City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 6-2020 Object-Oriented Musicology: Some Implications of Graham Harman's Philosophy for Music Theory, History, and Criticism Eric Taxier The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3756 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] OBJECT-ORIENTED MUSICOLOGY: SOME IMPLICATIONS OF GRAHAM HARMAN’S PHILOSOPHY FOR MUSIC THEORY, HISTORY, AND CRITICISM by ERIC TAXIER A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2020 © 2020 ERIC TAXIER All Rights Reserved ii Object-Oriented Musicology: Some Implications of Graham Harman's Philosophy for Music Theory, History, and Criticism by Eric Taxier This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Music in satisfaction of the dissertation requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy __________________ ________________________________________ Date Scott Burnham Chair of Examining Committee __________________ ________________________________________ Date Norman Carey Executive Officer Supervisory Committee Chadwick Jenkins, Advisor Jeffrey Taylor, First Reader Graham Harman Scott Burnham THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract Object-Oriented Musicology: Some Implications of Graham Harman's Philosophy for Music Theory, History, and Criticism by Eric Taxier Advisor: Chadwick Jenkins This dissertation brings the ideas of the philosopher Graham Harman (b. 1968) into a musicological context. His “object-oriented ontology” is widely known in continental philosophy, but it has not yet entered rigorous contact with musicology. Certain factors pose difficulties at first glance, such as Harman’s focus on metaphysical issues (originating in his critique of Martin Heidegger) and his rehabilitation of the widely criticized concept of aesthetic autonomy. But these are also sources of novelty that could make an object-oriented encounter with musicology fruitful. In the first chapter, I outline the main features of Harman’s thought. He critiques assumptions about the nature of reality that he interprets as reductive—and which are by no means restricted to philosophical discourse. According to him, real things are “withdrawn,” or irreducible to their genetic components and the outcomes of their encounters with other things. In short, literal knowledge cannot exhaust them. Yet an indirect approach to reality is still possible. Aesthetic encounters such as music epitomize indirect causation: a listener becomes absorbed with a musical object that is in tension with its own features and thus enters the interior of a new real entity like hydrogen in a water molecule. The next three chapters apply Harman’s ideas to specific topics in music theory, history, and criticism. Chapter 2 finds compelling parallels between Robert Gjerdingen’s galant schema theory and Harman’s philosophy. Still, an object-oriented schema theory requires that certain persistent reductionist tendencies are avoided. It also entails that the difference between a iv schema stage and event, noted by Gjerdingen, is taken more seriously as a necessary interpretive moment in the analysis of schemata. Chapter 3 discusses the topic of historical influence through the lens of the mid-twentieth-century encounter between the ragtime pianist, songwriter, and composer Eubie Blake and the music theories of Joseph Schillinger. The object-oriented viewpoint differs from both older and more recent tendencies to treat influence as a direct exchange of knowable properties. For Harman, influence is not cultivation, corruption, or a symptom of a larger relational system. Instead, it is an indirect fusion of one thing with the “style” of another. Furthermore, Harman’s historiography incorporates counterfactual speculation as a corrective to the assumption that what actually happened is more relevant to the being of historical objects than what could have happened. Finally, Chapter 4 addresses music criticism of the concert work De Staat (1976) by Louis Andriessen. (“Criticism” is meant in the sense of interpretive judgment.) In their impulse to reject formalism, critics of De Staat have tended to accept formalism’s basic taxonomic division between the sonic form “in itself” and its context. They emphasize the latter, meaning the conditions of the musical work’s genesis and the network of concepts and socio-political meanings around it. But according to criticism that is object-oriented rather than context-oriented, De Staat may contain supposedly “contextual” elements within its form through their aesthetic handling. Critics who attend to these aesthetic or nonliteral facets of experience may thus find common ground with object-oriented theorists and historians. v Acknowledgements The final steps of this journey coincided with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York. It felt like a miracle when, days after having their lives thrown