The conditions of creation and the haecceity of music materialPhilosophical-aesthetic convergences between Helmut Lachenmann and Gilles Deleuze
Paulo de AssisAbstract
This article is an attempt to bring together, to produce an encounter between two thinkers who generated thoughts in an unnoticed neighbourhood – to realize an unconnected connection between Helmut Lachenmann and Gilles Deleuze. To do this, the origins and characteristics of Lachenmann's ‘aesthetic methodology’ are emphasized, entering then a dialogue between specific elements of such methodology and specific concepts of Gilles Deleuze – particularly those of ‘Haecceity’, ‘Erewhon’, ‘diagnostic function of art’, ‘capture of forces’, ‘body without organs’, ‘opinion’, ‘corporeity’, ‘fold’ and ‘latitude’. Through the discussion of philosophical and aesthetic convergences between a philosopher who wrote extensively on art, and a composer with strong philosophical interests, this article aims to contribute new understandings of art as philosophical practice. Moreover, it also claims that the radical ‘thingness’ of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and of the music of Helmut Lachenmann allow for new modes of perception, sensation and thought.
“Empiricism is by no means a reaction against concepts, nor a simple appeal to lived experience. On the contrary it undertakes the most insane creation of concepts ever seen or heard. Empiricism is a mysticism of concepts, but precisely one which treats the concept as object of an encounter, as a here-and-now, or rather as an Erewhon from which emerge inexhaustibly ever new, different distributed ‘heres’ and ‘nows’”.
Gilles Deleuze, 19681
Gilles Deleuze, 19681
“Sound as something real and palpable, as a ‘natural phenomenon’ taking place here and now, evokes a mode of listening previously excluded from the musical medium, or at least neglected in reflections upon it, which treats sound as a phenomenon of nature”.
Helmut Lachenmann, 20042
Helmut Lachenmann, 20042
Helmut Lachenmann and Gilles Deleuze: an unconnected connection
1Starting in 1966-1967 with a radio conference on typology of sounds (“Klangtypen der Neuen Musik”3) Helmut Lachenmann developed a complex set of concepts about art in general and music in particular that gave shape to an aesthetic methodology grounded on structural thinking4. Reflecting upon questions as “What is art?”, “What is composing?”, “What are the conditions of the music material?”, “What are the political implications of art?”, and “How does art relate to society?” Lachenmann was able to build a theoretical framework based on three “theses on composing”, four “conditions of the music material” and five “types of sound”. Such a framework is by no means intended to be a closed system of contemporary aesthetics, but a fundamental referential tool for the concrete practice of composing – defining Lachenmman’s own route, and giving insight into his musique concrète instrumentale, a music that ought to liberate the energetic potential of concrete (immanent) sound bodies and processes.
2Several aspects of Lachenmann’s theories point to a unique understanding of the conditions of creation, and to an idea of radical immanence of the music material that approaches relevant key concepts of Gilles Deleuze. Although references to Gilles Deleuze do not appear in Helmut Lachenmann’s writings (see Lachenmann 1996), and that Lachenmann’s name is not to be found in Deleuze’s books, it is my aim to enable an encounter between Deleuze’s extended ideas on “art”, “creation” and “haecceity of the material” and elements of Lachenmann’s aesthetic methodology.
3Therefore, this article is not a hermeneutic essay on Deleuze’s reflections on music, nor is it a mere exposition of Lachenmann’s theoretical framework: it is an attempt to bring together, to produce an encounter between two thinkers who generated thoughts in an unnoticed neighbourhood – to realize an unconnected connection. To do this, I first emphasize the origins of Lachenmann’s “aesthetic methodology”, entering then a dialogue between specific elements of such methodology and specific concepts of Gilles Deleuze. Through the discussion of philosophical and aesthetic convergences between a philosopher who wrote extensively on art, and a composer with strong philosophical interests, this article aims to contribute new understandings of art as philosophical practice. Moreover, and paraphrasing a famous sentence by Deleuze (“philosophy must escape philosophy through philosophy”) this encounter allows for a better understanding on how Lachenmann’s theories and concrete compositional practice enable music to escape music through music.
