Le 1er juillet 2017
de 14h00 à 14h30
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
amphithéâtre 6
Séance - Philosophical Approaches
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Christopher Hasty
The utility of analysis and indeed its connection to musical experience is often questioned. Analyses are typically understood as out-of-time, synoptic representations of the underlying structure of the piece. Such structure, although it may be unfolded in time, is itself complete as a set of objects and relations that precedes its temporal unfolding in the already completed work of music. The structure is in itself singular (universal), objective, and unchanging; however, the performance/hearing/experience of the piece is inescapably temporal, evanescent, and subjective (particular), different from time to time and person to person.
I will argue against this dichotomy by denying the reality of a fixed structure. From the perspective of process philosophy nothing can escape time and passage. To take music’s passage seriously would be to reconsider and redefine customary categories of music theory such as form, rhythm, harmony, and, indeed, structure. It would also be to see the importance and necessity of music analysis as a vehicle for experimenting with musical experience and testing theoretical and analytic categories. To vivify analysis and use it in the service of discovery it will I will suggest a sort of temporalized hermeneutic circle. Using some ideas of Deleuze and Polanyi, I recognize a destructive moment in analysis as a taking apart or loosening of connection to be followed by a return to vivid, engaged hearing. If successful, this excursion into the analytic can deepen musical experience and lead to new understanding by raising productive questions or problems.
