Elaboration, Counterpoint, Transgression: Music and the Role of the Aesthetic in the Criticism of Edward W. Said KATHERINE FRY Abstract: This article examines the role of the aesthetic in the criticism of Edward Said through a reading of two lesser-explored texts, Musical Elaborations (1991) and On Late Style (2006). It explores how, by drawing upon ideas from Gramsci and Adorno, Said advocates a convergence of social and aesthetic approaches to musical analysis and criticism. Although critical of some of the tensions arising from Said’s varying perspectives on music and society, the article suggests that we can nonetheless detect a distinctive ideology of the aesthetic in Said’s writin writ ings gs on mu music sic.. It arg argue uess th that at Sa Said id’’s id idea eass on th thee te temp mpor oral al or na narrat rrativ ivee structure of certain musical works or performances function, within his wider thinking, as an aesthetic paradigm for undermining fixed identity and linear or totalizing narratives. Thus Said’s reflections on music do not simply retreat from social and political concerns, but rather elaborate a utopian thinking regarding the interface betw between een criticism and the aesth aesthetic etic.. Keywords: Edw Edward ard Sai Said, d, mu music sical al aes aesthe thetic tics, s, Gra Gramsc msci, i, Ado Adorno rno,, lat latee sty style le,, musical performance, humanism
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Said’s most extended reflections on music, in Musical Elaborations1 and On Late Style ,2 present a particularly conflicting set of ideas on the role of th thee ae aest sthe heti ticc in so soci ciet ety y. In ap appr proa oach chin ing g th thee su subj bjec ectt of th thee interfac int erfacee bet betw wee een n West estern ern cla classic ssical al mu music sic and critic critical al the theory ory,, Sai Said d enters into a discourse that has been largely shaped by the philosophy of Theodor Adorno, for whom music, particularly that of Beethoven and an d Sc Scho hoen enbe berg rg,, is ce cent ntral ral to hi hiss crit critiqu iquee of mo mode dernit rnity y. In Sa Said’ id’ss writings on music, an ambivalent relationship with Adorno’s theory of music history emerges, creating a tension with another theoretical Paragraph 31:3 (2008) 265–280 DOI: 10.3366/E026 10.3366/E02648334080002 4833408000278 78
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influen influ ence ce in Sa Said id’’s mus usic ic an and d li lite tera rary ry cri criti tici cism sm,, th that at of Gr Gram amsc sci. i. Through his critique of Adorno’s view of modern music as a purely aesthetic entity, Said integrates music into a notion of the elaboration of civil society. However, in the second and third essays of Musical Elaborations,, and in Said’s last and unfinished work On Late Style , the Elaborations project to integrate music into a social structure seems less central. Thus within Said’s music criticism there is an implicit tension between the criticism of art as part of a specific context or social structure and the analysis of art as a more independent or aesthetic phenomenon. This tension produces varying definitions and applications of Said’s notions of ‘transgression’, ‘elaboration’ and ‘counterpoint’, suggesting ambivalence and inconsistency with regard to the role of the aesthetic. For in inst stan ance ce,, Sa Said’ id’ss vi vieew of th thee tr tran ansgr sgres essi siv ve ca capac pacit ity y an and d de defia fiant nt auto au tono nom my of th thee la late te wor orks ks of Ri Rich char ard d St Strau rauss ss se seem emss co conse nserv rvat ativ ivee in co comp mpari ariso son n to hi hiss ea earl rlie ierr pr proj ojec ectt to in inst stig igat atee a le lev vel of so soci cial al and political accountability to artworks. However, in the analysis of Mozart’s Così fan tutte , in the reflections on temporality in Messiaen and in certain discussions of the pianist Glenn Gould, Said formulates a notion of the aesthetic as a model for a critical thinking that can itself transgress theoretical categorization or closure. It is this relationship betw be twee een n mus usic ical al an and d crit critic ical al no noti tion onss of el elabo abora rati tion on,, cou count nterpo erpoin intt and an d tr trans ansgre gressi ssion on th that at is of si sign gnifi ifica canc ncee bo both th in th thee in inte terpre rpreta tati tion on of Sa Said id’’s vi vieews on mus usic ic an and, d, in a br broa oade derr se sens nsee, in as asse sess ssin ing g th thee place of music and the aesthetic within Said’s wider critical outlook. After exploring some of the social and theoretical implications of the relationship between Said’s musical and critical thinking, I suggest that the significance of Said’s writings on music lies in their elucidation of an aesthetic paradigm capable of, in a utopian sense, challenging conventions concerning narrative, identity and structures of meaning.