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Filigrane: Musique, Esthétique, Science, Société.
Présentation:
C’est pour enrichir le paysage intellectuel européen d’une nouvelle revue musicale que Filigrane est née. Filigrane se consacre à la musique considérée comme un champ de forces où s’élabore le sens, une activité métaphorique où l’homme emploie ses facultés à construire tant le monde que lui-même. Les sciences humaines y croisent donc naturellement la singularité de l’art : une pensée en acte, non discursive, une pensée de l’expérience humaine, médiatisée par l’invention et la disposition d’un matériau dans le temps et dans l’espace. Filigrane souhaite aborder sans esquive les thèmes difficiles et épineux (politiques, sociaux, spirituels et intellectuels...) que rencontre la musique et, de ce fait, associe à ses réflexions des chercheurs de toutes disciplines (philosophes, psychologues, anthropologues, sociologues, historiens…) aussi bien que des artistes qui témoigneront de leur expérience. Penser le sens, l’inscription et la diversité des formes musicales au sein de sociétés confrontées, à l’aube du XXIème siècle, à une métamorphose sans précédent, telle est la responsabilité qu’intellectuels et artistes, ensemble, doivent assumer pleinement. Et il importe que cette réflexion soit critique. Filigrane souhaite accueillir et favoriser les débats au sein de la communauté universitaire et artistique, renforcer les échanges entre les diverses approches de la musique et élargir la notion même de musicologie.
Filigrane: Musique, Esthétique, Science, Société.
Présentation:
C’est pour enrichir le paysage intellectuel européen d’une nouvelle revue musicale que Filigrane est née. Filigrane se consacre à la musique considérée comme un champ de forces où s’élabore le sens, une activité métaphorique où l’homme emploie ses facultés à construire tant le monde que lui-même. Les sciences humaines y croisent donc naturellement la singularité de l’art : une pensée en acte, non discursive, une pensée de l’expérience humaine, médiatisée par l’invention et la disposition d’un matériau dans le temps et dans l’espace. Filigrane souhaite aborder sans esquive les thèmes difficiles et épineux (politiques, sociaux, spirituels et intellectuels...) que rencontre la musique et, de ce fait, associe à ses réflexions des chercheurs de toutes disciplines (philosophes, psychologues, anthropologues, sociologues, historiens…) aussi bien que des artistes qui témoigneront de leur expérience. Penser le sens, l’inscription et la diversité des formes musicales au sein de sociétés confrontées, à l’aube du XXIème siècle, à une métamorphose sans précédent, telle est la responsabilité qu’intellectuels et artistes, ensemble, doivent assumer pleinement. Et il importe que cette réflexion soit critique. Filigrane souhaite accueillir et favoriser les débats au sein de la communauté universitaire et artistique, renforcer les échanges entre les diverses approches de la musique et élargir la notion même de musicologie.
Paulo de Assis, born in 1969, is a pianist, musicologist and artistic-researcher. He studied piano (Konzertexam at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, with Vitaly Margulis and Michel Béroff) and musicology (in Venice and Salzburg with Jürg Stenzl). He has a PhD on Luigi Nono’s piano works and he completed Camillo Togni’s unfinished Piano Concerto. He is head of the research strand “Composition, Performance, Experimentation” at the Research Centre for Aesthetics and Sociology of Music (CESEM) at the University Nova, Lisbon (Portugal) and coordinator of the research group “Thoughts and Concepts in Musical Practice” at the Orpheus Research Centre in Music (ORCiM) at the Orpheus Institute, Ghent (Belgium). He has published two books (Luigi Nonos Wende, Wolke Verlag, Hoffheim 2006 ; and Domani l’aurora, Leo S. Olschki, Florence 2005), and several articles in Belgium, Italy and Portugal.
