The Contemporary Problem
Identifieur interne : 000039 ( Istex/Curation ); précédent : 000038; suivant : 000040The Contemporary Problem
Auteurs : Hans KellerSource :
- Tempo [ 0040-2982 ] ; 1969.
Abstract
“And now,” I said to a prospective pupil, 21, with an awe-inspiring thesis on his heart, “I've got to go home and write 750 words on chance. The editor of Tempo wants them by tomorrow.” “Chance?” he asked respectlessly, “that's not your subject. Musical determinism, yes.” He was right; in fact, as will be seen in seven hundred words' time, he had given the reason why I chose the subject. As long ago as 1966, I was struck by the philosophical and indeed musico-analytical naivety of Iannis Xenakis's (otherwise fascinating) piece ‘The Origins of Stochastic Music’ (Tempo 78), which defends the introduction of mathematics into music on the basis of the proposition that “by reason of its complexity, the strict, deterministic causality extolled by the neo-serialists was a lost cause”. I wrote my heart out when total serialism started, diagnosing the lost cause as it was born—but I never observed any complexity: a phrase of Beethoven needed far more complex analysis than a page of neo-serialism, whose saint-like simplicity seemed its only charm. What produced the illusion of complexity was inaudibility: ‘This must be very complex: I can't hear it’. It wasn't complex at all; you just couldn't hear it. Xenakis got nearer the truth when he said, “A contradiction exists between the linear polyphonic system and the result as heard (my italics), which is merely surface and mass”.
Url:
DOI: 10.1017/S0040298200026103
Links toward previous steps (curation, corpus...)
- to stream Istex, to step Corpus: Pour aller vers cette notice dans l'étape Curation :000039
Links to Exploration step
ISTEX:46DAD04A710336F78827E1FD1CCD847E708E935DLe document en format XML
<record><TEI wicri:istexFullTextTei="biblStruct"><teiHeader><fileDesc><titleStmt><title xml:lang="en">The Contemporary Problem</title>
<author><name sortKey="Keller, Hans" sort="Keller, Hans" uniqKey="Keller H" first="Hans" last="Keller">Hans Keller</name>
</author>
</titleStmt>
<publicationStmt><idno type="wicri:source">ISTEX</idno>
<idno type="RBID">ISTEX:46DAD04A710336F78827E1FD1CCD847E708E935D</idno>
<date when="1969" year="1969">1969</date>
<idno type="doi">10.1017/S0040298200026103</idno>
<idno type="url">https://api.istex.fr/document/46DAD04A710336F78827E1FD1CCD847E708E935D/fulltext/pdf</idno>
<idno type="wicri:Area/Istex/Corpus">000039</idno>
<idno type="wicri:explorRef" wicri:stream="Istex" wicri:step="Corpus" wicri:corpus="ISTEX">000039</idno>
<idno type="wicri:Area/Istex/Curation">000039</idno>
</publicationStmt>
<sourceDesc><biblStruct><analytic><title level="a" type="main" xml:lang="en">The Contemporary Problem</title>
<author><name sortKey="Keller, Hans" sort="Keller, Hans" uniqKey="Keller H" first="Hans" last="Keller">Hans Keller</name>
</author>
</analytic>
<monogr></monogr>
<series><title level="j">Tempo</title>
<title level="j" type="abbrev">Tempo</title>
<idno type="ISSN">0040-2982</idno>
<idno type="eISSN">1478-2286</idno>
<imprint><publisher>Cambridge University Press</publisher>
<pubPlace>Cambridge, UK</pubPlace>
<date type="published" when="1969">1969</date>
<biblScope unit="issue">87</biblScope>
<biblScope unit="page" from="33">33</biblScope>
<biblScope unit="page" to="34">34</biblScope>
</imprint>
<idno type="ISSN">0040-2982</idno>
</series>
</biblStruct>
</sourceDesc>
<seriesStmt><idno type="ISSN">0040-2982</idno>
</seriesStmt>
</fileDesc>
<profileDesc><textClass></textClass>
<langUsage><language ident="en">en</language>
</langUsage>
</profileDesc>
</teiHeader>
<front><div type="abstract" xml:lang="en">“And now,” I said to a prospective pupil, 21, with an awe-inspiring thesis on his heart, “I've got to go home and write 750 words on chance. The editor of Tempo wants them by tomorrow.” “Chance?” he asked respectlessly, “that's not your subject. Musical determinism, yes.” He was right; in fact, as will be seen in seven hundred words' time, he had given the reason why I chose the subject. As long ago as 1966, I was struck by the philosophical and indeed musico-analytical naivety of Iannis Xenakis's (otherwise fascinating) piece ‘The Origins of Stochastic Music’ (Tempo 78), which defends the introduction of mathematics into music on the basis of the proposition that “by reason of its complexity, the strict, deterministic causality extolled by the neo-serialists was a lost cause”. I wrote my heart out when total serialism started, diagnosing the lost cause as it was born—but I never observed any complexity: a phrase of Beethoven needed far more complex analysis than a page of neo-serialism, whose saint-like simplicity seemed its only charm. What produced the illusion of complexity was inaudibility: ‘This must be very complex: I can't hear it’. It wasn't complex at all; you just couldn't hear it. Xenakis got nearer the truth when he said, “A contradiction exists between the linear polyphonic system and the result as heard (my italics), which is merely surface and mass”.</div>
</front>
</TEI>
</record>
Pour manipuler ce document sous Unix (Dilib)
EXPLOR_STEP=$WICRI_ROOT/Wicri/Musique/explor/XenakisV1/Data/Istex/Curation
HfdSelect -h $EXPLOR_STEP/biblio.hfd -nk 000039 | SxmlIndent | more
Ou
HfdSelect -h $EXPLOR_AREA/Data/Istex/Curation/biblio.hfd -nk 000039 | SxmlIndent | more
Pour mettre un lien sur cette page dans le réseau Wicri
{{Explor lien |wiki= Wicri/Musique |area= XenakisV1 |flux= Istex |étape= Curation |type= RBID |clé= ISTEX:46DAD04A710336F78827E1FD1CCD847E708E935D |texte= The Contemporary Problem }}
This area was generated with Dilib version V0.6.33. |