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Said’s Musical Elabo Elaborati rations ons disc discuss usses es the re relati lations onship hip bet betw ween mu music sic,, critical theory and society. As such, it necessarily confronts the work of Theodor Adorno, whose analyses of music are central to his theory of the role of the aesthetic in society. At the heart of Adorno’s philosophy of music history is an interpretation of the middle and late-style works of Beethoven. Adorno views Beethoven’s middle period treatment of sonata form as immanently Hegelian: the subjective material (the compositional development of an initial musical idea) forms a dialectical
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totali tota lity ty wi with th th thee ob obje ject ctiive st struc ructu turre (t (the he in inhe herit rited ed co con nven enti tion onss constituting ideas of sonata form). For Adorno, these middle period works present a narrative of temporal progression that is synonymous with ideals of the bourgeoisie at the time of the French Revolution. Yet fo forr Ad Adorn orno o, su such ch id idea eals ls co coul uld d ne nev ver ac achi hieeve rea eali liza zati tion on in a soci so ciet ety y th that at was be beco comi ming ng in incr crea easi sing ngly ly rei eifie fied d an and d fr frag agme ment nted ed.. In thee phi th philo loso soph phy y of Ad Adorno orno,, th thee lat latee wor orks ks of Be Beet etho hov ven re reco cogn gniz izee this th is tr tragi agicc fact th thrrou ough gh th thee fo formal rmal se sev verin ering g of mus usic ical al su subj bjec ecti tivi vity ty from objective structures and conventions. Adorno writes of the late quartets of Beethoven: Objective is the fractured landscape, subjective the light in which — alone — it glows into life. [Beethoven] does not bring about their harmonious synthesis. As a power of dissociation, he tears them apart in time, in order perhaps to preserve them for the eternal. In the history of art, late works are the catastrophes.3
Adorn rno o looks back on this point in the history of music and phil ph ilos osop oph hy fr from om th thee van anta tage ge of wh what at he se sees es as th thee ap apoc ocal alyp ypti ticc climax of an already manifest path of increasing rationalization: Nazi totalitarianism. It is within this context that Adorno understands the disso di ssona nanc ncee, di diffic fficul ulty ty an and d rar rarefi efica cati tion on of th thee tw twel elv vee-to tone ne mu musi sicc of Scho Sc hoen enbe berg rg as th thee in ineevi vita tabl blee fat fatee of au auth then enti ticc mu musi sicc to di dise seng ngag agee from any social mediation. Instead the authentic artwork, faced with the apparatus of totalitarianism, turns in on itself, becoming a selfreferential aesthetic entity, ‘the concealed social essence quoted as the phenomenon’.4 In the first essay of Musical of Musical Elaborations, Elaborations, ‘Performance as an Extreme Occasion’, Said puts forth a critique of the determinism and limits inhe in here rent nt in Ad Adorno orno’’s vi vieew th that at mus usic ic si sinc ncee Be Beet etho hov ven mus ustt vee eer r into the aesthetic realm in order to retain any vestige of authentic subjectivity. Said suggests that the occasion of musical performance pro pr ovi vide dess an in inst stan ance ce of so soci cial al me medi diat atio ion n wh wher eree th thee ae aest sthe heti ticc an and d cultural converge to form a contribution to society: The fac The factt is th that at mu musi sicc re rema main inss si situ tuat ated ed wi with thin in th thee so soci cial al co cont ntex extt as a sp spec ecial ial variety of aesthetic and cultural experience that contributes to what, following Gramsci, we might call the elaboration or production of civil society. In Gramsci’s usag us agee el elab abor orat atio ion n eq equa uals ls ma main inte tena nanc ncee, th that at is, th thee wor ork k do done ne by me memb mbers ers of a so soci ciet ety y th that at kee eeps ps th thin ings gs go goin ing; g; ce certa rtain inly ly mu musi sica call pe perf rforma ormanc ncee fit fitss th this is descript des cription ion (. . . ). The probl problema ematic ticss of grea greatt mu music sical al per performa formance nce,, soc social ial as well as technical, therefore provide us with a post-Adornonian occasion for analysis and for reflecting on the role of classical music in contemporary Western society. (ME , 15)
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Thus Sa Thus Said id’’s in init itial ial ai aim m in Musical Elabo Elaborat rations ions is to in inte tegrat gratee mu musi sicc into a social and worldly context. This use of Gramsci’s notion of thee el th elab abor orat atio ion n of ci civi vill so soci ciet ety y is rem emin inis isce cent nt of a si simi mila larr pr proj ojec ectt undertaken in a literary context in The World, the Text, and the Critic : By el elab abor orat atio ion n Gr Gram amsc scii me mean anss tw two o se seem emin ingl gly y co cont ntra radi dict ctory ory but ac actu tual ally ly complementary things. First, to elaborate means to refine, to work out (e-laborare ( e-laborare ) some so me prio priorr or mo more re po pow wer erfu full id idea ea,, to pe perpet rpetua uate te a worl orldd-vie view w. Se Seco cond nd,, to elaborate means something more qualitatively positive, the proposition that culture itself or thought or art is a highly complex and quasi-autonomous extension of politic pol itical al re realit ality y and ( . . . ) has a den densit sity y, com comple plexit xity y, and historicalhistorical-sem semant antic ic va value lue that is so strong as to make politics possible. 5
It is the pi piaanist Glenn Gould to whom Said turn rnss in Musical Elaborations and The World, the Text, and the Critic as an exemplar of the poss possib ible le worl orldly dly eng engage agemen ments ts bet betw ween an aes aesthe thetic tic obj object ect and society. Gould retired from the concert platform in the 1960’s and devoted the rest of his life to making records, television broadcasts and radio programmes, consisting of piano performances interspersed with interviews and discussions. For Said, Gould’s performances allow medi me diat atio ion n be betw twee een n th thee mus usic ical al wor ork k an and d a di disc scurs ursiv ivee di dime mens nsio ion, n, a co con nver erg gen ence ce of mus usic ic wi with th sp spee eech ch,, ena nab bli ling ng pe perf rform orman ance ce to ‘engage or to affiliate with the world itself, without compromising the essentially reinterpretive, reproductive quality of the process’ (ME (ME , 29). In The World, the Text, and the Critic , Said is critical of Paul Ricoeur’s perception of the text as a non-referential aesthetic object in a state of sus suspe pens nsio ion n fr from om th thee ci circ rcum umst stant antia iall re reali ality ty of spe speec ech. h. By way of challenging this demarcation, Said