Soft Boundaries and Relatedness: Paradigm for a Postmodern Feminist Musical Aesthetics

Author(s): Claire Detels

Source: boundary 2, Vol. 19, No. 2, Feminism and Postmodernism (Summer, 1992), pp. 184-204
Published by: Duke University Press
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Soft Boundaries and Relatedness: Paradigm for a

Postmodern Feminist Musical Aesthetics

Claire Detels
This articlewas inspiredby three convergingacademic developments: (1) the rising interdisciplinary
influenceof postmodernthought;
feminist
the
of
aesthetic
(2) emergence
theoryinthe literaryandvisualarts,
developed in supportof the feministcriticismin those fields;'and (3) the
I would like to acknowledgethe assistance received at the 1991 Instituteon "Philosophy and the Historiesof the Arts,"directedby ArthurDanto,co-directedby AnitaSilvers,
GerroldLevinson,and NoelCarrollandsponsoredbythe AmericanSociety forAesthetics
and the NationalEndowmentforthe Humanities,in revisingand completingthis article.A
shorterversionof it was deliveredat the 1991 Portlandmeetingof the AmericanSociety
forAesthetics.
1. See TorilMoi, Sexual/TextualPolitics:FeministLiteraryTheory(London:Methuen,
1985), fora concise descriptionof the origins,development,andvariouscamps and practitionersof feministaesthetics. Also see NancyK.Miller,ed., ThePoetics of Gender(New
York:ColumbiaUniversityPress); and Josephine Donovan,ed., FeministLiteraryCriticism: Explorationsin Theory,2d ed. (Lexington:UniversityPress of Kentucky,1989), for
essays by and aboutmanyof the centralfiguresof feministliterarytheory.Fortheoretical
essays on the visual arts, see LindaNochlin,Women,Art,and Powerand OtherEssays
(New York:Harperand Row, 1988);GriseldaPollock,Visionand Difference:Femininity,
Feminism,and the Historiesof Art(New York:Routledge,1988);and a special issue of
Press.CCC0190-3659/92/$1.50.
boundary2 19:2,1992.Copyright
? 1992byDukeUniversity

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Detels/ SoftBoundaries
andRelatedness185
recentfloweringof feministmusiccriticism,offeringa challengeto the positivisticmode of mainstreammusicologyand its overlyreifiedconception
of music, as especiallyseen in the theory,pedagogy,and productionof
Westernartmusic.2
it appears the time
In view of the thirddevelopmentin particular,
may now be ripeforthe emergenceof a feministmusicalaesthetics, featuringa new paradigmthatcan supportthe new feministmusicalcriticism
by changingthe termsof the musico-aestheticdebate, similarto the way
in whichnew feministparadigmsand theoreticalconcepts have changed
the aesthetic debate in the literaryand visual arts.3The paradigmI am
proposingis that of soft boundariesand relatedness,whereinthe covert
valuationof "hard"(i.e., clearlydistinct)boundariesin traditional
aesthetic
definitionsandjudgmentsaboutmusicis supersededby the recognitionof
the need to considerrelatednessof musicandmusicalentitiesacross "soft"
(i.e., permeable)boundaries,includingrelatednessto social contextand
function.The soft boundaryof the paradigmis not a hard-and-fast
lineor
rulefordefiningandjudgingmusicas intraditional
aestheticsbutis similar
to Heidegger'ssense of boundary:"thatfromwhichsomethingbegins its
essential unfolding."4
As a result,the implicitcriticalfocus of the paradigm
is on howthe unfoldingproceedswithinandacross permeableboundaries,
ratherthan on the definitionand reification
of the boundariesthemselves.
in
other
the
is
focus
Or,
words,
necessarilythe whole musicalexperience
ratherthanany particularized
musicalentities.
Inits attentionto relationship,
ratherthansingularfact or thing,the
Journalof Aesthetics and ArtCriticism,entitled"Feminismand Traditional
Aesthetics,"
48, no. 4 (Fall1990).
2. See Susan McClary,FeminineEndings(Minneapolis:Universityof MinnesotaPress,
1991), 3-31, for a surveyand discussionof the rise of feministmusiccriticism.
3. The need fornew paradigmsand theoreticalconcepts has been a consistenttheme in
feministtheory for the literaryand visual arts, and notablesuccess has been achieved
with the paradigmof genderized perspectiveand such concepts as the "malegaze"
and the gendered sadomasochismof narrativeand representationin general.See Mary
Deveraux,"OppressiveTexts,ResistingReaders,andthe GenderedSpectator:The New
Aesthetics,"Journalof Aesthetics and ArtCriticism48, no. 4 (Fall1990):337-48. Deveraux discusses howthe conceptof the "malegaze" has literallychangedthe subjectin art
and filmcriticism.See also Teresa de Lauretis,Technologiesof Gender (Bloomington:
IndianaUniversityPress, 1987),forsome of herinfluentialessays on the genderviolence
of narrativeand representationin literatureand film.
4. MartinHeidegger,Basic Writings,ed. DavidFarrellKrell(New York:Harperand Row,
332.
1977), in chap. 8, "BuildingDwellingThinking,"

