From Frankfurt to Berlin: Adorno and the aesthetics of techno
Corné Driesprong (1947990) December 23 th, 2011
Paper Globalization and Music MA Kunsten, Cultuur en Media Dr. K. A. McGee
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Table of contents
1. Intr Introd oduc ucti tion on 2. The The aesth aestheti etics cs of of tech techno no 2.1 Sonic reproduction 2.2 Repetition 2.3 Simplicity of form 2.4 The liberation of sound 3. Conc Conclu lusi sion ons s
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1. Introduction
The goal of this paper is to relate the concept of the musical material from Theodor W. Adorno's influential philosophy of music to contemporary techno music. I chose this subject because, despite ubiquitous criticism and admittedly waning relevance, I find Adorno's thinking about music still very intriguing. The concept of the musical material is one of the central concepts around which his theorizing about music and its social relevance is based, and I think it is interesting to actualize it and test its relevance by holding it against one of the pivotal musical genres to have emerged out of the rapid developments in music and music technology of the past decades, namely techno. Adorno’s Adorno’s writings have been widely disputed. His adversaries adversaries often scorn his relentless relentless anta antago goni nism sm and and vehe veheme ment nt rhet rhetor oric ic.. Impo Import rtan antl tly y thou though gh,, his his work works s need need to be understood within the period and conditions in which they were conceived, which were marked by the rise of National Socialism in Europe and the rampant emergence of state capitalism and mass culture. Many of his works were written while he was forced into exile to the United States from Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Of the Frank Frankfu furt rt Schoo Schooll membe members, rs, who who were were all all living living in Los Los Ange Angeles les durin during g that that perio period, d, according to Thomas Wheatland, Adorno in particular coped with cultural shock, and this profoundly influenced his intellectual attitude (Wheatland: 275). Adorno’s theorizing, which is mostly complex and inaccessible is often misunderstood or paraphrased paraphrased in a simplified manner that does not do justice to his elusive philosophy philosophy of music. However, his aesthetic theories formed the backbone for his broader critiques
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that may appear implausible when taken at face-value and not sufficiently embedded within his aesthetic philosophies. Furthermore, Furthermore, Adorno’s Adorno’s idealism, is directed at an in principle principle unattainable utopia, at the creation of an awareness in the collective consciousness, rather than political action and revolution. In his own words: "I had set up a theoretical model, but I could not suspect that people would want to put it into action with Molotov cocktails" 1. Adorno Adorno’s ’s influen influence ce is still still distinc distinctly tly felt in cultura culturall studies studies today today,, especi especially ally those those concerning music, both classical and popular, as he is the only major theorist whose primary medium was music (McClary: (McClary: 28). Indeed, as Robert Witkin points out, actually more than half of the published works by Adorno were about music (Witkin: 2). His major contribution to these fields is the establishment of a concern for the ideological consequences of music’s formal characteristics. According to Susan McClary: “In his hands, the presumably nonrepresentational instrumental music of the canon becomes the most sensitive barometer in all of culture. It is thereby made available to social criticism and analysis” (McClary: 28). His theorizing thereby provided a way of “getting beyo beyond nd formal formalism ism”” and and affo afforde rded d music music,, as the most most abstr abstract act form form of art which which is intuitively intuitively the most far removed from everyday reality, reality, with social and critical relevance. Thus, Adorno’ Adorno’s s thinking continues to intrigue and wide attention is still given to his work today. His recognition of the critical potential of music not only contributed to, but paved the way for influential studies such as those by Jacques Attali and Susan McClary. 1 Adorno, Theodor W. 1969. 1969. "Interview "Interview — Of barricades barricades and and ivory towers." towers." In: Encounter , 33 (september 1969), 63 ff. Quoted from: Max Paddison, Max , Adorno, , Adorno, modernism and mass culture. Essays on Critical Theory and music. music. London: Ka hn and Averill, 2004, in turn quoted from Velema.