draws attention to a recording of Gould Gou ld pla playin ying g and dis discuss cussing ing the Lis Liszt zt tra transc nscriptio ription n of Bee Beetho thov ven’ en’ss Fift Fi fth h Sy Symp mpho hon ny so as ‘t ‘to o pr pro ovi vide de an in inst stan ance ce of a qu quas asii-te text xtua uall object whose ways of engaging with the world are both numerous and an d co comp mpli licat cated ed,, mo morre co comp mplic licat ated ed th than an Ri Rico coeu eur’ r’ss de dema marc rcat atio ion n betw be twee een n te text xt an and d spe speec ech. h. Th Thes esee ar aree th thee en enga gage geme ment ntss I ha hav ve be been en 6 calling worldliness’. The use of Gould’s recording here could equally functi fun ction on to illu illustr strate ate Sai Said’ d’ss att attitu itude de to tow war ards ds Ado Adorno’ rno’ss narrat narrativ ivee of thee is th isola olati tion on of th thee ae aest sthe heti ticc fr from om so soci ciet ety y. In co cont ntra rast st to Ad Adorno orno’’s linear philosophy of music history, Said’s use of the Gould recording emphasizes an aesthetic of mediation within space, allowing for complex and multiple engagements between an artwork and the world. In The World, the Text, and the Critic , Said writes of the need to find a critical discourse that can overcome what he sees as a gap in left literary and cultural studies, wherein there is ‘no allowance for
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the truth that all intellectual and cultural work occurs somewhere, at some time, on some very precisely mapped out and permissible terrain, which is contained by the state.’7 This sentiment is reiterated in Musical Elaborations,, in the statement that ‘the fact is that music remains situated Elaborations within the social context.’ (ME (ME , 15) Yet Said also insists on the multilayered, complex and ‘quasi-autonomous’ nature of art, suggesting that the extent to which art is accountable to a specific social space remains ambiguous. 3
In the next chapter of Musical Elabo Elaborat rations ions,, this ambiguity becomes more explicit. Said is once again critical of Adorno’s narrative of the descent of humanist optimism in Beethoven into the dissonance and alienation in Schoenberg, for its ‘overlapping theory of history and of music that relies on the occult, transgressive aspects of music to interpre int erprett his history tory and, con conv verse ersely ly,, the det determin erministi isticc and “ob “objec jecti tiv ve” character of history to interpret music’ (ME (ME , 49). For Said, the occult, transgressive aspects of music allow it to engage in any number of social mediations, thus resisting determinist and totalizing narratives: In short, the transgressive element in music is its nomadic ability to attach itself to, and become part of, social formations, to vary its articulations and rhetoric depending on the occasion as well as the audience, plus the power and the gender situations in which it takes place. (ME ( ME , 70)
However, in the conclusion to the second essay of Musical Elaborations, Elaborations, Said seems to move away from the integration of music into a social or referential context. According to Said, music can not only transgress boundaries and limits as part of an overall structure of social mediation, butt ce bu certa rtain in mu musi sicc ca can n ac achi hieeve a ra radi dical cal tr tran ansgr sgres essi sion on,, to th thee po poin intt where it discharges empirical social space altogether. Said argues that we should be able to locate: A relatively rare number of works making (or trying to make) their claims entirely as music , free of many of the harassing, intrusive, and socially tyrannical pressures that have limited musicians to their customary social role as upholders of things as they are. I want to suggest that this handful of works expresses a very eccentric kind of transgression, that is, music being reclaimed by uncommon, and perhaps even excessive, displays of technique whose net effect is not only to render the music mu sic soc sociall ially y sup superfl erfluou uouss and use useles lesss — to discharge it completely — but to recuperate the craft entirely for the musician as an act freedom. ( ME , 71)
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Qui uite te a dr dram amat atic ic sh shif iftt ta tak kes pl plac acee he herre, fr from om an em emph phas asis is on a social and cultural context for music, to the abstract independence of certain works. Said goes on to describe Bach’s Canonic Variations as ‘an exercise in pure combinatorial virtuosity’, an instance of pure technical mastery: ‘One will have to wait until Webern’s Variations to get something so formidably, concentratedly articulated as this music, but so far in excess is it of any occasion or need that it dangles pretty much as pure musicality in a social space off the edge’ (ME (ME , 72). Until this point in Musical Elabo Elaborat rations ions,, Said has been critical of Adorno’s view of music as a purely aesthetic phenomenon. Yet Said here develops his own understanding of a heightened musicality as a purely aesthetic realm, resisting and transgressing any confinement to a particular socio-cultural location or identity. Indeed, Said understands this purely musical space to be defined precisely by its indifference to language and discourse and its withdrawal from mainstream notions of historical progress. Furthermore, the transgressive element in music prevents it from being bound to ideological or theoretical structures such su ch as Ad Adorno orno’’s ph phil ilos osoph ophy y of mus usic ic hi hist story ory.. Yet it is Ad Adorno orno’’s writings on late-style Beethoven that prove most influential in Said’s development of an aesthetic of musical transgression, particularly the notion that late-style Beethoven rejects totality through a dissociation of the subjective core of the music from the objective landscape. This emphasis on irreconcilable extremes becomes a central component in Said’s own conception of late style, as ‘intransigence, difficulty, and unresolved contradiction’ (LS (LS , 7). We have seen how, in the opening chapters of Musical Elaborations and in The World, the Text, and the Critic , Said uses Gramsci’s term ‘elaboration’ to advocate the importance of the circumstantial reality and an d wor orld ldli line ness ss of a te text xt or ae aest sthe heti ticc ob obje ject ct.. Th Thee ae aest sthe heti ticc th thus us cons co nstru trued ed is co cons nsti titu tuen entt of th thee st struc ructu ture re of hi hist storic orical al ma mate terial rialism ism,, whereby artistic and intellectual endeavours exist as part of the dialectic of th thee fo forc rces es an and d mo mode de of pr prod oduc ucti tion on.. Yet et,, th thrrou ough gh th thee in influ fluen ence ce of Adorno’s interpretation of late style in Beethoven, Said heightens the notion of the transgressive elements in music to a point where the aesthetic no longer engages in the dialectical structure at large. The influence of both Gramsci and Adorno on Said results in a conflict betw be twee een n tw two o di diff ffer eren entt ph phil ilos osop ophi hies es of hi hist story ory:: on onee in wh whic ich h th thee dialectic of historical materialism is central, the other in which this diale di alect ctic ic ha hass be beco come me a do domi mina nati ting ng an and d id ideo eolo logic gical al ap appar parat atus us fr from om which the authentic artwork must necessarily escape. Thus the role of the aesthetic becomes contradictory in Said’s criticism, as it exists