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186 boundary
2 / Summer
1992
paradigmof soft boundariesand relatednesshas ties to contemporary
hereas a postpostmodernandfeministtheory,hence its characterization
modernfeministparadigm.The ties to postmodernism
are most obvious,
has stated, the key to the postmodernhabitof
for, as Jerome Klinkowitz
is
"that
the
authentic
thought
phenomenonin any event is not fact but
The reorientation
fromfactto relationship
has rootsin exisrelationship."5
tentialand pragmatistphilosophy,6
but it has receivedparticularemphasis in the Frenchpoststructuralist
theoryof, forexample,MichelFoucault,
and
"logoJean-FrangoisLyotard, Jacques Derrida,whereinthe traditional
centric"claims to epistemologicaluniversalityand objectivityhave been
deconstructedand replacedby a recognitionof the validityof multipleperspectives of reality,each relatedto its owncontext.7Thus,postmodernism
has becomethe philosophyof pluralism
andrelativity,
or,as Lyotardputsit,
thatwhich"deniesitselfthe solace of good forms."8Inthe case of music,
that denial must extend to supposed normsof musicalstructure,as we
shallsee.
Theconnectionsof the paradigmof softboundariesand relatedness
to feministtheoryare moredifficultto definebutjust as important.Note,
for example,thatthe identification
of relatednessas a feminine-identified
functionstartedin Freudianpsychoanalytic
theoryandwas counterfeminist
insome respects.Manyfeministtheorists,however,havealso exploredthe
connectionbetweenrelatednessand the feminineand have foundvalidity
than nature.9Anothertie
therein,usuallymore in terms of enculturation
5. Jerome Klinkowitz,
Rosenberg, Barthes, Hassan: The PostmodernHabitof Thought
(Athensand London:Universityof GeorgiaPress, 1988), 8.
6. See Heidegger,Basic Writings.See also John Dewey,Artas Experience(New York:
Minto,Balchand Co., 1934),whose focus on experienceis becominginfluentialagain in
aesthetic circles;see, forexample,ArnoldBerleant'srecentArtand Engagement(Philadelphia:Temple UniversityPress, 1991), and MarciaEaton'sAesthetics and the Good
Life(Londonand Toronto:Associated UniversityPresses, 1989).
7. See Jacques Derrida,"Structure,Sign and Play in the Discourseof the Social Sciences," in The StructuralistControversy:TheLanguages of Criticismand the Sciences
of Man, ed. RichardMackseyand EugenioDonato(Baltimoreand London:Johns Hopattackon Western
kins UniversityPress, 1971),247-65, forthe definitivepoststructuralist
logocentrism.Also see Jane Flax, ThinkingFragments:Psychoanalysis,Feminismand
Postmodernismin the ContemporaryWest (Berkeley,Los Angeles, and Oxford:University of CaliforniaPress, 1990), 187-221, for an insightfulgeneral discussion of the
postmodernepistemologiesof Derrida,Foucault,Lyotard,and RichardRorty.
8. Jean-FrangoisLyotard,The PostmodernCondition:A Reporton Knowledge, trans.
Geoff Benningtonand Brian Massumi (Minneapolis:Universityof Minnesota Press,
1984), 81.
9. See, most notably,Carol Gilligan,In a DifferentVoice: Psychological Theoryand

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Detels/ SoftBoundaries
andRelatedness187
to feministtheoryis in the implicitemphasison experienceand the body,
and hierarchization
an emphasisthatleads awayfromreification
towarda
morecommunal,sharedconceptionof art.10
Inaddition,the implicitpluralism
of the paradigmhas ties to feminist
in
viewtraditional
that
like
feminists,
postmodernists,
theory
many
logocentricthinkingas inherentlymonistic,hierarchic,
andmarginalistic
because of
its habitualbinarydivisionsand the tendencyto privilegeone memberof
the binarypairoverthe other(as inthe structuralist
dyadsof culture/nature,
Suchan observationis feminist,not
cooked/raw,and masculine/feminine).
just postmodern,because, as biologicalandculturalmothers,womenhave
the roleand consequenthardshipsof oursociety'sprimaryOther,andthey
are thus best positionedto recognizeand theorizeon the functioningand
ingeneral."
ramifications
of marginalization,
a
relevant
responseto the hardboundariesof traditional
Although
Westernthoughtand culturein general,the paradigmof soft boundaries
and relatednessis especiallywell suitedto the task of changingthe subject in aesthetics because it directlyreveals and countersthe otherwise
covertvalueof hardboundariesthathaveprevailedin aestheticdefinitions
and judgmentsgoing back to classical Greekcultureand the categories
of Aristotle.In the seventeenthcentury,these hardboundariestook the
formof Cartesiandualism,which,accordingto Susan Bordo'scritique,consisted largelyof masculinistprojectionsof rageandfearontothe feminineidentified,sensual realmof natureand the consequentattemptsto control
Women'sDevelopment(Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress, 1981);and Nancy Chodorow, The Reproductionof Mothering:Psychoanalysisand the Sociology of Gender
(Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1978).
10. See, for instance, Jane Gallop, ThinkingThroughthe Body (New York:Columbia
"NinePrinciplesof a Matriarchal
UniversityPress, 1988); and Heide Gottner-Abendroth
Aesthetic,"in FeministAesthetics, ed. Gisela Ecker,trans. HarrietAnderson(Boston:
Beacon Press, 1985), 81-94. Also see Hilde Hein, "TheRole of FeministAesthetics
in FeministTheory,"Journalof Aesthetics and ArtCriticism48, no. 4 (1990): 281-91.
Hein finds both feministtheory and feministaesthetics to be groundedin the notionof
experience (288-89).
11. Discussed by DorothyDinnerstein,TheMermaidand the Minotaur:Sexual Arrangements and HumanMalaise (New York:HarperColophonBooks, 1976). Also note the
feministessentialistpositionof LuceIrigaray,
ThisSex WhichIs NotOne,trans.Catherine
Porter(Ithaca:CornellUniversityPress, 1985),who makesa biological-sexualconnection
of monismto the male body(thusthe termphallogocentric)andof pluralismto the female
body. See also JudithButler,Gender Trouble:Feminismand the Subversionof Identity
(New York:Routledge,1990), who warnsagainstthe use of all such binarydistinctions;
see especially chap. 1, "Subjectsof Sex/Gender/Desire,"1-34.

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188 boundary
2 / Summer
1992
that realmwith dualisticdefinitionsand judgments.12
WithKantand the
romanticaestheticrevolution,
the hardboundariestookfurtherformin the
insistence on a pure, intellectualdisinterestednessin the aesthetic perceiverandon autonomyforthe artistandartwork.
Accordingto Marxistcritic
the
romantic
"aestheticideology"amountedto a kindof
TerryEagleton,
and universality
denial,wherebythe combinedassumptionsof subjectivity
acted as the "jokerin the pack"that served to circumventconsideration
of the culturalrelatednessof art-includingthe relatednessof the critics'
to theirown psychologicaland/or
insistenceon autonomyand universality
politicalagendas.13Inotherwords,once culturewas clearedfromthe field,
the way was clear forthe criticto fillthe vacuumwithprojectionsof supposedlyuniversaldefinitionsandcriteriaforjudgmentsandthento use them
of "greatness"
canonsandhierarchies
to buildunconsciouslyself-interested
in
the
their
Because
of
their
construction
cultural
on
basis.
vacuum,the resultingdefinitions,judgments,and hierarchieshave since tendedto suffer
that is, the judgmentsof meritserve as argumentfor the
fromcircularity;
criteria,and the criteriaserve as argumentforthe judgments.
The above critiqueof aesthetics in Westerncultureapplies most
as Catherine
powerfullyto music, the realmof "risk-freeidentification"
of aestheticcontenthas tended
Clementputsit;there,the greaterambiguity
to give freer reinto masculinistdenials and projections,especiallysince
the rise of the romantic"aestheticideology"in the nineteenthcentury.14In
1854, EduardHanslick'sOnthe MusicallyBeautifultranslatedthe romantic
aesthetic intothe autonomist,or formalist,theoryof music,a theorythat
denies the aesthetic importanceof music'semotionaleffects and cultural
functionsand,instead,regardsmusicas a purelyautonomousconfiguration
musicphilosopherssince Hansof "tonallymovingforms."15Mostinfluential
of Thought,"Signs 11 (1986):439-56,
12. Susan Bordo,"TheCartesianMasculinization
especially 448-55. Also see ArthurC. Danto, ThePhilosophicalDisenfranchisementof
Art (New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress, 1986), for a nonfeministperspectiveon the
tendency of philosophyto disenfranchiseart.
13. TerryEagleton, The Ideology of the Aesthetic (Cambridge,Mass.: Basil Blackwell,
1990), 93.
14. CatherineCl6ment, Opera, or the Undoingof Women(Minneapolis:Universityof
MinnesotaPress, 1988), 9. Also see John Shepherd,"Musicand Male Hegemony,"in
Music and Society: The Politics of Composition,Performanceand Reception (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress, 1987), 151-72. Shepherdsays the powerand physical relatednessof musicalsound "remindsmen of the fragileand atrophiednatureof their
controlover the world"(158).
15. EduardHanslick,On the MusicallyBeautiful,trans.GeoffreyPayzant(Indianapolis:

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Detels/ SoftBoundaries
andRelatedness189
lickhave continuedhis formalistviews at least to some extent. Moreover,
since the 1950s and the rise of analyticaesthetics,the disciplineof music
theory(inwhichmusico-structural
conceptsaredevelopedandapplied)has
from
formed
a distinctprofessionwithits own
and
separated
musicology
societies, journals,andcredentials.Bothmusictheoristsandanalyticmusic
hard-boundaried
manner,
philosopherstend to view musicin a particularly
aboutthe culturalcontextof music
excludingpractical,historicalinformation
and relyinginsteadon formalistconceptsand circularargumentation.
Evena briefexaminationof the academicproductsof musictheory
and analyticmusic philosophyserves to underscorethe importanceof a
new musico-aestheticparadigm.Forinstance,theoristLeonardMeyerunwittinglyprovidedan excellentexampleof the pitfallsof formalismand cirin his much-readandreprinted
cularargumentation
essay "SomeRemarks
on Valueand Greatnessin Music,"whenhe referredto the question"What
makes musicgreat?"as the $64,000 question.16
Inthe essay, Meyergives
the formalistanswerthatmusic'sgreatnessdependswhollyon "syntactical
and he argues for his positionin a covertcircularmanner.
organization,"
"Ifwe ask,"he says, "Whyis Debussy'smusicsuperiorto thatof Delius?
the answer lies in the syntacticalorganizationof his music, not in its suThisis a circularargumentbecause it startsfrom
periorsensuousness.""17
the assumption,based on Debussy'shighercanonicalstatus over Delius,
that Debussy'smusicis superior,andthatthe reasonforits superiority
will
the
universal
criterion
for
musicalgreatness.Inother
provide
understanding
of Debussy'smusic"leads
words,the answer"thesyntacticalorganization
back in circularfashionto the formalisttheory,which,in turn,leads to the

HackettPublishingCo., 1986), 29 and throughout.I use the termformalistinsteadof the

morefrequentlyencounteredcognitivistinorderto avoidconfusionwiththe sense of cognitivismfound in experimentalpsychology,where it comprises physical,emotional,and
formalisticmentalfunctions.
16. LeonardMeyer,"SomeRemarkson ValueandGreatnessinMusic,"in Music,the Arts
and Ideas: Patternsand Predictionsin Twentieth-Century
Culture(Chicago:University
of Chicago Press, 1967), 22-41.
17. Meyer,"Some Remarks,"36. Meyer'swritings,in whichhe posits universalformalist
criteriafor musical meaning and value, remainin printand influential.His more recent
work,however,shows an increasedrecognitionof the relatednessof musicalmeaningand
value to culturalcontext.See, forexample,"Exploiting
Limits:Creation,Archetypes,and
Style Change,"in ContemplatingMusic:Source Readingsin the Aestheticsof Music,ed.
Ruth Katzand CarlDahlhaus,Aesthetics in MusicSeries, no. 5 (New York:Pendragon
Press, 1987), vol. 2, 678-717.

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190 boundary2 / Summer1992

proof of the superiority of Debussy's music (which, however, was never
doubted inthe firstplace). Here and elsewhere, circularargumentationfunctions so smoothly that issues of substance, such as an explanation of how
Delius's or Debussy's musics are more or less sensuous or syntactical, fall
by the wayside.
Those who recallthe 1950s TVgame show "The$64,000 Question"
also may remember the scandal that broke out when it was revealed that
winningcontestants had been told the rightanswers in advance of receiving
the questions. Unfortunately,the circularequation of the rightanswers preceding and followingthe questions is so common in musical aesthetics and
criticismthat no such scandal breaks out in the academy when the musicoaesthetic value fix is in. Again, it is the greater ambiguity and confusion
about what constitutes musical content-a confusion fostered by the denial
of culturalconnection-that allow weak arguments like Meyer's to pass as
authoritative.
A more complex example of the pitfalls of formalism and circular
argumentation is found in Peter Kivy's Osmin's Rage: Philosophical Reflections on Opera, Drama, and Text(1988). (Kivyis the most prolificand
prominentphilosopherof music at present.) Followinga highlyquestionable
assertion that "all art requires theory-not just for its creation but for its
appreciation,"18Kivy compares the judgment of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte
underJoseph Kerman'stheory of "operaas drama"withthe judgment under
his own theory of opera as "drama-made-music"and reaches almost comic
heights of dialectic:
On Kerman'sinterpretation,Cosi emerges as a deeply flawed though
(I am sure Kerman would agree) estimable work. On my view it
emerges as Mozart'smost perfect opera-which may be to say the
most perfect opera.
What does this tell us about Cosi as a work of art? What I want
to emphasize is this: it by no means follows that Cosi emerges as a
greater workof art under my descriptionthan under Kerman's.Or,to
put it another way: under my description of opera as drama-mademusic, Cosi fan tutte is a more perfect example of that kindthan The
Marriageof Figaro; but this in no way impliesthat, under my description, Cosi is a greater work of art. Indeed, I thinkthe opposite: that
18. Peter Kivy,Osmin's Rage: PhilosophicalReflectionson Opera, Drama,and Text
(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress), 184.

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Detels/ SoftBoundaries
andRelatedness191
althoughCosi is the moreperfectopera,whichis to say, the greater
drama-made-music,
Figarois the greaterwork.19
The comedy is thatamidthese torturedeffortsto clarifythe appropriatetheoryon whichto judgeCosifantutte,the actualexperienceof the
music is lost to consideration.Thus, Kivy'sargumenthere, rathertypical
of his musico-aestheticworkin general,demonstrateshowformalistthinking tends to evade and/orcontrolhumanaestheticexperiencewithinthe
sharpboundariesof the theorythatsupposedlygives it birth"quamusic,
qua art, qua aestheticalobject,"as he puts it.20In the narrowsector of
contemporaryacademicmusic,where composers'writtenand published
theoriesabouttheirmusicareoftenbetterknownthanarethe compositions
themselves, Kivy'sview appearsreasonable.It also makes sense in the
somewhatwidercontextof the classicalconcert,or, to cite PrimatConehead's analytic-styledefinition,the "gathering
of humansto absorbsound
In
a
more
life-connected
musical
vital,
culture,however,the
patterns."21
notionthat music needs theoryfor its existence, especiallytheoryof the
disconnectedkind,is highlyproblematic.
Whatmusic
formalistic,culturally
moreprobablyneeds, at least fromscholars,is a greaterunderstanding
of
its relatednessto life, somethingit may receivewhen the covertmusicoaestheticvaluingof hardboundariesis supersededbythe paradigmof soft
boundariesand relatedness.
Thereare at least threeaspects of musicalexperienceto whichthe
paradigmof soft boundariesand relatednesscan usefullyapply:(1) relatedness of musicalexperienceto the body;(2) relatednessamong the
constituenciesof musicalexperience,includingthe composer,performer,
audience,critics,and community;and (3) relatednessof musicalstyle to
culture.Inthe restof my remarks,Iwillexploreeach of these areas briefly,
musico-aesthetictheoryare,
suggesting what the problemsof traditional
how the new paradigmwilladdressthem,and how it connects to intellectualand musicaldevelopmentsthatare alreadyin process. Iwillalso offer
some suggestions aboutthe new types of theoreticalconceptsand critical
19. Kivy,Osmin'sRage, 261.
20. Peter Kivy,"WhatWas HanslickDenying?"Journalof Musicology8 (1990):13. Kivy
also denies that musiccan arouse whathe calls the "gardenvariety"emotions(i.e., love,
hope, fear,joy, and sorrow)"inany aestheticallysignificantway"(18).
21. Fromthe "SaturdayNightLive"sketchof the ConeheadswithFrankZappa,rebroadcast on TheBest of SaturdayNightLive,28 Feb. 1991.

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192 boundary
2 / Summer
1992
approachesthatcouldbe developedand used underthe paradigmof soft
boundariesand relatedness.
Music's Relatedness to the Body
Recognitionof music's relatednessto the body appearedprominentlyin late eighteenth-century
expressiontheory,but such recognition
recededinthe nineteenthcentury,whenmostaesthetictheoriststendedto
makea sharpCartesiandivisionof mindandbodyandto projectsensuality
culturalnormsonto the feminine-identified
away fromthe male-identified
male authors,painters,and
realmof the Other.(Latenineteenth-century
inextreme,sadomasochistic
composersfrequentlyexhibitedthisprojection
Nonetheless,
images of female madness, hysteria,and nymphomania.)22
the connectionof music to the body was maintainedin Schopenhauer's
tying of music to the will(the existence of whichhe constructsfromthe
in Nietzsche'scall for a reindividual'sawarenessof her/hisown body),23
and intwentieth-century
psycho-aesthetic
valuingof the Dionysianmode,24
Carl
and
Donald
of
Julia
Kristeva,
Winnicott,
amongothers.25
writings
Jung,
Intermsof actualmusicalexperience,the denialof music'srelatedness to the bodyhas quiteliterally"heldsway"in the contextof the Western musicalconcert,resultingin the sharpboundaries-taboos, reallyresponsesof swaying,
appliedagainstotherwisecommonmusico-physical
22. See BramDijkstra,Idolsof Perversity:Fantasiesof FeminineEvilin Fin-de-siecleCulture (New York:OxfordUniversityPress, 1986),372-76; and LawrenceKramer,"Culture
and MusicalHermeneutics:The Salome Complex,"CambridgeOperaJournal2 (1990):
269-94.
23. ArthurSchopenhauer,TheWorldas Willand Representation,vol. 1, trans.E.J. Payne
(1819; reprint,New York:Dover,1969), 255-67 and 99-103.
24. FriedrichW. Nietzsche, TheBirthof Tragedyfromthe Spiritof Music,in ThePhilosophy of Nietzsche, trans.CliftonP. Fadiman(New York:ModernLibrary,1984), 162-87.
25. See, for example, Julia Kristeva'scharacterizationof music as "constructedexclusively on the basis of the semiotic"(i.e., the pre-symbolic),in The Revolutionin Poetic
Language, trans. MargaretWaller(New York:ColumbiaUniversityPress), 24. Musicologist Renee Cox develops Kristeva'sapproachin "RecoveringJouissance: FeministMusical Aesthetics,"in Womenin Music:A History,ed. KarinPendle (Bloomington:Indiana
UniversityPress, 1991), 331-40, proposingthe revaluationof flexibleor cyclicalmusical
elements and techniqueswhich,unlikethe structured,logicallinearelements and techniques of masculinistmusic, may give us access to the "jouissance"of the pre-symbolic
realm.(I wish to thankthe authorfor allowingme to read this essay while it was still in
manuscript.)

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Detels/ SoftBoundaries
andRelatedness193
singing,and beatingtime.This is especiallynotableduringclassical concerts, where permittedphysicalresponse is frozenintorequiredclapping
zones between musicalworks(and, acting as a signifierof the unnaturalrepression,some occasionalspasms of uncontrollable
coughingduring
the works).These prohibitions
againstthe body,beginningroughlywiththe
concertperformancesof Kant'stime,contrastsharplywiththe intentional
bodilyengagementfoundin the maingenres and performancesituations
of manyother musicalcultures,includingpartsof our own popularmusic
culture,manyancientandtribalcultures,andpre-industrial
Westernculture
to
time
before
the
decline
of
aristocraticpatronage
roughlyup Kant's
(i.e.,
andthe consequentfixingof the middle-classconcertas the privilegedform
of musicaldissemination).
Indeed,one can hardlyoverestimatethe influenceof the nineteenthcenturymiddle-classconcertandits continuedhegemonyas the privileged
formof musicaldisseminationin Westernart-musiccultureon accepted
modes of musicalstyle and experience.One notes, for instance,that the
formalisttheoryof musicarose outof the contextof the concerthall.There,
emotionaland physicalresponsesthathad previouslybeen welcome,accepted partsof musicalexperienceamongfriendsand familycould now
have the unwelcomeeffectof alertingnearbystrangersto one's innermost
theirabilityto hearthe music.Moreover,
feelings, notto mentioninhibiting
at the same time bodilyresponsewas ruledout of boundsforthe concert
audience, it began to be expected in the creatorand performeras one of
the signs of genius(a conditionKanthaddefinedas out-of-normal
bounds),
and so images of the intenselysensual, physicallyabnormal,or even contortionalperformer(andcomposer)beganto appearin publishedsketches
and verbalaccounts of Beethoven,Chopin,Berlioz,Paganini,and Liszt.
carriedthe deJacques Attaliarguesthatthese alienatedartist-celebrities
niedsensual projectionsof theiraudiencesand learnedto feed offthem in
sadomasochisticdemonstrations
of power.26
26. Jacques Attali,Noise: ThePoliticalEconomyof Music,trans.BrianMassumi,Theory
and Historyof LiteratureSeries, no. 16 (Minneapolis:Universityof MinnesotaPress,
1985), 65-72. Attaligives a Marxistanalysisof nineteenth-century
concertculturein general,especiallythe orchestraandthe "genealogyof the star."See AnnE. Kaplan,"Gender
Address and Gaze in MTV,"Rockingaroundthe Clock:Music TV,Postmodernism,and
ConsumerCulture(New York:Routledge,1987), 89-142, for an analysis of the psychological relationshipbetween star and fans in contemporaryrockmusic. The relationship
of starand audience is also relevantto the currentcontroversyover performancepractice
for early or pre-romanticmusic, muchof whichwas originallycomposed and performed

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2 / Summer
1992
194 boundary
Itis easy to see how,inthisrepressedcontext,the notioncouldtake
holdthat one's properapproachto musicas composeror listenerwas to
attendto a set of "tonallymovingforms,"disembodiedfrommotion,emotion,or extrastructural
meaning.Indeed,few wouldfaultHanslickforfailing
of the concertandthe aestheticjudgto understandthe historicalrelativity
ments he made in its context.Today'sformalists,however,are on much
thinnerground,continuingto viewas universalan approachto musicalproductionand receptionthatmodernhistoricalresearchhas clearlyrevealed
to be culturallyrelative,an approachthat has the ethnocentriceffect of
discounting,or discrediting,the great majorityof global musicalcultures
throughouthistory.
On the other hand, when we turnfromformalistcriticsto actual
musicalartists,we findmoreawarenessand responsewithregardto the
connectionbetweencontextof disseminationand style, probablybecause
theirsurvivaland success are at stake. So, just as composersof instruformalist-oriented
mentalmusicrespondedwithan increasingly
style as the
to
concert
church
and
chamber
moved
from
context
hall,and
performance
laterto privateand academicmeetingsof avant-gardecomposers,they
willalso likelyrespondto a moveof art-musicbackto connectednesswith
life.Giventhe threatof decliningpublicinterestand patronage,some have
done so already.Forexample,the processand new-ageidiomsare a step
consciousin this direction,both in theiremphasison the "being-in-time"
and
ness of the bodyand in theirreadyaccessibilityto the understanding
of a wideaudience.27
participation
The new, softer-boundariedperformancecontexts may include
orothersocial comeverydaysettings,such as outdoorparks,restaurants,
restrictionson
and
fewer
with
freer
ambience
a
physical
muningplaces
include
and
or
settings
moving,talking,eating,drinking, sleeping, theymay
in a very differentcontext fromthat of the concert hall. In my opinion,the unacknowledged subtext of the controversyis that some modernconcert performershave found
the more historicallyauthenticinstrumentsand techniquesintroducedby performance
practicespecialists to be less dazzlingto audiencesthanthose creatablewithmoderninstrumentsand techniques,and they have thereforeconcluded,in ahistoricalfashion,that
authenticinstrumentsand performancesare not as good as modernperformances.See
also Nicholas Kenyon,ed., Authenticityand EarlyMusic (New York:OxfordUniversity
Press, 1988), fora varietyof essays on the controversy.
27. Steve Reich's music and writingsdemonstratethis;see Writingsabout Music (Halifax: Press of Nova Scotia College of Artand Design; New York:New YorkUniversity
Press, 1974), especially9-11.