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Like his peers of the Frankfurt School, Adorno’s theorizing is fundamentally marked by the philosophy of G. W. F. Hegel, in his dialectic conception of history, as well as the psychoa psychoanaly nalytic tic theory theory of Sigmund Sigmund Freud, Freud, in connecti connecting ng the listeni listening ng experie experience nce of musi music c to proc proces esse ses s with within in the the unco uncons nsci ciou ous s and and the the freq freque uent nt empl employ oyme ment nt of psychoanalytical terminology. Furthermore, we can discern a distinct influence from Max Weber, in the thesis of ongoing rationalization and Karl Marx, in its base-superstructure derived assumption that culture has the ability to ideologically reflect the social and economic order and the concept of commodity fetishism. However, in much aspects Adorno’s thinking markedly diverges from Marxism, for example, in his belief in the power of music to be able to actively criticize social reality rather than being just a byprodu product ct of the econom economic ic base base (Scru (Scruto ton n 2009 2009:: 207) 207).. Howe Howeve verr, Krims Krims argue argues s that, that, especia especially lly in musicolo musicology gy,, Adorno’ Adorno’s s name name is commonl commonly y even even conflat conflated ed with Marxist Marxist music-a music-anal nalysis ysis and is therefo therefore re taken taken to represen representt a simplifi simplified ed notion notion of Marxism Marxism (Krims: 92). Adorno's critique of the culture industry and of music were part of a larger agenda to oppose the dreaded process of rationalization in all aspects of social life. Adorno, together with Max Horkheimer, in their seminal work Dialectic of Enlightenment, argue that the enlightenment has turned into its opposite and has become a force which alienates people from themselves and their surroundings. They illustrate this by means of an episode of Homer's epic tale of Odysseus, where he lets himself be tied to the mast of his ship in order to be able to safely pass the deadly Sirens without being able to answer to their call. According to Horkheimer and Adorno, Odysseus here represents
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the bourgeois individual who is able to dominate nature (the Sirens), but only at the price of binding himself and thus losing touch with his natural surroundings.
Adorno's philosophizing on music is based on the post-18 thcentury Western art music conception of the musical piece as an autonomous, self-contained work. According to his theory, music represents liberation, a return to a primordial state preceding the separation of subject and object, while at the same time this freedom is necessarily restricted by form. In the compositional process, the composer has to balance formal conventions and individual spontaneity and creativity within a dialectical process. When a composer enters into this dialectic relationship with the musical material, the music becomes ideologically invested. According to Adorno, instrumental music was able to reflect critically on social reality, through the notion of the musical material: the technical means of musical expression, concerning melody, rhythm and harmony, which a composer finds at his or her disposal at a particular point in history which form a “crystallization of the creative impulse”. Musical forms become objectified and are handed handed down along subsequent subsequent generations of composers via the linear and singular historical process which is the development of music. Any music that does not build further upon the musics that directly preceded is can, from this point of view, be regarded as anachronistic, regressive and existing of “impotent cliché's”. For Adorno, a musical form being developed at a given point in social history was structurally analogous analogous to the social reality from which it emerged and therefore carries ideological consequences.
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As Fredric Jameson describes: “[the] technical mastery, in which the superiority of a Schoenberg over a Hindemith, say, or a Sibelius, lies in the formers will to draw the last objec objectiv tive e conseq conseque uence nces s from from the the histo historic rical al state state in which which he found found his his own own raw materials”. Music thus becomes aesthetically of formally “self-conscious” (Jameson: 5). Adorno believed twelve-tone music, which is a technique for the composition of atonal music that emerged in the beginning of the twentieth century, and was pioneered by the mentioned Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg, to be an inevitable and necessary consequence of the increasing tonal flexibility in Western art music that would be able to thwa thwart rt the malign malignant ant effec effects ts of the the contin continuin uing g ratio rational naliz izati ation on.. By subj subjug ugati ating ng the personal expression of chromaticism to an external process, that is to say, by coercing the notes into the ordered rows which twelve-tone technique prescribed to them, this music was able to mimic the objectified subject as it appears in modern society and thus was the ultimate expression of the alienated state of modern man. Art that does not acknowledge this state is merely false art as it is based on an illusion. As much as Adorno emphasizes the historicity of music, twelve-tone music itself proved to be very historical itself, and turned out to be a more or less passing development as virtually all the music written in every cultural stratum today is still very much rooted in tonality. As we will see later, Adorno was very critical about the popular music of his time. However, many of his ideas concerning popular music can by now be considered outdated, outdated, as he could not have envisioned envisioned the myriad of styles which have emerged as a result result of technol technologic ogical al develo developmen pments ts and low-lev low-level el access access to music music produc production tion.. Nevertheless, as Krims points out, many scholars writing about popular music somehow 7