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in a state of simultaneous immunity to and mediation with the mode of production. But Said’s neglect of the philosophy of history upon which these theories are based has a further consequence, particularly with regard to the increasing influence of Adorno. Said is critical of the totalizing narrative of history in Adorno’s theory, yet, without the philo ph iloso soph phy y of ne nega gati tiv ve di diale alect ctic icss up upon on wh whic ich h Ad Adorno orno’’s ae aest sthe heti ticc theo th eory ry is ba base sed, d, Sa Said id’’s ado adopt ptio ion n of ide ideas as co conc ncerni erning ng th thee au auto tono nom my and resistance of certain musical works results in a generalized and conservative view of the category of the aesthetic. This is most clearly evident in Said’s analysis of late-style Strauss. Said views the ‘distilled and rarefied technical mastery’ of Strauss’s late works, such as the huge wind pieces or Metamorphosis Metamorphosis,, scored for twenty-three individual string parts, as synonymous with the ‘eccentric kind of transgression’, which discharges the social and makes claims entirely ‘as ‘as music ’ (LS , 7). For Said, the ‘strangely recapitulatory and even backward-looking and abstracted quality’ of Strauss’s late works presents an escapism and disengagement that epitomizes the ‘out of timeness’ of late style (LS (LS , 25). Said also draws attention to the polish and surface perfection of the eighteenth-century musical pastiche in the opera Capriccio. The refinement and outward sheen of these works stand at the opposite extreme to the fissures, tensions and rifts inherent in Adorno’s picture of late style in Beethoven. Yet in their indifference both to the trauma and political upheavals of post-war Germany, and to the contem contemporary porary status of modern music, music, the tensi tensions ons and conflic conflicts ts of late-style Strauss emerge: From beginning to end it makes none of the emotional claims it should, and unlike late-style Beethoven with its fissures and fragments, it is smoothly polished, technically techn ically perfe perfect, ct, wo worldly rldly,, and at ease as music in an entirely musical world. Perhaps the last thing one would normally say about Strauss’s final works is that they are defiant, but I think this is exactly the word for them. ( LS , 47)
Said’s analysis of the music of Strauss reveals an appreciation of abstract music as a purely aesthetic space in which defiance and resistance are synonymous with a lack of compliance with historical, generic and theoretical classifications. This view is made explicit in a passage from Said’s writing on humanism: In the main, I would agr greee wit ith h Adorn rno o that there is a fundamental irreconcilability between the aesthetic and the nonaesthetic that we must sustain as a necessary condition of our work as humanists. Art is not simply there: it exists in a state of unreconciled opposition to the depredations of daily life, the
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uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor. One can call this heightened state for art the result of performance, of protracted elaboration (as in the structures of a great novel or poem), of ingenious execution and insight: I myself cannot do without the category of the aesthetic as, in the final analysis, providing resistance not only to my own efforts to understand and clarify and elucidate as a reader, but also as escaping the levelling pressures of everyday experience from which, however, art paradoxically derives.8
Said’’s ref Said efer eren ence ce to Ad Adorn orno o he herre is pr prob oble lema mati ticc. Sa Said id do does es no nott mai aint ntai ain n th thee di dial aleect ctic ic at th thee he hear artt of Ad Adorn orno’ o’ss fo form rmul ulat atio ion n of thee opp th oppos osit itio ion n be betw twee een n th thee ‘a ‘aut uthe hent ntic ic’’ artw artwor ork k an and d so soci ciet ety y, and instead portrays a more generalized heightening of the aesthetic to a realm outside historical context. In the case of Strauss, given the conn co nnec ecti tion onss be betw twee een n th thee co comp mpos oser er an and d th thee Na Nazi zi pa party rty,, th ther eree ar aree serious implications involved in Said’s appreciation of the ability of thee mus th usic ic to di disc scha harg rgee th thee soc socia iall an and d pol polit itic ical al ci cirrcu cums msta tanc nces es of it itss Criticism, Said is critical of composition. In Humanism and Democratic Criticism, the treatment of a ‘sacrilized past’ in new humanists such as Allan Bloom, and as such draws attention to Benjamin’s claim that ‘every document of civilization is at the same time a document of barbarism’, as a ‘n ‘not otio ion n th that at se seem emss ( . . . ) es esse sent ntia iall lly y a tr tragi agicc hu huma mani nist stic ic truth truth of great significance’.9 Yet Said presents a sacrilized musical content in his dismissal of the conditions surrounding the composition of Strauss’s late works. Said’s reference to art as the ‘uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor’ suggests that the aesthetic poses something primordial, natural, at odds with the social structure.10 What we find in Said’s interpretation of late style Strauss, and in his comments on the aesthetic in Humanism and Democr Democratic atic Criticism Criticism,, is a slippage between Adorno’s specific theory of artistic truth-content, inherent in the dissociation of extremes in the late quartets of Beethoven, and Said’s idea of musical autonomy or ‘transgression’ as an automatically emancipatory act of resistance. For Adorno, the idea of art as something archaic with claims to Being in its own right is regressive and ahistorical; it does not account for the important element of subjectivity in art, the traces in music of, say, motivic work and development. If the aesthetic becomes something uncontrollable, mysterious and complex, as Said seems to perceive it here, it loses any engagement with social and human activity. What we are left with instead, in the writings on late-style Strauss and the category of the aesthetic, is the vague notion of the power of great music to transcend socio-political and ideological categorization.