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Detels/ SoftBoundaries
andRelatedness195
not yet imaginedfor genres that cross the boundariesof currentconvention. To our romantically
acculturatedminds,some of these settings may
statusformusic;butparadoxisuggest an unacceptablyhumble,utilitarian
it
I'art
is
the
insistence
on
pourI'artautonomythathas
cally, probably proud
resultedin its humblingghettoization
andneglectinourpubliclife,whereby
utilitarian
at athleticevents, arethe musipurposes,such as entertainment
cal activitiesthat receivethe most regularsupportin the civic sector. On
when it is
the contrary,musicappearsto occupya higherstatus culturally
in
its
evident
with
other
forms
of
life
for
experience,as, example,
integrated
withpoetry,dance,eating,weaving,andreligiousceremoniesof
integration
the ancientPhrygians28
and in varioushunter-gatherer
societies, wherein
musicplaysa prominentrolein communalritualand life.29
Relatedness of MusicalExperienceamong Composer,
Performer,Audience, Critics,and Community
Ideasborrowedfrompoststructural
theorystronglysuggestthe value
of softer,less hierarchical
boundariesamongthe constituenciesof artistic
audience,critexperience-in the case of music,the composer,performer,
viewof the literary
ics, and community.Forinstance,the deconstructionist
workas "text,"of writingas "textuality,"
and of readingas involvinga cocreative"intertextuality"
is a modelthat, in effect,softens the boundaries
and
among writer,reader,
community,and emphasizes not the fixingof
absolute or hierarchical
value butthe playof meaningsamongfluidconstituencies.30

In the case of the experience-oriented

performanceart of music,
the deconstructionistview is particularly
applicable,not only because of
the likelihoodof widelyvariantperformancesof any given workbut also
28. Renee Cox, "AHistoryof Music,"Journalof Aesthetics and ArtCriticism48 (1990):
395-409, especially 395-96.
29. See essays in Ellen Koskoff,ed., Womenand Music in Cross-culturalPerspective, Contributionsin Women'sStudies, no. 79 (New York,Westport,Conn., and London: GreenwoodPress, 1987); and MarciaHerndonand Suzanne Ziegler,eds., Music,
Gender and Culture,Intercultural
MusicStudies, no. 1 (Wilhelmshaven:
FlorianNoetzel
Verlag,1990).
30. Fora clear and concise discussionof these issues, includingtheirparticularapplication to music, see RolandBarthes, "FromWorkto Text,"in Joseph Margolis,ed., Philosophy Looksat the Arts:ContemporaryReadings in Aesthetics, 3d ed. (Philadelphia:
TempleUniversityPress, 1987), 518-24.

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2 / Summer
196 boundary
1992
because of the limitationsand variationsin the specificityof notational
practicesover the historyof Westernart-music,not to mentionpopular
music,and musicof othercultures.Forexample,incontrastto the relatively
stable historicalpracticesof "notation"
for,say, novels, or even dramatic
of
plays-which arguablypreservemany the author'sintentionsinthe written words,music-notational
universal
practiceshavebeen neitherculturally
norhistoricallystable. Those practicesrangefroman absence of notation
instrumen(a vast quantityof musicin the area of song and improvisatory
tal genres and passages); to the merelymnemonicindicationsof phrase
directionin ninth-century
chant notation;to laterMedieval,Renaissance,
and Baroquepractices(wherenotationof pitches and rhythmsis often
incomplete,misleading,or ambiguous,and wherelittleor no information
is providedon timbre,dynamics,tempo, and articulation).
These crucial
musicalelementswereall leftto the co-creationof musicalperformers,asmusicof theirown. Even in
sumingthey were not occupiedin performing
the case of our "commonpracticeperiod"(ca. 1750-present),notationof
the mainmusicalelementsis stillusuallyincompletewithoutthe interpretawho is knowledgeablein the termsand
tionof a skilled,musicalperformer
of
the
techniques
performancepracticeforthe periodandgenre involved.31
Thus,notonlyis the score a badgauge of a composer'sintentions,
its very inadequacyto that purposesuggests the need to reevaluatethe
Westernart-musicalviewof the composeras isolatedgenius-creatorat the
top of a hierarchy-whose intentionsalone determinethe musicalworkand to considera demotion,if not a death, of the composer'sauthority.32
Thereigningnotiontoo closelyresemblesReagan's"trickle-down"
theoryof
economicsand has parallelresultsin termsof the musicaldisenfranchiseof the public.Weshouldnotethat
of the majority
mentand impoverishment
domination
the
most
of
vituperative
proponentsof this compositorial
many
were composers themselves (e.g., Berlioz,Wagner,Schumann,Brahms,
31. The article on "notation"is one of the longest in the standardreference workfor
music, The New GroveDictionaryof Musicand Musicians,ed. Stanley Sadie (London:
Macmillan,1980), with eighty-sevenpages and fourauthors(Ian D. Bent, DavidHiley,
MargaretBent, and GeoffreyChew).Giventhe complexityof the issues aroundmusical
notationand the score, the effortamong analyticaestheticians,such as Nelson Goodman, to define the composer's intentions,and the musicalworkby referenceto it, would
seem to be an exampleof the wrong,hard-boundaried
paradigmat work.
32. RolandBarthesseems to haveoriginatedthe postmoderntrope"deathof the author";
in Image-Music-Text,
see Barthes,"TheDeathof the Author,"
trans.Stephen Heath(New
York:Hilland Wang, 1977), 142-48.