still feel the need to hedge themselves against Adorno’s critique even today as to invalidate his normative claims, before being able to cast the critical or aesthetic merits of popular music in a more popular light (Krims: 91). This illustrates illustrates how his legacy and looming influence in music theorizing are still felt today. Therefore, I think it is very interesting to hold Adorno's theories about music and its social relevance against one of the pivotal musical genres to have emerged out of the rapid developments in music and music technology of the past decades, namely techno, in order to actualize it and test its relevance. Thereby I will look in particular at the aesthetic merits which techno might have when investigated from the point of view of Adorno's philosophy of music, while tryi trying ng not not to be over overly ly affe affect cted ed by his his para paraly lyzi zing ng cont contem empt pt for for the the stru struct ctur ural al characteristics of popular styles, which he generally regarded as false and regressive, but instead place these in a context which is more constructive and relevant today. The term techno is used ambiguously in scholarly literature on music. It is sometimes understood more generally to describe the whole myriad of genres which came to emerge from the post-disco movement since the late 1970s and rely on electronic instruments and techniques (such as synthesizers, drum machines and sampling), while it can also denote a more specific genre that emerged out of Detroit, Chicago and later Berlin and other cities, which is characterized by a mixture of electronic genres with African African-Ame -Americ rican an (funk, (funk, electro electro)) influen influences ces,, minimali minimalist st aesthet aesthetics ics and futurist futuristic ic and dystopian themes. It is this latter specific genre with which this paper deals. I will will look look at the the parti particu cula larr aesth aestheti etic c charac characte teris ristic tics s of techn techno o music, music, such such as its repe repetit titiv ive e and and non-n non-narr arrati ative ve struct structure ures, s, and and relat relate e those those to Ador Adorno no's 's think thinking ing,, for for 8
example concerning concept of the autonomous musical work. Also, I believe Adorno's notion of the musical material is in itself interesting when attention is shifted from the abstract, tonal development to the possibilities concerning the use of concrete sounds opened up by techniques for the manipulation of recorded sounds, as it is in this particular area that considerable developments have occurred during the period since the emergence of Adorno's philosophy of music. Finally, I will attempt to assess whether techno music, through these developments, can be said to be able to critically reflect upon social reality as could serious art music acco accordi rding ng to Ador Adorno no,, and and ther thereb eby y inve investi stiga gate te whet whether her his conc concep eptt of the music musical al material is still relevant.
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2. The aesthetics of techno
In his critique of popular music, Adorno defines its standardization its fundamental characteristic 2. Therefore, in this music “nothing fundamentally fundamentally novel will be introduced” introduced” (Adorno 2002: 438). The particular elements that define a popular musical style, e.g. syncopation or blue notes, are only superficially novel but are in no way fundamentally innovative are therefore ‘false’. The notion of the musical material is essential to this critique: whereas the great composers of serious music were able to 'break through' the musical forms that were handed down to them by their precursors, which allowed the attentive listener to momentary see through the veil of the objective form and catch a glimpse of their subjective liberation, popular music merely reproduces itself within the bounds of a thoroughly standardized form, thereby numbing any critical or intellectual impulse and lulling the listener into a state of ‘false consciousness’. An important element in this distinction between serious and popular music, which is tied up the musical material, is the fact that in classical music every smaller element is relevant to the whole, and thereby the particular is conciliated with the general. The musi musical cal piece piece unfol unfolds ds as a selfself-sim simila ilarr struc structur ture, e, to which which every every micro micro-e -ele lemen mentt is relevant and mirrors the structure of the whole piece. In popular music, on the other hand, “position is absolute. Every detail is substitutable; it serves only as a cog in a machine” (Adorno 2002: 440). If this where to be said concerning techno, Adorno would hit the nail exactly on the head. Techno tracks function not so much as discrete and self-contained entities, but 2 It needs to be noted noted that Adorno's Adorno's conception conception of 'popular 'popular music' music' was mainly mainly based on jazz jazz
