| On
the "prophetic" nature of music
"Music is prophetic.
Why? If we consider music to be a kind of code, we can see that there
are many different ways of organizing that code: different melodies, different
rhythms, different genres. Moreover, we can explore these different forms
of organization much more easily, much more rapidly, than we can explore
different ways of organizing reality." (From Attali's talk in 2001)
"...it is senseless
to classify musicians by school, identify periods, discern stylistic breaks,
or read music as a direct translation of the sufferings of a class. Music,
like cartography, records the simultaneity of conflicting orders, from
which a fluid structure arises, never resolved never pure. " (Noise,
45) |
| "Stated
very simply, representation in the system of commerce is that which arises
from a singular act; repetition is that which is mass-produced. Thus, a
concert is representation, but also a meal a la carte in a restaurant; a
phonograph record or a can of food is repetition...One provides a use-value
tied to the human quality of the production; the other allows for stockpiling,
easy accessibility, and repetition. In representation, a work is generally
heard only one--it is a unique moment; in repetition, potential hearings
are stockpiled. |
"In
my view, music is a metaphor for the management of violence. When people
listen to music, they listen to the fact that society is possible: because
we can manage violence."
…"if you
look at music as a metaphor for the organizing differences among noises,
then you have music as a metaphor for the organizing of scapegoats. Noise
is violence, it is killing. Organizing noises, creating differences in
noises, is a way of demonstrating that
violence can be transformed into a way of managing violence…"
No organized society can exists without structuring differences at
its core. No market economy can develop without erasing those differences
in mass production. The self-destruction of capitalism lies in this
contradiction, in the fact that music leads a deafening life; an instrument
of differentiation, it has become a locus of repetition. In itself becomes
undifferentiated, goes anonymous in the commodity, and hides behind the
masks of stardom.. It make audible what is essential in the contradictions
of the developed societies: an anxiety-ridden quest for lost difference,
following a logic from which difference is banished. " (Noise, 5)
|