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However, in his essay on Mozart’s Così fan tutte in On Late Style , Said moves away from references to both Adorno and Gramsci and puts forward the notion that history and identity are themselves inherently representational, superficial and changeable. Said thus poses the heroic constancy of identity in Beethoven’s Fidelio against an inconstancy and multiplicity of identity in Mozart’s Così fan tutte : [In Fidelio Fidelio]] al alll th thee ch chara aract cters ers ar aree rigo rigorrou ousl sly y ci circ rcum umsc scribe ribed d in th thei eirr un unv varyi arying ng essence: Pizaro as unyielding champion of good, Fernando as emissary of light, and so forth. This is at the opposite pole from Così , where disguises and the wavering and wandering they foster, are the norm, and where constancy and stability are mocked as impossible. (LS ( LS , 56)
Said ar Said arg gue uess th that at,, be bene neat ath h th thee ex exte terio riorr of co com med edy y, fri friv vol olit ity y an and d superficiality in Così , there is a transgression of the acceptable, ordinary experiences of love, life and ideas. Said describes the character of Don Alfonso as a ‘late figure’, testing and manipulating the relationships between the four lovers in the opera in order to highlight the fragility of social conventions, structures and identities: To have discovered that the stabilities of marriage and the social norms habitually governing human life are inapplicable because life itself is as elusive and inconstant as hi hiss ex expe perien rience ce te teac ache hess ma mak kes of Do Don n Al Alfo fons nso o a ch chara aract cter er in a ne new w, mo more re turb tu rbul ulen ent, t, an and d tr trou oubl blin ing g re real alm, m, on onee in wh whic ich h ex expe perien rience ce re repe peat atss th thee sa same me disillusioning patterns without relief. What he devises for the two pairs of lovers is a game in which human identity is shown to be as protean, unstable, and undifferentiated as anything in the actual world. Not surprisingly, then, one of the main motifs in Così fan tutte is the elimination of memory so that only the present is left standing. (LS ( LS , 60)
For Said, this emphasis on the pre present sent and transgression transgression of social norms in Così disturbs the very foundations of authority and identity. The conclusion conclus ion of of Così Così uproots uproots the ‘rhetoric of love and the representation of desire’ from a ‘fundamentally unchanging order of Being’, opening up ‘a troubling vista of numerous further substitutions, with no tie, no identity, no idea of stability or constancy left undisturbed’ (LS (LS , 68). Said recognizes that whilst this ‘troubling vista’ and ‘bottomless sea’ remai ain n no more than a set of gestures within the li lim mits of the work, Mozart and De Ponte seem to have uncovered nonetheless ‘a potent pot ential ially ly terrifying terrifying view view ( . . . ) of a uni univ verse shorn shorn of any rede redempt mptiv ivee or palliative scheme, whose only law is motion and instability expressed
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as th thee po pow wer of li libe bert rtin inag agee an and d ma mani nipu pula lati tion on,, an and d wh whos osee on only ly conclusion is the terminal repose provided by death’ (LS (LS , 71). In an interv rviiew with Said, Jacqueline Rose raise sed d t h e i ssu e of in inco cons nsis iste tenc ncy y in hi hiss cri criti tici cism sm be betw twee een n th thee pr proj ojec ectt to ho hold ld art accountable to historical and ideological conditions and the aesthetic of musical transgression in which works such as Bach’s Canonic Variations exist in a ‘social space off the edge’ (ME (ME , 72). Said responds by saying there has been a change in his outlook, to which the vision of multiple, unstable and changing identities in Così is central: It is basically almost Schopenhauerian, that there’s a kind of indistinguishable, seething, endlessly transforming mass into which we are going. It really is very much mu ch a pa part rt of wh what at I am writing writing abou about. t. One of the reas reason onss for this this (. . . ) is th that at I’ve become very, very impatient with the idea and the whole project of identity (. . . ). Wh What at’’s mu much ch mo more re intere interest stin ing g is to try to re reac ach h ou outt be bey yon ond d id iden enti tity ty to something else, whatever that is. It may be death. It may be an altered sense of consciousness that puts you in touch with others more than one normally is. It may be just a state of forgetfulness which, at some point, I think we all need — to forge forget. t.11
Thus Said’s interpretation of the elimination of memory and emphasis on the prese sen nt at the end of Co Così sì fan tut tutte te is sy symp mpto toma mati ticc of hi hiss own critical thinking on an aesthetic of forgetfulness, a realm beyond identity. This more specific idea of transgression, as a space beyond fixed fix ed id iden enti tity ty,, em emer erge gess as an ae aest sthe heti ticc of mus usic ical al fo form rm in Sa Said id’’s reflections on the temporality of certain musical works. In the last chapter of Musical Elaborations, Elaborations, Said writes of an ‘antinarrative aesthetic’ in the music of Messiaen, a style of ‘diverting and prying us away from the principal discursive strands that mainstream classical music embodies and carries forward’ (ME (ME , 101). In contrast to the linear mastery of time in, say, the classical sonata form, the music of Messiaen embodies ‘another way of telling’ that is more digressive and an d co cont ntem empla plati tiv ve. Th This is mu musi sicc sy symb mboli olize zess an ae aesth sthet etic ic of ‘b ‘bei eing ng in ti time me , ex expe perien rienci cing ng it to toge geth ther er,, ra rath ther er th than an in co comp mpet etit itio ion, n, wi with th other musics, experiences, temporalities’ (ME (ME , 100). In the elaborative style of Messiaen is an essentially contrapuntal and dialogical mode, in which the ‘nonlinear, non-developmental uses of theme or melody dissipate and delay a disciplined organization of musical time that is principally combative as well as dominative’ (ME (ME , 102). This musical idea id eall is of pa partic rticul ular ar si sign gnifi ifica canc ncee for Sai Said’ d’ss no noti tion on of ‘c ‘con ontr trapu apunt ntal al reading’ in Culture and Imperialism. For Said, the spatial and divergent tempo porral stru ruccture of this ideal info form rmss the way in which we