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serve rather as a sort modular lego bricks for a dj to mix into a whole. This is illustrated illustrated by the fact that a track usually starts out with a few bars of a stripped down drum rhythm, which allows the dj to beatmatch 3 the records. Often, parts of different tracks will be played synchronically to form a new whole. Being conceived this way, the notion of an autonomous work is defied. Tracks are regarded rather as building blocks, that are of non-linear structure for they consist of cyclical structures that are to be repeated an arbitrary number of times, perhaps disappearing at one point to be brought back in the mix at a later moment, and which can be combined and rearranged in processes that are guided by the dj who attempts to intuitively intuitively react on the atmosphere atmosphere and the energy that is created by the dancing crowd. It is here that the Dionysian and embodied element of the music is foregrounded: it is rather an embodied sound-experience than an incorporeal, intellectual form of art. Its repetitive repetitive elements are often associated with the Dyonisian trance and can be contras contrasted ted with the experienc experience e of “The “The prisone prisoner” r” who “is present present at a concert concert,, an inactive eavesdropper like later concertgoers, and his spirited call for liberation fades like applau applause" se" (Adorno (Adorno and Horkhe Horkheimer imer:: 34). 34). As McLeod McLeod states: states: “In contempo contemporary rary club/da club/dance nce music, music, howeve howeverr, the use of techno technology logy,, and its attenda attendant nt hypnot hypnotical ically ly repetitive beats allows a type of technological spirituality –a literal transference of spirit from the machine to the body. In this manner, techno dance music defeats what Adorno saw as the alienating effect of mechanization on the modern consciousness” (McLeod: 339) 339).. This This bears bears simila similarit ritie ies s to the powe powerr of mimeti mimetic c nega negatio tion n Ador Adorno no ascri ascribe bed d to 3 Beatmatching is the technique of synchronizing the tempo of two records by controlling the speed of a turntable (or cd-player), allowing for a fluid transition between two tracks without silence or changing the tempo
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aton atonal alit ity y. By embr embrac acin ing g the the mech mechan aniz ized ed repe repeti titi tion on and and digi digita tall soun sounds ds of the the industrialized age, techno allows its creators and audiences to cope with the alienating effects of contemporary urban life. The cityscapes from which techno often emerged: Detroit Detroit,, Berlin, Berlin, are notably notably dystopian, dystopian, characteri characterized zed by high levels of vacancy vacancy and abandoned industry. In Adorno’s theorizing, music inexorably regarded as an intellectual and spiritual art form, form, which which is to be experi experien ence ced d by mean means s of attent attentive ive listen listening ing and and intel intellec lectu tual al cont contemp emplat lation ion.. In this this sens sense, e, his aesth aestheti etics cs are a pre-e pre-emin minen entt expres expressio sion n of the the rationalizing impulse which he seeks to oppose. In dance music, the experience of freedom from the subjective reality is, however, not established by a momentary release from musical form, but by a digression through form, as an ubiquitous element that lifts it out of itself, into the realm of timeless objectivity. A distinct characteristic of electronic dance music culture and popular music in general is the prolife proliferati ration on of creative creative and cultural cultural initiati initiative ve that that it has spawned. spawned. Although Although technologically advanced, electronic music often relies on relatively low-cost equipment for its creation (a point that I will later return to) which makes for low-level access to production, comparable to DIY-culture in punk music where the ability to play a few chords on a guitar was enough to form a band. In the words of Krims: “The costs of professional-quality production, in the wake of ever cheaper digital technology and programming, have enabled profitable independent music production on a smaller scale than Adorno could ever have envisioned” (Krims: 97).
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Finally, electronic music allows degree of control over musical parameters regarding dyna dynami mics cs and and timb timbre re that that exce exceed eds s even even the the most most thor thorou ough gh seri serial alis ism m from from the the composers who extended Schönbergs techniques, and therefore might be argued to represent at least the possibility of an entirely immanent musical objectivity.
2.1 Sonic reproduction
This we can see this process as the commodification and standardization of concrete soun sounds ds,, in the the prac practi tice ces s of samp sampli ling ng and and re-s re-sam ampl plin ing, g, but but also also in the the freq freque uent nt reoc reoccu curre rrence nce and and of stan standa dard rd soun sounds ds and and preset presets s from from comme commerci rcial ally ly avail availab able le synthesizers and drum machine. Listening to Derrick May’s seminal Detroit techno track The Dance from 1987, we hear a drum beat from a TR-909 model drum machine, which
