimes move us more deeply than" a fully orchestrated piece or opera, "as a drawing sometimes has more effect than has an oil painting" (123). He also claims that "simplicity...is a law that is essential to all art, that is beautiful." He notes the importance of melody, that a poor melody says nothing and therefore signifies nothing (119); the importance of composition, for and admirable composition fairly played is far better than a poor composition played well (126); and he discusses drama as being the most perfect mirror of human existence (129). He's says a lot of things :)

I selected this song from the band Rasputina because it is classically based, has dramatic elements, and leaves a remainder for the listener's imagination. The chorus melody is infectious in an unusual way, and the arrangements are simple. I posted 2 versions, to show that the composition and performance match live and in the studio. The live version starts at 37 seconds.

Enjoy!

Robert Rauschenberg's White Painting

John Cage 4'33-Version 2

John Cage 4'33-Version 1

Dylan Interview 1965: The Myth? The Auteur? Protest Music? A disappearance act?

(5)"It's hard, he said. "It's hard for Dylan to do anything real, shut off the way he is, not interested in the world, maybe no reason why he should be. Maybe the weight of the days is too strong. Maybe withdrawal is a choice we'd all make if we could...." One's reminded that art doesn't come--perhaps it's that it can't be heard--in times of crisis and destruction; art comes in the period of decadence that precedes a revolution, or after the deluge. It's prelude to revolution; it's not contemporary with it save in terms of memory." Marcus, p. 9

(7) To this kid Dylan is a figure of myth; nothing less but nothing more. Dylan is not real and the album carries no reality. He's never seen Bob Dylan; he doesn't expect to; he can't figure out why he wants to." Marcus, p. 10
(17) "You think he'd dig running for presiden?" /"Nah, that ain't his trip he's into something else."/ "You met him, Mike? What he into?"/"I don't know for sure but it ain't exactly politics. You ever met him?"/"Yeah, once about seven years ago in Gertie's Folk City down in the West Village. I was trying to get him to do a benefit for civil rights or something...." Marcus, pp. 19-20

(18) "It's certainly an odd self-portrait: other people's songs and the songs of a few years ago. If the title is serious, Dylan no longer cares much about making music and would just as soon define himself on someone else's terms. There is a curious move towards self-effacement: Dylan removing himself from a position from which he is asked to exercise power. It's rather like the Duke of Windsor abdicating the throne. After it's over he merely goes away, and occasionally there'll be a picture of him getting on a plane somewhere." (Marcus, p. 20)

"Dylan has a vocation if he wants it; his audience may refuse to accept his refusal unless he simply goes away. In the midst of that vocation there might be something like Hamlet asking questions, old questions, with a bit of magic to them; but hardly a prophet, merely a man with good vision." Marcus, Self-Portrait No. 25

Like A Rolling Stone: Recorded June 15-16, 1965

"We put on 'Like a Rolling Stone' from Highway 61 Revisited and sat through it. "I was listening to that song five, ten times a day for the last few months, hustling my ass, getting my act together to get into school--but it's such a drag to hear what he's done with it." Marcus, Self-Portrait No. 25, p. 8

Jimi Hendrix Cover of Like a Rolling Stone

Sounds and Images from Egypt

Sound Determinations

So, just to focus in on a few particular areas of the quoted passage (pp. 266-7) in "The World As Will and Representation," as they may apply to the song & video for "222," by Paul McCartney:

"the world as representation, if we consider it in isolation, by tearing ourselves from willing, and letting it alone take possession of our consciousness, is the most delightful, and the only innocent, side of life."

I recently discovered a few things about this song that helped me to rationalize the decision for producing a music video with such simple, mimetic qualities.

He created the song for his daughter, Beatrice, when she was two years old, and I suspect that has something to do with the ornamental (almost nursery-like) charm of the visual component. This is the 'perfection' and 'intelligence' behind the glossed-over approach to an otherwise instrumentally temperamental strophic composed track, described in the lines by Schopenhauer to illustrate music, as art, being "the greater enhancement... [and] development." I imagine Schopenhauer calling music the 'flower of life' wouldn't be too objectionable to Paul, as part of the song's short lyrical offering, "look at her walking"(referring to his daughter's early steps?) is quite appropriate for such an event, even if Schopenhauer might consider a live performance of the song by musicians the better form of enhancement if he were to experience it today.