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read the ‘cu read ‘cultur ltural al ar archi chiv ve’, not ‘un ‘univ ivocal ocally ly,, but contrapuntally contrapuntally,, wit ith h a si simu multa ltane neou ouss awar aren enes esss bo both th of th thee me metr tropo opoli lita tan n hi hist story ory th that at is narrated and of those other histories against which (and together with which) the dominating discourse acts’.12 We ha hav ve se seen en ho how w Sa Said id re refe ferre rred d to th thee pe perfo rforman rmance cess of Gl Glen enn n Gould to illustrate the complex and worldly engagements that could takee plac tak placee bet betw ween an aes aesthe thetic tic obj object ect and soc societ iety y. Ho How wev ever er,, the there re is another aspect to Said’s interpretation of Gould, which emphasizes the performer’s exile from the concert platform, thereby constituting a form of transgression. Said writes that this exile created an abstract musical space wherein the pianist seemed to be enacting a ‘stepping bey be yon ond d th thee pl plat atfo form rm in into to a st stra rang ngee wor orld ld be bey yon ond d it’ (ME , 24). Where Whe reas, as, in Th Thee Worl orldd th thee Tex extt an andd th thee Cri Criti tic c , Said used Gould to critic crit iciz izee Pau aull Ri Rico coeu eur’ r’ss no noti tion on of a te text xtua uall sp spac acee su suspe spend nded ed fr from om circumsta circ umstantial ntial rea reality lity,, in On La Late te St Styl yle e , he uses Gould to confirm precisely this suspended space of ‘unreality’. Said describes the way in which Gould could ‘apparently disappear as a performer into the work’s long complications, thereby providing an instance of the ecstasy he characterized as the state of standing outside time and within an integral artistic structure’ (ME (ME , 31). Kierkegaard has reflected upon how ho w ‘m ‘mus usic ic ha has, s, na name mely ly,, an el elem emen entt of ti time me in it itse self, lf, bu butt it do does es not take place in time except in an unessential sense’, and that ‘the historical process in time it cannot express’.13 In Said’s descriptions of Gould and Messiaen, a similar distinction between musical time and historical process exists as a means of confirming the purely abstract quality of a particular musical space. But such an abstract space of subjective musical time also has a utopian quality for Said, illustrated more explicitly when Said writes of Gould’s transmutation ‘into the utopia of an infinitely changeable and extendable world where time or history did not occur, and because of which all expression was transparent, logical, and not hampered by flesh-and-blood performers or people at all’ (ME (ME , 30). In an essay on Gould in On La Late te St Styyle , Sa Said id su sug gges ests ts so some me implications of such a utopia of extended musical space for critical thinking. This connection between the musical performance and the actt of cri ac criti tici cism sm is ma made de th thrrou ough gh a co comp mpari ariso son n of th thee mus usic ical al an and d rhetorical etymology of the term invention invention.. Said explains how in its rhetorical meaning, as it is found in Vico’s view of human history, inv in ven enti tion on is th thee cy cycl clic ical, al, el elabo abora rati tiv ve an and d rep epet etit itiive un unfo foldi lding ng of a process. In musical logic, invention is the unfolding and development of a theme contrapuntally, ‘so that all of its possibilities are articulated,
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expressed and elaborated’ (LS (LS , 128). For Said, Gould’s performances present a convergence of both Vicean and musical invention in the form fo rm of an en endle dless ss and in inco conc nclu lusi siv ve in inte terpr rpret etat atiive pr proc oces ess. s. In th thee continual reinterpretation and development of musical works, Gould symb sy mbol oliz izes es fo forr Sa Said id th thee ‘v ‘virt irtuo uoso so as in inte tell llec ectu tual al’, ’, wh who o co cons nsta tant ntly ly challenges the existing order through elaboration and invention. Said envisages this musical invention as a model for the humanist critic: What [Gould What [Gould’’s pe perf rforma ormanc nces es]] try to pr pres esen entt (. . . ) is a crit critic ical al mo mode dell fo forr a ty type pe of art that is rational and pleasurable at the same time, an art that tries to show us its composit composition ion as an act activ ivity ity still being being undertak undertaken en in its performan performance ce (. . . ). [I]t elaborates an alternative argument to the prevailing conventions that so deaden and dehumanize and rerationalize the human spirit. This is not only an intellectual achievement but also a humanistic one. (LS ( LS , 132–3)
For Sa Said id,, th thee se sens nsee of in inco comp mple leti tion on an and d po poss ssib ibil ilit ity y in Go Goul uld’ d’ss music mu sical al in inv vent ention ion al alw ways re resis sists ts sem sembla blance nce and sta static ticity ity and as suc such h provides a model for critical discourse. In Humanism and Democratic Criticism,, Sa Criticism Said id de desc scribe ribess th this is pr pres esen entt-ce cent ntre red d pr proc oces esss of con conti tinu nual ally ly incomple lette invention as a major constituent of his notion of humanism: So the there re is al alwa ways ys som someth ething ing rad radica ically lly inc incomp omplet lete, e, ins insuffi ufficie cient, nt, pr pro ovis vision ional, al, disputable, and arguable about humanistic knowledge that Vico never loses sight of and that that ( . . . ) gives gives the whole whole idea of humanis humanism m a tragic flaw flaw that is constitu constitutiv tivee to it and can never be removed. 14