is later later joine joined d by a bass bass line line from from the the illust illustrio rious us TB-3 TB-303 03 bass bass-sy -synth nthes esize izerr, both both manufactured manufactured by the Japanese Japanese company Roland. In the light of the Adornian Adornian notions of standard standardizat ization ion and reprodu reproductio ction, n, it is interes interesting ting to note how sounds sounds and timbres timbres produced by electronic musical instruments become not only widely used, but even high highly ly sought sought-af -after ter by produ producer cers s of elect electron ronic ic music music.. Both Both mentio mentioned ned machin machines es repr repres esent ent signa signatur ture e sound sounds s and and were were wide widely ly used used in tech techno no and and othe otherr genr genres es of electronic dan music and that are still highly wanted. Ironically however, both machines, initially flopped after their initial releases in 1984 and 1981, respectively, which led prices to drop to a level that was affordable to aspiring house and techno producers from Detroit and Chicago, which adopted them as the source of drum and bass sounds for their tracks. As these this music gained popularity however, the mentioned machines 13
became highly sought-after, causing their market values to sour even beyond their original retail prices. A similar story goes for the TR-909’s predecessor, the TR-808, which has however traditionally been more in vogue by hip-hop and electro producers. The iconic status of the machines is reflected in band and track names of electronic music artists, for example in the act 808 State and Fatboy Slim’s ‘Everybody Needs a 303’. These particular machines, through their initial use by pioneering techno producers and the subsequent popularity of their creations, have gained massive cultural currency and have become markers of techno-authenticity. We can investigate effect of the popularity of these machines in Adornian terms in two ways: firstly, they have become a preeminent example of the Marxian concept of commodity fetishism: ideological illusions which obscure realities of social and economic powers and cause people to lose their subjective freedom by investing it in objects. Furthermore, they can be regarded as a false false means means of estab establis lishin hing g pseud pseudo-i o-ind ndiv ividu iduali ality ty amon among g (amat (amateur eur-)p -)prod roduc ucers ers of electronic electronic music. The distinct valuation of certain instruments, instruments, effects, amplifiers, etc. is indeed what characterizes a lot of independent music production. However, in these cases it is not merely a process where a new product is marketed towards a passive and docile mass of consumers which are led to believe that they need a particular product product through obtrusive obtrusive advertising. advertising. As the products products initially flopped and were sold at bargain prices which allowed aspiring artists to afford them, only then did cultural capital culm culmin inat ate e arou around nd them them whic which h led led pric prices es on the the seco second nd hand hand mark market et to rise rise.. Furthermore, the mentioned Roland TB-303 was originally meant to be used as a way of providing programmable bass accompaniment to practicing guitarists. However, the 14
soun sound d - whic which h does does not not rese resemb mble le that that of a real real bass bass-g -gui uita tarr at all all – was was quic quickl kly y appropriated by electronic dance producers and came to be known in a way that could not have been anticipated by its manufacturers. Furthermore, the machines have been long-since out of production (although many emulations have been produced by other comp compan anies ies,, by means means of what what Paul Paul Théb Théber erge ge calls calls “seco “second nd order order simul simulati ation on”” – a simulation of a sound (the original 808) simulating a sound (a drummer)) (Théberge: 197). Therefore, Therefore, the commodity fetishism is not attributed to these objects in a one-way process from manufacturer to consumer, but instead is established in an interesting threefold mutual relationship between the music industry, (amateur-)musicians and the manufacturers of musical instruments - the latter of which was never considered by Adorno - in which consumers actively participate, though within the bounds of supplyand-demand market forces. The second aspect concerns the fact that the sounds and timbres of these machines are are repe repeat ated ed over over and and over over agai again n in many many tech techno no trac tracks ks,, and and thus thus beco become me a stan standa dard rdiz ized ed elem elemen entt on the the leve levell of conc concre rete te soun sounds ds.. Ador Adorno no howe howeve verr neve never r questioned the standardizing effects of the limited set timbres of the classical orchestra. Apparently, these mechanism are merely active on the more abstract levels of the musi musical cal struct structure ure.. It is also also inter interes estin ting g to note note that that the the inter interfac faces es of these these drum drum machines are essentially loop-based, facilitating the repetition of the same rhythm for an arbitrary arbitrary number of times (and thereby also influencing the structure of the music which is produced with them), these are elements that would induce what Adorno regressive
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listening. In fact, however, here we arrive at one of the salient features of techno music: it's conspicuous repetitiveness.