Lastly, the old standard British Railway ticket number is 222 -- this connection could mean many things, or nothing. But, I'll propose that a train bears nostalgic value for a child to later discover in some cultures. For example, a ticket to ride the train on the tracks of life as a metaphor in cherishing moments as they occur; the forward motion of a train because it has the capacity to be mobilized over tracks in one direction with effect and purpose on an agenda with certain planned stops. There is some esoteric stuff going on with McCartney here; the meaning of the title, and the unifaceted, stand alone effect of the visuals -- which is after all for an album bonus track -- require piecing together with the midi-made music for any final appraisal to be determined.

Schopenhauer refers to music as the "play within the play, the stage on the stage..", and Paul McCartney has had a lifetime of literally playing on stages on a multitude of degrees. I find it kind of nice that he recorded the entire song on a personal computer in a home studio, especially knowing some of the significance for its creation. Then again, I also happen to like obscure tracks that have seemingly nothing to register, but for their sound.

Contexts for Dylan: FIRST AGE OF ROCK

The Band-The Weight (Isle of Wight Festival 1969)

Bob Dylan Blue Moon from Self Portrait (1970)

Elvis Presly Blue Moon Recorded on July 6, 1954 at Sun Records.

Marcus on Blue Moon First of TWO Videos

"We take 'Blue Moon'for a joke, a stylized apotheosis of corn, or further musical evidence of Dylan's retreat from the pop scene. But back on Elvis' first album, there is another version of 'Blue Moon,'a deep and moving performance that opens up the possibilities of the song and reveals the failure of Dylan's recording.

Hoofbeats, vaguely aided by a string bass and guitar, form the background to a vocal that blows a cemetery wind across the lines of the song. Elvis moves back and forth with a high phantom wail, singing the part that fiddler Doug Kershaw plays on Dylan's version, Elvis finally answering himself with a dark murmur that fades into silence. "It's a revelation," said a friend. "I can't believe it."

There is nothing banal about 'Blue Moon.'" In formal musical terms, Dylan's performance is virtually a cover of Elvis's recording, but while one man sings the song, the other sings from behind it, from the other side." Greil Marcus, Self Portrait No. 25, pp. 18019

And the Note Thickens

Super sweet clip, Alex. Schopenhauer (to my reading) also does not discuss whether music that "imitates," specifically, other music should be "rejected once for all" ("Metaphysics of the Beautiful and Aesthetics" 119). How far do we stretch the adjective-noun, "imitative music" (The World As Will and Representation 263)? That is, Ella Fitzgerald's scat singing more than winks toward Brazilian songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim's "One Note Samba," which became popular in 1963 (six years before the performance below). But is Fitzgerald's scat derivative or does it stand on its own two notes?

Also, note (yes, note) how the lyrics provide us with a rhetorician's nightmare: "There's so many people who can talk and talk and talk and just say nothing or nearly nothing. I have used up all the scale I know and at the end I've come to nothing or nearly nothing."

Scat Singing

I was thinking about this in relation to words/music for Schopenhauer - in thinking about the Rossini video as well. Scat singing as wordless vocables conforms in some ways to Schopenhauer's stance on acceptable singing/wording in music, but is also problematic in that it is a style of singing - which entails that instrumentation is not necessary. There need not be a "language" between the singing and the instrumentation, because the voice as instrument is the prime emphasis...

Group Schopenhauer Sharing Is Caring

"To the brook which rolls downwards over the stones, the eddies, waves, and foam-forms exhibited by it are indifferent and inessential; but it follows gravity, and behaves as an inelastic, perfectly mobile, formless, and transparent fluid, this is its essential, this, if known through perception, is the Idea. Those foam-forms exist only for us so long as we know as individuals. The ice on the windowpane is formed into crystals according to the laws of crystallization, which reveal the essence of the natural force here appearing, which exhibits the Idea. But the trees and flowers formed by the ice on the windowpane are inessential, and exist only for us" ("Knowledge of the Idea" 84).

Dylan on Will to Live--Schopenhauer

What an Music of the Idea Might Be

Olivier Messiaen, "Louange à l'éternité de Jésus," Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps

"This particular thing, which in that stream was an infinitesimal part, becomes for art a representative of the whole, an equivalent of the infinitely many in space and time. It therefore pauses at this particular thing; it stops the wheel of time; for it the relations vanish; its object is only the essential, the Idea" ("Knowledge of the Idea," 87-88).

What the Music of the Body Might Be

International Body Music Festival

"As the being-in-itself of our own body, as that which the body is besides being object of perception, namely representation, the will, as we have said, proclaims itself first of all in the voluntary movements of this body, insofar as these movements are nothing but the visibility of the individual acts of the will. These movements appear directly and simultaneously with those acts of will; they are one and the same thing with them, and are distinguished from them only by the form of perceptibility into which they have passed, that is to say, in which they have become representation" ("The World as Will" 73).