UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Capitalism and The
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Capitalism and the Production of Realtime: Improvised Music in Post-unification Berlin A Thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Music by Philip Emmanuel Skaller Committee in Charge: Professor Jann Pasler, Chair Professor Anthony Burr Professor Anthony Davis 2009 The Thesis of Philip Emmanuel Skaller is approved and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2009 iii DEDICATION I would like to thank my chair Jann Pasler for all her caring and knowledgeable feedback, for all the personal and emotional support that she has given me over the past year, and for being a constant source of positive inspiration and critical thinking! Jann, you are truly the best chair and mentor that a student could ever hope for. Thank you! I would also like to thank a sordid collection of cohorts in my program. Jeff Kaiser, who partook in countless discussions and gave me consistent insight into improvised music. Matt McGarvey, who told me what theoretical works I should read (or gave me many a contrite synopsis of books that I was thinking of reading). And Ben Power, who gave me readings and perspectives from the field of ethnomusicology and (tried) to make sure that I used my terminology clearly and consciously and also (tried) to help me avoid overstating or overgeneralizing my thesis. Lastly, I would like to dedicate this work to my partner Linda Williams, who quite literally convinced me not to abandon the project, and who's understanding of the contemporary zeitgeist, patient discussions, critical feedback, and related areas of research are what made this thesis ultimately realizable. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page....................................................................................................................iii Dedication..........................................................................................................................iv Table of Contents.................................................................................................................v Preface...............................................................................................................................vii Abstract..............................................................................................................................ix Introduction.........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: The Discourses of Jazz, Free Jazz, and Improvised Music 1.0 What is Improvised Music and why is it Important?.........................................4 1.1 Story #1: Would you call this 'Free Jazz'?.......................................................16 1.2 Free Jazz versus Improvised Music.................................................................19 1.3 Story #2: East German Jazz: From the Town of Pietz to Ku'damm....................................................................................................25 1.4 Changing Cultural Fields: From East German Free Jazz to West German Improvised Music........................................................................30 Chapter 2: A Ritual and Spectacle of Contemporary Power? Realtime, the Avant- Garde and Processes of Capitalism and Cultural Dominance 2.0 Story #3: Meeting a Girl on the Train..............................................................44 2.1 Social versus Cultural Capital.........................................................................46 2.2 A Brief History of Cultural Capital..................................................................49 2.3 Story #4: Emergent Structures of Control and the Ideology of Realtime Resistance..................................................................................................55 2.4 Use Value and Exchange Value under Capitalism...........................................60 2.5 The Sites of Authenticity in the Production of Realtime.................................67 v Chapter Three: Post-Unification Berlin: the Spatial Practices of Improvisers and the Reconstruction of the Capital 3.0 Story #5: Temporary and Movable: Emergent Transient Structures in Contemporary Architecture and Music......................................................86 3.1 Signifying Power: Form and Content in Modern Art and Modern Architecture.............................................................................................95 3.2 Story #6: Public Funding for the Arts in Berlin.............................................101 3.3 Rebuilding and Rebranding Berlin in Realtime (or, as fast a possible).........107 Appendix.........................................................................................................................119 References.......................................................................................................................121 vi PREFACE Given the almost obsessively critical trajectory of this paper, I need at the very outset to qualify my remarks quite strongly. I should point out to the reader that I am an improviser and that I have participated and continue to participate in the same kinds of improvised music making that come in for direct criticism here. Obviously, since I play the music, I like how much of it sounds (or at least, one would hope!). But it is important to distinguish between liking the music and ascribing any particularly liberatory or radical tendencies, let alone foundations, to that same music. If anything, with regards improvised music, ascribing the opposite political effects is to my mind more reasonable. This differs markedly from the discourse surrounding the music, though no doubt if one were to press most improvisers hard enough on the broader socio-political impact of their artistic practices, most would concede that their art was not particularly effective (grant applications and interviews not withstanding). I will be arguing that when improvised music is effective, it is largely in ways contrary to how improvisers would like to think about their music. But what makes improvised music sound so good to me is often precisely the resonance that the music has with my particular experience of the world. It is a site and practice of privilege that articulates, is a spectacle representing, and affirms a certain culturally dominant and politically and economically powerful relationship to time and space. Music that sounds great to my ears and yet resonates with a particularly politically and socially problematic world view is nothing new. Gangsta rap and Wagnerian opera are two obvious examples of such problematic musical formats that I enjoy. And yet I wouldn't even presume to make a judgment, without dedicating an essay vii of similar depth and scope to the topic, as to what and when musics – if any or ever - have more liberatory potential than others. Improvised music is certainly capable of fostering boundary crossing dialogic and subversive relationships, as is most music in varying and unique ways when one puts an effort into it and when the surrounding societal conditions offer up resistance to the music. On the other hand, what I am very concerned with is that there is a discourse developing around improvised music that has shifted our perception of this music so far towards the socially and politically ideal that improvisers are continually flirting with, and sometimes embracing, the maxim 'my art is my activism.' More often then not, the exact opposite is true. Inseparable from this misperception, over the last two decades improvised music has within the academy and cultural field at large started to gain a significant presence alongside other Western art musics. With the cultural stock of improvised music at an all time high, one could say that I have become obsessed with reversing, or at least neutralizing what appears to be a dishonest and self valorizing trend amongst improvisers. And it is for this reason that I necessarily turn a blind eye towards the many positive realities of the music. viii ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Capitalism and the Production of Realtime:Improvised Music in Post-unification Berlin by Philip Emmanuel Skaller Master of Arts in Music University of California, San Diego, 2009 Professor Jann Pasler, Chair After the fall of the Berlin wall in ’89, and the subsequent implosion of the East German economy, the Berlin improvised music community flourished with venues springing up almost overnight in the East’s abandoned industrial and residential areas. Artists from around the world, inspired by West Berlin's reputation as a counter-culture Mecca, moved in, taking advantage of cheap living costs and a depressed rental market. Berlin supported much of the (often illegal) activity as the artists generated cultural capital, refurbished derelict buildings, and gentrified neighborhoods. Twenty years later, Berlin has transformed into a 'Global City', while improvised music continues to flourish. What role are improvisers, and the broader subcultural arts scene, playing in this economic and political production? In this thesis I consider the possibility that improvised music functions in important ways as a formalist 'avant-garde' for the dominating and hegemonic forces of ix global capitalism and representative democracy. In this sense, Berlin provides a unique and liminal cultural field in which to study and shed light upon 'state-of-the-art' social,