2.2 Repetition
Although Adorno advocated for serialism, which is often characterized as modernistic in its ratio rational nalize ized d and and subjec subjectle tless ss natur nature, e, his conc concept eption ion of music music is still still very very much much classical. It is comparable to that of Roger Scruton when he describes: “…listening “…listening to a Bach fugue, a late quartet of Beethoven, or one of those infinitely spacious spacious themes of Bruckner Bruckner,, I have the thought that this very movement which I hear might have been made known to me in a single instant: that all of this is only accidentally spread out in time before me, and that it might have been made known to me in another way, as mathematics is made known to me.” (Scruton 2005: 150/151) This presupposes presupposes a notion of the musical piece as a transcendent, transcendent, achronic idea which is transferred to composer to listener by means of its unfolding in time: a translation from the abstract to the concrete and then back to the abstract into the mind of the atten attentiv tive e and and comp compete etent nt listen listener er.. It is from from this this conc concep eptio tion n of music music as a purel purely y intellec intellectual tual and spiritu spiritual al art form that the idea idea of repetit repetition ion as a regress regressive ive quality quality emerges: repetition here serves merely as a device to support the listener's memory. Therefore, too much repetition might be taken as insult the 'serious' listener, who feels
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like being treated as an amnesiac. Roger Scruton likewise dreads the American popular song form for being “short breathed and quickly exhausted” (Scruton: 224). The conception of a musical work described above can be relativized or problematized in many ways, for example by pointing to ethnomusicological research of non-Western musi musics cs in which which abun abunda dant nt repe repetit titio ion n plays plays an import important ant role, role, for examp example le,, in the communal aspects of the music. I would like to point out how the aspect of repetition functions as an particular innovative aesthetic device within techno music rather than an infantile and regressive characteristic: Techno music defies the dialectical nature of Western art music, which works towards a resolving of a fundamental 'problem', for example by way of neutralizing the second theme by pulling it back to the home key in the recapitulation within the sonata form. It is instead essentially essentially non-narrative non-narrative and non-teleologica non-teleological, l, thereby resolving the division between object and subject and purging the music of historicity. In opposition to 12-tone and serialist music, techno – and for that matter, virtually all popular and post 20 th century (neo-)classical art music – marks a distinct return to tonality. As a result of techno's repetitive nature, the melodic and harmonic elements are not so much foregrounded, consisting often of a repeating pattern that continues for the length of the track, while the emphasis is mainly on the rhythmic elements. In some tracks, such as Marcel Dettmann's Duel , harmonic and melodic elements are altogether absent and the track consists merely of sounds with no definitive or a constantly shifting pitc pitch. h. Melo Melodi dic c voic voices es and and and and harm harmon ony y ther thereb eby y cast cast off off thei theirr func functi tion on as the the
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mechanisms which generate forward movement, which is instead established by the regular rhythmic pulse while the music stays in harmonic stasis. This establishes a more cyclical sense of musical narrative, as opposed to the linear and climactic structures which Susan McClary criticizes as an expression of the misogynist and imperialistic cultural paradigm of Western art music. She compares this to a number of pieces (by female composers), such as Genesis II by Janika Vandervelde, which, not unlike the minimal music of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, suggests the possibility of “being in time without the necessities of striving violently for control” [parentheses in original text] (McClary: 122). Another striking similarity to minimal music is the notion of music as a process which is present in techno music. A striking example of this is Thomas Brinkmann's X100 lp, on which, during during the course of the amount of time that a 12-inch record record spinning at 33 rpm can can cont contai ain, n, two two puls pulses es fade fade out out and and back back into into sync sync agai again n in a proc proces ess s that that is conspicuously analogous to Steve Reich's early tape pieces. In both cases, the medium imposes the form to the work, in a way which illustrates how, in techno music, the medium medium is often often foregro foreground unded ed as consists consists unapolog unapologetic etically ally of machine machine generat generated ed sounds.
2.3 Simplicity of form
“Simplicity in music is anything but simple” (Tarasti: 227), Eero Tarasti argues in his book in his book A Theory of Musical Semiotics. This statement is based on his concept
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of modalizations, which is borrowed from A. J. Greimas’ semiotics, where “the subject brings “sense” to abstract, moving sound forms only in the process of listening to music, by modalizing a musical structure in the same way that a speaker modalizes speech with wishes, will, belief and emotions” (Tarasti: 27). This is a level of meaning that is subjo subjoine ined d to the struc structur tural al perc percep eptio tion n of a music musical al piece piece that that trans transce cends nds timbra timbral, l, contextual and performative meanings. This This concep conceptt provides provides a way to analyze analyze the seeming seemingly ly simple simple formal formal structur structures es of techno music. In terms of information theory, in Adorno’s conception of the great musical work there is minimum redundancy (at most to support the listener's memory), while techno music generally features ample redundancy (multiplicity of information) which serves to emphasize and make transparent the musical form. Rhythms and melodic phrases are repeated a manifold number of times, which forces the listener to modalize the music to a larger extent. This means that the attribution of meaning shifts from the compose composerr, to the listene listeners. rs. As every every moment moment is equally equally central central,, the perspect perspective ive of listening is not prescribed to the listener, and as a subject he or she becomes free from the will of the music. Her of she can float in or out with attention at will, detached from the devices of memory and anticipation, while the music proceeds as a series of 'nows'. As As comp comple lexi xity ty of form form is redu reduce ced d to a mini minimu mum, m, the the emph emphas asis is is shif shifte ted d to the the experience of the listener him- or herself. The music does not represent a hidden structure which is to be uncovered by attentive listening, but consists mostly as sound as such and needs to be experienced that way. It invites the listener to put meaning into it, to modalize it. This also leaves much room for the experience of the concrete sounds sounds
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that are heard, which is an important aspect of techno music. From this point of view, view, it can be regarded as form of pure sound art. It foregrounds the use of particular timbres and sounds, into which I will go in the following chapter.
