Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
There are few texts which delve beyond a superficial examination of how we experience temporality in experimental music, even though it is precisely this area of music which provides such radically unique temporal experiences for listeners. In a highly accessible format using case studies, Being Time employs an ongoing dialogue to examine in depth how various compositional concerns within experimental and minimal musics affect our sense of time and duration. Various theoretical viewpoints inform the dialogue, but the phenomenological lineage from Husserl, through Merleau-Ponty to Clifton infuses the discussion to provide experiential arguments, rather than abstracted hypotheses.
An introductory chapter on experimental music is followed by studies of individual composers and artists such as Morton Feldman, Manfred Werder, Bernhardt Gunter, Richard Chartier, La Monte Young and Toshiya Tsunoda which are embedded in the continuing discourse, along with issues of perception and memory in experimental music.
Being Time promotes deep, considered thought on the radical natures of our personal experience of temporality when listening to contemporary experimental approaches to composition and performance, and consequently promoting the participatory qualities of the listener in the act of music-making.
Synopsis
Being Time invites a deep consideration of the personal experience of temporality in music, focusing on the perceptual role of the listener. Through individual case studies, this book centers on musical works that deal with time in radical ways. These include pieces by Morton Feldman, James Saunders, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Ryoji Ikeda, Toshiya Tsunoda, Laurie Spiegel, and Andr O. M ller. Multiple perspectives are explored through a series of encounters, initially between an individual and a work and subsequently with each author's varying experiences of temporality. The authors compare their responses to features such as repetition, speed, duration, and scale from a perceptual standpoint, drawing in reflections on aspects such as musical memory and anticipation. The observations made in this book focus on the listening experience, rather than on established modes of musical analysis. This shift in focus makes the text accessible and relevant to readers who are interested in exploring issues of temporality from a broad range of disciplinary perspectives.