This ‘tragic flaw’ in humanistic practice is a subjective element that gives the process of acquiring knowledge its continually impermanent, inconstant and incomplete character. As an aesthetic ideal, therefore, elab el abor orat atio ion n ha hass qu quit itee di diff ffer eren entt co conn nnot otat atio ions ns fr from om it itss Gr Gram amsc scia ian n formation in relation to civil society. In an aesthetic sense, it becomes the act of laying bare this subjective element by drawing attention to the present-centred nature of elaborative processes. In this respect, Said’s aesthetic of musical elaboration functions as a critical model for challenging the objectivity and permanence of historical knowledge, interpretation and identity. We can loca locate te thi thiss pr prese esentnt-cen centr tred ed pr proce ocess ss wit within hin Sai Said’ d’ss lite literary rary criticism as well: Traditi raditionally onally the tempo temporal ral con conve vention ntion in litera literary ry study has been retr retrospec ospectiv tive. e. We look at writing as already completed. But how much more challenging is a theoretic for study that takes writing as being produced for something formed in the writing; this was Mallarmé’s discovery.15
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The id The idea ea of mus usic ical al in inv ven enti tion on in Go Goul uld d as an ‘a ‘act ctiivi vity ty st stil illl be bein ing g unde un derta rtak ken in it itss pe perf rform orman ance ce’’ be beco come mess a fo form rm of te text xtua uali lity ty in a lite li tera rary ry co cont ntex ext, t, wh wher erei ein n th thee ac actt of wri writi ting ng it itse self lf is a di digr gres essi siv ve, elab el abor orat atiive an and d pe perf rform ormat atiive pr proc oces ess. s. Th Thee pa para rall llel elss be betw twee een n an aesthetic of musical elaboration and this textuality bring to light the significance of music in Said’s emphasis on the critical potential of formal processes over representation and ideology in artworks.16 5
Coupled with his reflections on Così fan tutte , Said’s notion of the utopian potential of multiplicity and musical time approaches a more speci spe cific fic an and d co comp mple lex x id ideo eolo logy gy of th thee ae aesth sthet etic ic,, qu quit itee di disti stinc nctt fr from om thee mo th morre st stra raig ight htfo forw rwar ard d vi vieew of th thee au auto tono nom my of th thee ae aest sthe heti ticc in rel elat atio ion n to la late te-s -sty tyle le St Stra raus uss. s. In th this is id ideo eolo logy gy of th thee ae aest sthe heti ticc, it is th thee fo forma rmall an and d te tem mpo pora rall ca capa paci city ty of mus usic ic to ela labo bora rate te an essentially irresolvable, changeable and unnameable body of tensions that constitutes its utopian potential. At the end of Musical Elaborations,, following the discussions of temporality in Messiaen and Elaborations Metamorphosis,, Said confirms the utopian potential of the aesthetics of Metamorphosis musical musi cal elabora elaboration, tion, counte counterpoint rpoint and transgre transgression: ssion: In the perspective afforded by such a work as Metamorphosis Metamorphosis,, music thus becomes an art not primarily or exclusively about authorial power and social authority, but a mode of thinking through or thinking with the integral variety of human cultural cultu ral pract practices, ices, gener generously ously,, non-c non-coer oerciv cively ely,, and, ye yes, s, in a utopi utopian an cast, if by utopian we mean worldly, possible, attainable, knowable. (ME (ME , 105)
Jacq Jacque uess Ra Ranc nciè ière re has no note ted d th that at th thee ‘de ‘defin finit itio iona nall ca capa pabil bilit itie ies’ s’ of the word utopia have been ‘completely devoured by its connotative properties’.17 Thus, when Said refers to the utopian cast in music as someth som ething ing ‘w ‘worl orldly dly,, poss possib ible le,, att attain ainab able le,, kno know wabl able’, e’, is it poss possib ible le to eluc el ucid idat atee a sp spec ecifi ificc pol polit itic ical al im impli plica cati tion on in hi hiss ae aest sthe heti ticc of mus usic ical al elaboration and transgression? Or is Said rather confirming, through a more connotative use of the word utopia, an infinite expansion of possibilities as a means of resisting any form of totalizing closure or resolu re solutio tion? n? In the ess essaay ‘T ‘Tra rav vell elling ing The Theory’, ory’, para paralle llels ls can be fou found nd between Said’s discussion of critical thinking and his utopian thinking on th thee tra trans nsgre gressi ssiv ve in musi usic: c: ‘W ‘Wha hatt we (. . . ) ne need ed over an and d ab abo ove theory the ory,, ho how wev ever er,, is the critic critical al re reco cogni gnitio tion n tha thatt the there re is no the theory ory capable of covering, closing off, predicting all the situations in which it might be useful.’18 For Said, the location of criticism is outside of
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theory, leaving it, like the transgressive in music, resistant to totalization and continually open to possibility and multiplicity. Aija Ai jazz Ah Ahma mad d ha hass cri criti tici cize zed d Sa Said id’’s Orientalism fo forr it itss mul ulti tipl plee theo th eore reti tica call am ambi biv vale alenc nces es an and d co cont ntra radi dict ctio ions. ns. For Ah Ahma mad, d, Sa Said id’’s utopian view that criticism can remain open to all kinds of divergent ideas and theories closes off the potential in developing a particular form of thinking such as Marxism: Having access to a ‘great deal of things’ always gives one the sense of opulence, mastery, reach, choice, freedom, erudition, play. But resolution of the kind of ambivalences and self-cancelling procedures which beset Said’s thought requires that some positions be vacated, some choices be made, some of these ‘great deal of things things’’ be reno renounce unced. d.19