2.4 The liberation of sound
Techniqu echniques es for the record recording, ing, storage storage,, manipul manipulatio ation n and synthesi synthesis s of sounds, sounds, first first analog and later digital, have brought about many radical changes in music production and distribution since their emergence during the course of the 20
th
century. Creatively
and aesthetically, they have opened music up for a multiplicity of timbres and sounds that are no longer tied to the limitations of existing musical instruments and human performance. These developments were heralded by the Italian artist Luigi Russolo, who, as a member of the Futurist movement, wrote a manifesto entitled 'The Art of Noises' in 1913 in which he advocated for the inclusion of non-tonal noises into the timbres that were available to music, which would act as an expression of the clamor of everyday life in an industrialized world (Russolo). The use of sound recording- and manipulation techniques was first pioneered musique concrète school in Paris during the 1940s, who were well aware of the revolutionary natu nature re of the techni techniqu ques es with with which which they they worke worked d and and whos whose e memb members ers theori theorize zed d extensively on the possibilities opened up by these new technological developments. These were already occurring during the time in which Adorno developed his theories, and he wrote about them in his essay The Aging of New Music, saying, however:
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"Music regresses to the pre-musical, the pre-artistic tone. Many of its adepts logically pursue musique concrète or the electronic production of tones. But to date, electronic music has failed to fulfill its own idea; even though it theoretically disposes over the continuum of all imaginable sound colors, in actual practice — similar to the musical tin-can taste familiar from the radio, only much more extreme than that — these newly won sound colors resemble one another , whether because of their virtually chemical purity, or because every tone is stamped by the interposition of the equipment" (Adorno, 1955: 194). Evidently, Adorno cast these developments in a rather negative light. This is remarkable as there are some interesting analogies to note between the twelve-tone music which he endorsed and the emerging electronic music. Whereas the first freed music from the bounds of tonality, the latter liberates it from the notably limited set of timbres of the classical orchestra into the “continuum of all imaginable sound colors”. However, as stated earlier, Adorno held a profoundly classical conception of classical music which idealized it as a transcendent transcendent and abstracted idea, that therefore therefore bears no essential relationship to its manifestation as concrete sound. This functions merely as a medi medium, um, from from whic which h the serio serious us listen listener er,, may perce perceive ive the origin original al idea idea of the composer. Hence the arrangement of a particular piece becomes in fact arbitrary. A compose composerr may choose choose certain certain instrum instruments ents becaus because e of their their particu particular lar registe registerr and therefore their ability to relate certain notes to other notes in the musical space that is available within the bounds of human cognition, but their timbres and the particular
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playing styles of the musicians serve only to convey the transcendent musical idea of the composer. Howe Howeve verr, I woul would d like like to argu argue e that that what what has has beco become me all all the the clea cleare rerr sinc since e the the emergence of recording technologies and the proliferation of musical timbres and the opening up of the domain for music, is that music is not just this transcendent idea, but that it is, in the terms of Tarasti, continually modalized, not in the least by the concrete sounds that it uses and the associations that they evoke. In fact, I would like to argue that the whole range of timbres that is available to us through the traditional orchestra have become, in a sense not unlike Adorno's notion of the musical material, themselves a cliché, and therefore, to the ears of modern music audiences, have lost their power to meaningfully convey a musical truth. From being used over and over in sappy movie soundtracks, to dramatic effects in pop ballads, these timbres have been exhausted of their neutrality and subsequently accumulated a myriad of connotations that modalize the conveyance of the musical idea. The reason for Russolo in wanting to open up music up for the multiplicity of sounds from industrial life was because these sounds had become the very sonic fabric of this life. life. Reality Reality was no longer longer silent as it had been in pre-ind pre-industr ustrial ial times. times. Therefore Therefore,, concrete sounds gained a particular relevance to modern life. The collective ears of mode modern rn man have grown grown used used to the noise noise of every everyda day y urban urban life, life, and and ther therefo efore re demanded demanded more harsh and violent means of conveying conveying a musical idea, through sounds and noises that mirrored the sonic environment of daily life. In Russolo's words: “the machine today has created so many varieties and combinations of noise that pure 22
musical sound — with its poverty and its monotony — no longer awakens any emotion in the hearer” (Russolo). Here music gains the ability to mimic the conditions of social reality very lively, lively, a potential which Adorno praised in twelve-tone twelve-tone music. However However, this mimesis is, this time established not by structural analogy, but by means of concrete sound. In techno music, as we have seen, the occurrence of concrete sound events is very much much foregrou foregrounde nded d in the listenin listening g experie experience. nce. The listene listenerr is confron confronted ted with the sounds sounds appear appearing ing as such, such, without without conceiv conceiving ing them as a medium medium represe representin nting g an abstract musical idea, thereby once again breaching the Adornian dialectics of form and cont conten entt and and inste instead ad direct directin ing g the the empha emphasis sis towa towards rds direc directn tness ess and and inten intensit sity y of experience.
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3. Conclusions
Techno music is part of an artistic and conceptual lineage that can be drawn from Erik Satie's musique pauvre, via the American American minimal music composers of the 70s towards modern modern electro electronic nic music, music, with its notable notable influen influence ce from African-A African-Americ merican an musical musical cultures, which was, among other non-Western influences, manifest in minimal music as well. It is within the aesthetic principles of this tradition that the artistic merits of techno music need to be understood. However, they appears to be essentially incompatible with Adorno’s Adorno’s philosophy of music, in that its merits can never be acknowledge acknowledge through his terms, which regard its ubiquitous repetition and standardization merely as elements that induce 'regressive listening' and 'false consciousness'. The dialectic conception of history on which Adorno's Adorno's philosophy of music is based has been opposed in the post-structuralist philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Jean-François Lyotard. In the artistic experience that is proper to post-dialectic music, the listener is no longer coerced into a fixed referential perspective in relation to the musical work but instead becomes an arbitrary point in a rhizomatic network of perspectives, values and associat association ions s (i.e. (i.e. modaliza modalization tions) s) that are subject subjectivel ively y conceiv conceived. ed. It hereby hereby becomes becomes detached from the historical context by which Adorno rendered it potentially critical, as the historical connection can no longer be objectively established but is dependent purely on subjective context. The music cannot retain a critical distance from reality as it becomes becomes permeated permeated by it. This is a fundamen fundamental tal consequ consequenc ence e of the postmod postmodern ern conditi condition on in which which objectiv objective e truth, truth, 'grand 'grand narrati narratives ves'' (Lyota (Lyotard) rd) and objectiv objective e identit identity y (Deleuze) are renounced. 24
The question, then, whether whether techno music, as in instrumental, non-representation non-representational, al, non-dialectical and ahistorical art form retains any ability to critically reflect on social reality has to be answered in the negative. Following the Cagean philosophy, in which sounds are valued in themselves without being subjugated to a composer's will, the sounds become autonomous entities and which paradoxically leads the music out of the abstr abstrac actt realm realm into into the world world of actu actuali alize zed d sound, sound, wher where e it is unabl unable e to conv convey ey normativity as it is immediately neutralized by itself. Such is the experience of the attendants of techno parties, the pivotal situational context to which techno music aspires, who often report experiencing a (perhaps drug-induced) ecstatic and trance-like state, as a fictitious and momentary kind of liberation. The vain longing for the unattainable utopia of subjective liberation which is expressed within the dialectics of twelve-tone music has been exchanged for a temporary arrival at this utopian utopian state, state, however however at the cost of a complete complete alienation alienation from reality reality within the objective musical forms.
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Bibliography
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Tarasti, Eero. 1994. A Theory of Musical Semiotics . Indiana University Press. Théberge, Paul. 1997. Any Sound You Can Imagine: Making Music/Consuming Technology . Wesleyan. Tillekens, Ger. 2000. “Wat moeten we nu nog met Adorno?” in Soundscapes: Journal on Media Culture, vol. 2 (winter 2000) (url: http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME02/Wat_moeten_we_nu_nog_met_Adorn o.shtml). o.shtml ). Velema, Floris. 2007. “From Technique Technique to Technology: A Reinterpretation of Adorno's Concept of Musical Material” in Soundscapes: Journal on Media Culture vol. 10 (20072008) (url: http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME10/From_technique_to_technology.shtml ). Wheatland, Thomas. 2009. The Frankfurt School in Exile. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Witkin, Robert Winston. 1998. Adorno on Music. Routledge.
Discography
Thomas Brinkmann – X100 (1998), Supposé Rhythim Is Rhythim (Derrick May) – The Dance, on v/a – House Trax (1987), Street Sounds Marcel Dettmann – Deluge / Duel (2011), Fifty Weapons
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