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Detels/ SoftBoundaries
andRelatedness197
Mahler,Schoenberg,and Stravinsky).Indeed,startingin the nineteenth
century,the tendencyof composers less towardperformanceand more
towardtheoryand criticismas a methodof supportingthemselvesand/or
disseminatingtheirmusicis itselfa sign of the triumphof hard-boundaried
theoryover musicalexperienceinthe Westernart-musictradition.
Sadly,the composersare onlyapparentlythe victorsin this evoluof music'sotherconstituencieshas the
tion,since the disenfranchisement
effect of alienatingeveryonefroma healthyculturalconnectionto music
andconsequentlyof leavingus passivereceivers,notso muchforI'artpour
I'artculture,or even forthe cultureof popularmusic,butforthe multibilliondollarindustriesof civic and corporateGebrauchsmuzak,
if I may coin a
term. By Gebrauchsmuzak,I mean the footballfightsongs, supermarket
music,advertisingjingles,movieandtelevisionsoundtracks,andotherartificiallyproducedsound environments,not to mentionthe mass-produced
music videos and sound recordingsthatfeed the chainof demandin the
popularmusicworld.Theproblemis notthe supposedgap invaluebetween
highand low culturebut,rather,the largelyunnoticeddisenfranchisement
and disengagementof peoplefromactiveengagementin a musicalculture
of theirown.Wherepopularmusicas a wholefitsinthispictureis difficult
to
say, since it is comprisedof so manyhighlyvariantsubcultures.Chances
are, though,that the extentto whichpopularmusicplays on us like elevatortapes (i.e., withoutourawarenessand involvement),
it is partof the
Gebrauchsmuzakproblemas well.On the otherhand,withthe paradigm
of softer boundariesand relatednessamong musicalconstituencies,the
and disengagementmight
disenfranchisement,
process of hierarchization,
be turnedaround,anda moreequitablerelationship
mightbe reestablished
betweenmusicand its constituencies.
Some composersfromthe art-musiccommunityhave blazeda trail
for this kindof turnaround.(Ironically,
they may be freerto do so than
morecommercially
tied popularmusicians.)Forexample,in writingsgoing
backto the 1930s, proto-deconstructionist
JohnCage challengedeveryasof
Western
art-musical
in particular,
he emphasized
culture,
and,
sumption
of
the
and
the
audience
in
the experience
greaterengagement
performer
of music.33Morerecently,PaulineOliverosfrequentlycrosses the boundaries of genre and constituencyin her music,as in her explicitlyfeminist
33. See John Cage, Silence: Lecturesand Writings(Middletown:
Wesleyan University
Press, 1939); and John Cage at Seventy-Five,a special issue of BucknellReview 32,
no. 2 (1989), ed. RichardFlemingand WilliamDuckworth.

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198 boundary2 / Summer1992

performance piece Sonic Meditations (1971), which she dedicates to "the
elevation and equalization of the feminine principle along with the masculine principle."In the first of these musical meditations, entitled "Teach
Yourself To Fly,"Oliveros gives performinginstructionsthat are accessible
to anyone (not just professional musicians) and that emphasize the performers' engagement in the experience instead of requiringthem passively
to transfer the composer's intentions down the chain to the even more
passive listeners. The instructionsare:
Any number of persons sit in a circle facing the center. Illuminate
the space with dim blue light. Begin by simply observing your own
breathing. Always be an observer. Graduallyobserve your breathing become audible. Then graduallyintroduceyourvoice. Color your
breathing very softly at first with sound. Let the intensity increase
very slowly as you observe it. Continue as long as possible until
others are quiet.34
"Teach Yourself To Fly" may be too radical for some, but, at the very
least Oliveros's instructions remind us that music is, first and foremost,
experienced. Her view that valuing the feminine must mean a more egalitarian sharing of that experience, and thus a de-professionalization and
de-hierarchization of it, is one that is shared by many feminists outside
music, as well. Do we risk"greatness"by de-emphasizing professionalism?
Perhaps, but if that means the reenfranchisementof people into active participation in a musical culture of their own, it could be worth the risk and
might lead to a more generally shared culturalvalue down the road.
The possibilityof softer boundaries and relatedness among the constituencies of a musical culture has also been raised through the explorations by twentieth-centuryanthropologistsand ethnomusicologists of preindustrialsocieties whose boundaries between the main constituencies of
musical experience are frequentlysofter and differentlyfocused than those
of Western industrialsociety. Forexample, ethnomusicologistElizabethTolbert tells of the spiritual,communalfunctionof the lamentamong the Finnish
Kareliansand analyzes the music in context withthatfunction.35Anthropologist Carol Robertson finds that music, in the formof communallyperformed
Music: His34. Quoted and discussed furtherin RobertP. Morgan,Twentieth-Century
tory of Musical Style in ModernEuropeand America(New Yorkand London:Norton,
1991), 454.
Powerand Genderin the KarelianLament,"in
35. ElizabethTolbert,"Magico-Religious
Music, Genderand Culture,41-53.

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andRelatedness199
Detels/ SoftBoundaries
andSouthAmeriinthe AfricanKassen-Nankani
ritual,offersthe individual
tribes
web
of
within
which
his/her
can Mapuche
"a
individuality
relationships
can be defined,"includingthe web of gender relationships.36
Communal
ritualgenerallyfigureprominentlyin
dance, song, and religious-dramatic
musiccultures,castingconsiderablequestionon the Westpre-industrial
ern art-musicalview of these experiencesas secondaryto the "pure"exmusic.The long-standingtendencyof
perience of untexted,instrumental
musicologiststo ignoresuch discoveriesand thus to evade the relativizationof the practicesand values of Westernart-music,is finallygivingway,
the curthanksin greatpartto the influenceof postmodernism-including
and popularculture
rent movementtowardmakingroomfor multicultural
studies in Westernacademicinstitutions.37
Relatedness of MusicalStyle to Culture
to considerstudiesleads verynaturally
The mentionof multicultural
ationof the thirdareaof musicalrelatednessunderdiscussioninthisessay,
thatof the relatednessbetweenmusicalstyle and culture.Thisarea of relatedness has alreadyreceivedconsiderableattentionfromfeministand
Marxistcritics,and some profoundinsightson the relatednessof style to
culturehave alreadybeen reached,makingthe traditional
aestheticclaims
of autonomyfor the musicalworkand composermuch more difficultto
maintain.Nonetheless,somethingmorethaninsightful
criticismon the marif
of
is
needed
the
conservative
practicesof ourinstitutions
gins musicology
of musicaleducationare to be affected.Forexample,despite multiculturalist success in introducing
jazz, popularmusic,and worldmusicintothe
academiccurriculum,
the teachingmethodsfor musichistorycontinueto
ignore connectionsof musicalstyle to culture,in favorof the otherwise
longdiscredited"GreatMan[sic]"approach,wheremostof whatis empha36. Carol Robertson,"SingingSocial Boundariesinto Place: The Dynamicsof Gender
and Performancein Two Cultures,"Sonus 10, no. 1 (Fall 1989): 59-71, and 10, no. 2
(Spring1990): 1-13.
37. The Westernethnocentricityof musicologistsis also reflectedin the use of the general termmusicology forthe moreculturallylimitedenterpriseof Westernmusicalstudy,
and its isolationfromthe broader(thoughmorenarrowlytitled),fieldof ethnomusicology,
which has its own separate society and journals.The isolation,and the assumptionof
Westernculturalsuperiority,is onlynow beginningto be challengedin musicologycircles.
See, forexample, JudithBecker,"IsWesternArtMusicSuperior?"MusicalQuarterly72
(1986):341-59.

