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Understanding Michael Pisaro's Solo Piano Music Through Alain Badiou's Theory of the Event

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Understanding Michael Pisaro's Solo Piano Music Through Alain Badiou's Theory of the Event Understanding Michael Pisaro’s Solo Piano Music through Alain Badiou’s theory of the Event Qais B A M S M Alghanem Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Music April, 2019 Intellectual Property and Publication Statements The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Qais B A M S M Alghanem to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2019 The University of Leeds and Qais B A M S M Alghanem. ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank God Almighty for giving me the strength, knowledge, ability and opportunity to undertake this research study. I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisors, Professor Martin Iddon and Dr Michael Spencer, for always being supportive, patient, and helpful during my research years; without their contribution, this dissertation would not have been possible. Your tremendous advice on research and on my career has been priceless and allowed me to grow as a researcher. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise and also for the trust you have given me over the years spent together. Next, I would like to thank the entire School of Music for making me feel so welcomed here in Leeds and for allowing me to use all their recording equipment. I would especially like to thank the sound engineer, Colin Bradburne, for his help with my recordings and for editing my piano performances. Thanks also to my Master’s degree supervisors, Professor Philip Thomas and Professor Steven Jan. A big ‘Thank you!’ goes also to my piano teachers, Joan Dixon and Bartek Rybak and to my friends and colleagues, Symeon Yovev, Alannah Halay and Manuel Farolfi. Many thanks to my Leeds friends Dr Alexandru Bar, Dr Arne Sanders, and Stuart Mellor for their help and support. I am grateful also to the Music Department in Kuwait in The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET); especially to Ameer Jaffar, Fahad Alfaras, Salman AlBuloushi, Ahmad Alderaiwaish, Abdullah Khalaf, Sahar Mulhem, Abdallah Elmasri and Yousef Al Hassan, Ilgiz Royanov, Marzena Lis and Fazliddin Husanov. I could have not done this PhD without the help of Michael Pisaro, Greg Stuart, Antoine Beuger and Bin David Li who have provided me with materials and scores that iii have helped more than I could ever express in words. Your work and music inspired me so much. Thank you! Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Scott Mclaughlin and Catherine Laws - my VIVA examiners, for their very helpful comments and suggestions. I am honoured to have had you as my examiners. Thank you! ﺷﻜﺮاً ﺟﺰﯾﻼً! iv Abstract This thesis focuses on the works of the composer Michael Pisaro and their connection with the concept of truth as outlined by the philosopher Alain Badiou (Being and Event, 1988). The main concern of this research is with the relation between silence, Pisaro’s piano music, and Badiou’s theory of the event. The thesis argues that Badiou’s faithful subject can be mapped onto the performer’s faithful interpretation of Pisaro’s composition, and involves the performance of many of Piasro’s piano works: fields have ears (1), Les Jours, Mon Aubépine, floating, drifting, C. Wolff, half-sleep beings, time, presence, movement, pi (1-2594), Fade, distance (1) and Akasa. The thesis argues, taking Badiou’s and Pisaro’s arguments through to their logical (if sometimes seemingly extreme) conclusions, that it is in the performance (and recording) of these pieces that the research ‘proper’ of the thesis rests. I begin with a discussion of Pisaro’s encounter with the music of John Cage – one of the most famous and leading experimental composers – and the influence it had on Pisaro in terms of using silence as a contingent part of his music. Pisaro’s compositions reveal a kind of respect for silence; silent moments reflect an openness to the world of truth, which is expressed in the form of incalculable events. As such, Pisaro’s encounter with Cage is conceived as a sort of truth process, in the terms Alain Badiou describes. It is not a coincidence that Badiou is, alongside Cage, one of the seminal influences on Pisaro, and the relationship of Pisaro’s compositional work to Badiou’s thought is a central aspect of the written portion of the thesis. Through employing Badiou’s philosophy, this research argues that, though representation and its entire pursuit of beauty in art may be regarded as being at the outset of artistic truth procedures, representation in and of itself is not and cannot be integral to a truth procedure. The thesis concludes that to accept that Badiou’s philosophy represents a profound and significant influence on Pisaro’s music means that the performer must take, almost dogmatically, a faithful attitude to Pisaro’s scores. Furthermore, it demonstrates that by understanding Pisaro’s music through Badiou’s theory of the event, new events (in the form of silences) intervene in performance situations, keeping in mind that the performer can only act faithfully on the basis of the demands of Pisaro’s scores, and thus cannot ‘force’ silence to produce truth, but can only act in the faith that that will have happened. Keywords: Pisaro, Badiou, experimental music, silence, the event, truth, the subject, fidelity. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................ v Table of Contents ........................................................................................................... vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................. viii List of Tables .................................................................................................................. ix Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 Thesis overview ..................................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 1: Michael Pisaro in Context .......................................................................... 16 1.1 Post-Cagean Silence and Antoine Beuger, Jürg Frey and Michael Pisaro’s Relationships with Badiou ................................................................................................... 25 1.2 ‘Truthful’ Listening Experience through Silence ................................................. 33 Chapter 2: Performance Practice of Experimental Music .......................................... 38 2.1 Positions on Performance ....................................................................................... 38 2.2 Non-Matrixed and Matrixed Performance Practice ............................................ 40 2.3 Experimental music and/in performance .............................................................. 42 2.4 Badiou and Representation .................................................................................... 48 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 53 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 61 Discography ................................................................................................................... 73 Appendix I: Commentary on Performing Pisaro’s Piano Works ............................... 74 fields have ears (1) ................................................................................................................. 74 C. Wolff .................................................................................................................................. 78 Les Jours, Mon Aubépine ...................................................................................................... 82 floating, drifting ..................................................................................................................... 87 half-sleep beings .................................................................................................................... 91 time, presence, movement ...................................................................................................... 95 distance (1) ........................................................................................................................... 102 fade ....................................................................................................................................... 105 pi (1-2594) ............................................................................................................................ 109 akasa ..................................................................................................................................... 115 Appendix II: CD Recordings ...................................................................................... 121 CD Pack 1: [A collection
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