TY - JOUR
T1 - Musical irrationality in the shadow of pythagoras
AU - Macklin, Christopher
PY - 2010/8
Y1 - 2010/8
N2 - Music has been aptly described as an 'ontological mutant', neither exhaustively captured nor fixed by, yet inextricably related to, its manifestation in performances and notation. This characteristic lends itself to endless debates on its identity as well as to myriad contradictory assessments of its utility and value. While some authors have sought to attribute this phenomenon to the 'experimental' music of the late twentieth century, the present essay points out that impossibility, or rather, its sister concepts irrationality and incommensurability, have been integral to the conception of music since its inception. The shared language of paradox provides a link from the Pythagorean and neo-Platonic consonance through to the fixed ambiguities of contemporary composition.
AB - Music has been aptly described as an 'ontological mutant', neither exhaustively captured nor fixed by, yet inextricably related to, its manifestation in performances and notation. This characteristic lends itself to endless debates on its identity as well as to myriad contradictory assessments of its utility and value. While some authors have sought to attribute this phenomenon to the 'experimental' music of the late twentieth century, the present essay points out that impossibility, or rather, its sister concepts irrationality and incommensurability, have been integral to the conception of music since its inception. The shared language of paradox provides a link from the Pythagorean and neo-Platonic consonance through to the fixed ambiguities of contemporary composition.
KW - Aesthetics
KW - Experimental music
KW - Irrationality
KW - Milton Babbitt
KW - Pythagoras
KW - Werktreue
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80054874862&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1080/07494467.2010.587316
DO - 10.1080/07494467.2010.587316
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80054874862
SN - 0749-4467
VL - 29
SP - 387
EP - 393
JO - Contemporary Music Review
JF - Contemporary Music Review
IS - 4
ER -