Sounding the Virtual: Gilles Deleuze and the Theory and Philosophy of Music

by Brian Hulse (Editor)

It is the contention of the editors and contributors of this volume that the work carried out by Gilles Deleuze, where rigorously applied, has the potential to cut through much of the intellectual sedimentation that has settled in the fields of music studies. Deleuze is a vigorous critic of the Western intellectual tradition, calling for a 'philosophy of difference', and, despite its ambitions, he is convinced that Western philosophy fails to truly grasp (or think) difference as such. It is argued that longstanding methods of conceptualizing music are vulnerable to Deleuze's critique. But, as Deleuze himself stresses, more important than merely critiquing established paradigms is developing ways to overcome them, and by using Deleuze's own concepts this collection aims to explore that possibility.

Genres: Philosophy, Music

307 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five stars for Hulse and Hasty, always. Significant strengths and significant weaknesses across the contributions, but the whole thing is really good for an edited volume.

I'm in an uncomfortable position: I'm something approaching a "true believer" in the overall philosophical view, but I share the worry of some reviewers (and one contributor, Gallope) that a Deleuzian standpoint might leave us with less detailed and interesting musical analyses. I think (and hope) that's not entirely the case, or worth the cost, or some combination of the two; but the main weakness of the collection is precisely this failure, by and large, to demonstrate what a rich, interesting, exemplary Deleuzian music analysis should look like.

There is arguably a major exception: Hasty's rhythmic theory and the analyses it produces. Fair enough, although in practice it ends up leaning more heavily on the "Ideas" side of Deleuze—the patterns snatched from flux—than on the difference and becoming side. It turns out looking like a bit of a compromise with structuralism in order to point out recurring types that the thinking mind can latch onto.

I'm not sure whether the glass is half-full (this is a bracing challenge for future work) or half-empty (this is an inherent limitation in Deleuzian music theory), but even in the worst-case scenario I'd rather swallow the "red pill" that music theory implodes for Deleuzian reasons than the "blue pill" that we should embrace the dogmatic Image of Thought because it lets us carry on doing traditional music analysis.