Understood as a connotatively utopian realm of infinite possibilities and tra transgr nsgress ession ions, s, Sai Said’ d’ss mu music sical al thi thinki nking ng on cou counte nterpoint rpoint,, mu multiltiplicity and transgression becomes problematic as it seems to impute an aesthetic view to a theoretical space. In musical counterpoint, dissonance and conflict can function meaningfully and without leading to incomprehension. Howev However er,, theoretical conflicts concerning div divergent ergent philosophies of history, such as those of Gramsci and Adorno, must surely resolve in order to avoid a state of contradiction and staticity. Perhaps the very musicality of Said’s thinking on theory, aesthetics and an d so soci ciet ety y is su sugg gges esti tiv ve of a so sort rt of ae aest sthe heti ticc wor orld ld-v -vie iew w th that at is somewhat detached from the material history of socio-political and mora mo rall re respo spons nsib ibili ility ty.. Th This is is a crit critic icis ism m th that at Ha Habe bermas rmas ha hass le lev vel elle led d against aga inst Nie Nietzs tzsche che’’s con contin tinual ual re recou course rse to the aes aesthe thetic tic,, parti particula cularly rly music, to question the objectivity of morality, identity and knowledge. According to Habermas, Nietzsche’s aesthetic view presents a ‘chasm of fo forg rget etful fulne ness ss ag agai ainst nst th thee wor orld ld of ph philo iloso soph phic ical al kn kno owl wled edge ge and 20 mora mo rall ac acti tion on,, ag agai ains nstt th thee every eryda day’ y’.. Whe hen n Sa Said id writ rites es,, wi with th regard to the musical example of Così fan tutte , that what we need over an and d ab abo ove th thee pr proj ojec ectt of id iden enti tity ty is a ‘s ‘sta tate te of for forge getf tful ulne ness ss’, ’, perhaps Said can be accused of a similar dissociation from the material actualities of political, social and moral conflict that Habermas reads in Nietzsche.21 Yet to accuse Said simply of an over-estimation of the aesthetic at the expense of material history deflects attention away from the project Said seems to envisage when he draws upon music as a means of complicating the mediation between history, society and the aesthetic. Elucidating from Said’s criticism a defined rather than connotative form of the utopian potential of music and criticism will not arise from
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the binary separation of an aesthetic realm of multiplicity and a social realm of fixed rational truths. In those discussions of music in which Said suggests that a particular temporality or multiplicity in musical content provides a model for challenging authoritative linear narratives and an d fix fixed ed id iden enti tity ty,, th thee ae aest sthe heti ticc do does es no nott los losee it itss co conn nnec ecti tion on wi with th tutte suggests a destabilizing of natural politics and society society.. Thus Così fan tutte suggests and singular identity; the continual incompletion in Gould’s musical inv in vent ention ion pr pro ovid vides es a mod model el of con contin tinual ual poss possibi ibilit lity y in appr approac oachin hing g history his tory and kno knowle wledge dge,, whi whilst lst non non-lin -linear ear tem tempor poralit ality y in Mes Messiae siaen n suggests an anti-narrative aesthetic of digression, contemplation and reflection. The elaboration, counterpoint and transgression inherent in these musical ideals suggest a disruption and traversal of dominative identities, boundaries and histories. It is through these specific relations betw be twee een n mus usic ical al fo form rm an and d crit critic ical al co cons nsci ciou ousn snes esss th that at Sa Said id co come mess closest to a ‘worldly, possible, attainable, knowable’ cast for utopian thought.
NOTES 1 Edw Edwar ard d Sa Said id,, Musical Elaborations (London, Vintage, 1991). Hereafter referred to as ME . 2 Ed Edw war ard d Sa Said id,, On Late Style (London, Bloomsbury, 2006), hereafter referred to as LS . 3 Th Theo eodo dorr Ad Adorno orno,, ‘La ‘Late te St Styl ylee in Be Beet etho hov ven en’, ’, Es Essa says ys on Mu Musi sic c , tra transl nslate ated d by Susan H. Gillespie, edited by Richard Leppart (Berkeley and London, University Univ ersity of Calif California ornia Pre Press, ss, 2002 2002), ), 567. 4 Th Theo eodo dorr Ad Adorn orno o, Th Thee Ph Phil ilos osop oph hy of Mo Mode dern rn Mu Musi sic c , tr tran ansl slat ated ed by An Anne ne G. Mitchell and Wesley V. Bloomster (London, Sheed and Ward, 1987), 131. 5 Edw Edward ard Said, ‘American “Left” Litera Literary ry Criticism’ Criticism’ in The World, the Text, and the Critic (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1983), 170–1. 6 The World, the Text, and the Critic , Critic , 35. 7 ‘Am ‘America erican n “Left” “Left” Litera Literary ry Criticism’ Criticism’,, in The World, the Text, and the Critic , 169. 8 Ed Edw war ard d Sa Said id,, Humanism and Democratic Criticism (New York and Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 63. Criticism , 23. 9 Humanism and Democratic Criticism, 10 Humanism and Democratic Criticism, Criticism , 63. 11 ‘Ed ‘Edw war ard d Said talks talks to Jacq acquel ueline ine Rose’, Rose’, in Edward Said and the Work of the Critic: Speaking Truth to Power , edited by Paul A. Bové (Durham and London, Duke University Press, 2000), 25. 12 Ed Edw war ard d Sa Said id,, Cultur Culturee and Imperial Imperialism ism (London, Vintage, 1993), 59.
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13 Søren Søren Kie Kierk rkega egaard ard,, Either/Or , Volume 1, translated by David F. Swenson and Lillian Marvin Sw Swenson enson (Princeton, Princet Pr inceton on Univ University ersity Pre Press, ss, 1971 1971), ), 55. 14 Humanism and Democratic Criticism, Criticism , 12. 15 ‘O ‘On n Origi Origina nali lity ty’, ’, in The World, the Text, and the Critic , 138–9. 16 For an in inte terpr rpret etat atio ion n of ‘c ‘con ontr trap apun unta tall rea eadi ding ng’’ as a fo form rm of ae aest sthe heti ticc medi me diat atio ion n se seee De Deep epik ikaa Ba Bahri, hri, Nat Native ive Int Intell ellige igence nce:: Aes Aesthe thetic ticss, Poli Politic ticss and Postcolonial Postco lonial Liter Literature ature (Mi (Minne nneapo apolis lis and Lon London don,, Uni Univ versi ersity ty of Min Minnes nesota ota Press, 2003). 17 Ja Jacqu cques es Ranciè Rancière re,, The Pol Politic iticss of Aes Aesthe thetic ticss, tran transla slated ted by Gab Gabriel riel Roc Rockhi khill ll (London and NewYork, Continuum, 2006), 40. 18 ‘T ‘Trav ravelling elling Theory’, in The World, the Text, and the Critic , Critic , 241. 19 Ai Aija jazz Ah Ahma mad, d, ‘Orientalism and After: Ambivalence and Metropolitan Location in th thee Wor ork k of Ed Edw war ard d W. Sa Said id’’ in In Theory Theory:: Classe Classess, Nations Nations,, Conte Contexts xts (London and New York, Verso, 1994), 219. 20 Jü Jürge rgen n Hab Habermas ermas,, The Philos Philosophic ophical al Discou Discourse rse of Modernit Modernityy (Cambridge, Polity, 1990), 94. 21 See not notee 11 11 abo abov ve.