into disarray, Tonisha Alexander and Norman Carey ensured that my defense would go ahead as planned via teleconference. Thanks also to Roxanne Shirazi for the assistance. The contributions of my committee members were essential. Aside from teaching me so much about the history, philosophy, and analysis of music over the years, my advisor Chadwick Jenkins showed me how weaving these threads together can yield new insights. I am proudest of the work I did in response to his prodding. I also appreciated my conversations with the philosophy group he set up. (And special thanks to Matt Carter for the fruitful exchange afterward.) My first reader Jeffrey Taylor’s wide-ranging seminars about the 1920s and 1960s brought to my attention key figures and themes discussed in these chapters, as well as other topics (theremin, anyone?) that will pop up in the future. Graham Harman joined the committee without hesitation and lent his keen eye for relevant details. His involvement in this process has been both rewarding and a source of fresh productive pressure. I would also like to thank Scott Burnham for stepping in as a reader and chairing the committee. He is a model connoisseur in the sense used in this dissertation; I am very lucky to have gotten his perspective. An early version of the argument for Chapter 2 was tested on a supportive audience of peers at the GSIM Conference in New York and they gave me much to think about. Chapter 3 evolved from work done in a class taught by Stephen Blum. Professor Blum’s standards of rigor and sixth sense for untested assumptions remain worthy goals. Material for Chapter 4 was presented at a conference titled “Music Criticism 1950-2000,” held by the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini in Barcelona amidst the Catalan political turmoil in late 2017. Finally, vi an altered segment of Chapter 1 will appear in translation in a forthcoming essay collection edited by Vincenzo Cuomo and Enrico Schirò, titled Decentrare l’umano. Work on that article led to modifications of the first two chapters and the glossary. On that note, I would like to acknowledge Jon Cogburn and Noah Roderick for their influence on my grasp of this philosophical program. Noah even found time to engage with me in a wonderful extended dialogue on his blog. Barbara Russano Hanning at City College and then Allan Atlas at the Graduate Center introduced me to the world of music scholarship. Richard Kramer’s class on mimesis lent an air of beguiling intrigue to the whole undertaking when I started out in the Ph.D. program. Thanks also to Anne Stone, a balanced voice of encouragement and skepticism for many musicology students, myself included. Of course, I did much of my learning at the Mina Rees Library, where the staff never missed a beat. There are also quite a few treasures to be found at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the City College Music Library. I owe long overdue thanks to Melissa Bush at the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia, who photocopied and mailed to me hundreds of pages of old notes written by the outsider theorist Joseph Schillinger for his student Edwin Gerschefski. I also learned a great deal from my students at Brooklyn College and City College. Going further back, musicology was foreign to me in my undergraduate years at Bennington College, but its range of perspectives became apparent in classes taught by Kitty Brazelton and that most Socratic of teachers, Allen Shawn. Bennington’s Music Library in the secluded Jennings manor played an important role in my intellectual development. I assisted Susan Reiss there, and on quiet Saturday mornings I would flip through the theory collection in blissful ignorance of discursive context. vii My immediate family collectively prepared me to grok the brand of realism explored in these chapters and they have encouraged me all the way. Thanks to my mom Christine, my dad Jeff and his wife Susan, and my siblings Laina and Daniel and their families. Deborah and Dale Smith have been immensely supportive in many ways, not to mention patient with my foibles. Thanks also to Rogers Smith for the advice on academia. Chandler Klang Smith has completely changed my life. Anyone who gets just a sample of her openheartedness and pitch-perfect critical sensibility can call themselves lucky, and nothing has made me feel so special as to also have her as my partner. Thanks also go to Wolfgang Pomeranian Mozart who contributed an elaborate method of argument while masquerading as a fluffball of love and comfort. Some folks have shaped my outlook in significant ways, perhaps without knowing it: David Redmon and Ashley Sabin in their fascination with every surprising detail; Karen Heuler in her tenacity; Alex Lindo in coupling his solemn immersion in the world with wit and irony; my grandmother Joan Briscoe in her endless capacity for laughter.