"Transcending quotation" : cross-cultural musical representation in Mauricio Kagel’s "Die Stücke der Windrose für Salonorchester"

  • Die Stücke der Windrose für Salonorchester (1989-95) by the Argentine-German composer Mauricio Kagel (*1931) constitute a set of eight pieces on the main bearings of the compass, each number being named after a compass point. In my thesis I explore how the different musical idioms – references to non-Western musics and to salon orchestra music, as well as Kagel’s own compositional procedures – relate to one another in the pieces. The specific origin of the materials Kagel utilised is established by examining a variety of sources, such as the composer’s own programme notes, an interview I conducted with him, and most importantly, the sketch materials. On this basis I develop a theoretical model of the intertextual relations between different musical discourses by means of Bakhtinian dialogics, resulting in a typology distinguishing different kinds of cross-cultural musical representation according to the degree of ‘stylisation’ involved. This typology serves as the framework of my analyses in which I discuss the different ways Kagel engages with his source materials in terms of compositional technique, aesthetic issues such as Kagel’s challenge to traditional notions of authorship, and the ideological implications of cross-cultural musical representation, interpreted in the light of recent discourses, for instance in cultural studies and postcolonialism. In particular, I demonstrate that Kagel‘s work is as much a critical reflection on common Western representations of ‘otherness’, as it engages in such a practice itself, as is apparent in the ostentatious employment of a salon orchestra with its associations of turn-of-thecentury exoticism. By illustrating methodological approaches to cross-cultural composition, which has become a prominent feature of contemporary Western concert music, the thesis aims to contribute to current discourses concerning the musical representation of ‘otherness’.

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Metadaten
Author:Björn Heile
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-1118520
Document Type:Book
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2009/01/14
Year of first Publication:2001
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2009/01/14
Page Number:160
Note:
Zugl.: Southampton, Univ., Diss., 2001
Source:Zugl.: Southampton, Univ., Diss., 2001
HeBIS-PPN:223365254
Dewey Decimal Classification:7 Künste und Unterhaltung / 78 Musik / 780 Musik
Sammlungen:Sammlung Musik, Theater, Film / Literatur zur Musik
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht