Re: [microsound] article on music and politics

[David Powers <cyborgk@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks, that gave me a few things to consider. My only gripe is that
the survey of potential political practices seems to end somewhere in
the mid-70's. I'd be interested to see this line of reasoning extended
to more recent practices, including the issues raised with
post-digital/glitch practices and sample appropriation.

I think the Luigi Nono section was somewhat insightful, where the
author states, "By changing a title, one becomes a political
composer... For Cardew, I suspect that would have meant doing
precisely what Nono's apologists fear: allowing the bourgeois to
'simulate horror but keep their distance.' For many composers, that's
what political music amounts to. For those of us whose work is
ghettoized in new-music festivals, perhaps that's all it can be."

I wonder, if that is really as political as abstract art can get
sometimes. I do think there are subtle ways we can remain engaged as
we work as abstract artists: whether we are creating, distributing, or
performing. But perhaps the limit remains, that art can never be, in
the Brechtian sense, alienated enough - it always offers some
catharsis, some retreat into an inner "spiritual" world, that
disengages us from the overtly political and the world of action.

I don't blame art for this. Perhaps it is just as well, because
without those moments of beauty and escape, how could we remain strong
enough to confront the horror of our contemporary society, how could
we manage to go on resisting and fighting? A small dose of utopia, the
hope for something better, something beautiful, gives our political
practice meaning. And perhaps some artworks do embody this utopian
longing for the other...

~David

On 12/6/06, Kim Cascone <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=2312

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