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2 / Summer
200 boundary
1992
sized, tested, and recalledis data aboutcomposers,almostentirelymale,
inthe traditional
canonof Westernart-music.Indeed,thereseems to be no
timeforanythingelse, since accordingto standardcurricular
practicesthe
wholeof musichistorymustbe squeezed intoat best onlya few semesters
out of sixteen years of public-supported
educationand at worsta single
semester (oreven no timeat all).As a resultof the curricular
squeeze, the
complexculturalevolutionand relationship
amongmusicalgenres, styles,
media,andtechnology,whichreallycomprisesthe historyof music,remains
largelyunexamined,and studentsinsteadmemorizesimplistic,linkedsuccessions of style periodsand composers-said to have influencedeach
other-in whatessentiallybecomes an extensionof "who'sbest"intothe
historicalmode.38
The academicevasionof music'sculturalrelatednessis coupled,as
is usuallythe case, witha diminution
of women'smusicalactivities.Indeed,
a masculinistslantcontinuesin musicologyandmusichistoryteachingto a
degree thatwouldamaze culturalcriticsof otherfields.Take,forexample,
TheMusicof Man,an expensivelyproducedseries of videosthataccompanies a currenthigh-sellingmusichistorytextbook.TheMusicof Manclearly
marginalizeswomenin the titleand inthe accountsof the music-historical
Of the myriadof active,influential
musicalwomenof the twentiperiods.39
eth century,thisseries shows onlyMarthaGraham,JudyCollins,andJoan
Baez, the last of whomis presentedas a womannotableforhavinghad a
hismusic.(Infact,JoanBaez's
love affairwithBobDylanandforperforming
fame and influenceas a performerand composerprecededDylan's,and
withher ratherthan the
his career profitedfromthe personalrelationship
otherway around.)Clearly,a new paradigmis needed in the teachingof
musichistoryin orderto challengethe masculinistslant,the preoccupation
withgreatness,andthe denialof culturalconnectedness.
Withrespectto the teachingandanalyticalpracticesof musictheory,
the paradigmof soft boundariesandrelatednessis intendedto leadto analyticalapproachesthatde-reifythe hardboundariesillustratedin the very
terms withwhichwe thinkabout and analyze music (i.e., as in pitches,
38. The academic evasion of music'sculturalrelatednessis furtherdiscussed in Susan
McClary,"TerminalPrestige: The Case of Avant-GardeMusic Composition,"Cultural
Critique12 (1989):57-81.
39. TheMusicof Manvideos accompanyK.MarieStolba'sTheDevelopmentof Western
Music:A History(Dubuque,Iowa:Brown,1990), ironicallythe firstmajorhistorytextbook
to prominentlyincludematerialon womenin music.

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andRelatedness201
Detels/ SoftBoundaries
chords, rhythmicmotives,phrases, sections, movements,and works).40
Underthe new paradigm,applicationof supposedlyuniversal,theoretical
concepts wouldbe restrictedto musicfor whichevidence of theirapplicabilitycould be foundin the music'sown culturalpractices,includingthe
theoreticaldiscussion.
performancepractices,notation,andcontemporary
Thus,forexample,chords,sections, and periodswouldbe applicableto a
lot of eighteenth-century
music,since composersnotatedthem and theoristsdiscussedthem,butnotto musicacrosshistoricalperiodsandcultures.
Rather,musictheoristsand philosopherswouldbe forcedto deal withthe
culturalpracticesof the musicthey are judging,in orderto develop and
theoreticalconcepts,ina culturally
related
applythe new,softer-boundaried
manner.
The new culturally
relatedboundaryconceptswouldcome fromthe
actual experienceof the music,includingthe way it is performed,heard,
taught,danced or movedto, and fromany dramaticor poetic texts with
whichit is associated.The conceptscouldincludeterms(preferably
in the
language of the period)for sequences of bodilygestures that are associatedwithdancingor playingthe musicinquestion,orforthe organization
of accompanyingtexts or dramaticrepresentations.Somethingvery like
phraseswouldprobablyremainvalidforlotsof music,giventhe analogous
structureof accompanyingpoetic lines and dance motionsin each case.
Manyothersupposedlyuniversalboundaryconceptswouldhave to be rethoughtand replaced,however,if we are to take the relatednessof music
to culturemoreseriously.
Oncethe developmentof culturally
relatedboundaryconceptstakes
place,the waywouldbe clearformusiccriticismto developina morelegitimateandprofoundmanner,similarto the operationof criticisminthe literary
andvisualarts.Thetypes of boundariespresentina musicalrepertory,
and
the waytheyfunction,wouldlikelybecomea regularfocus of musicalstudy
and couldleadto strongerconnectionswithgeneralculturalcriticism,such
as is alreadyfoundin criticismof the literaryand visualarts. Forexample,
40. It should be noted that some aesthetic views and analyticproceduresborne out of
the romantictraditionemphasizedrelatedness,butto the extentthatthey operatedunder
the assumptionof universality,
they werejustas problematic.See, forexample, Heinrich
Schenker, Free Composition,trans. ErnstOster (New York:Longman,1979), in which
analyticaldiagramsoverlookprominentintendedphraseand sectionalendingsinorderto
emphasize organiccontinuity,his universalvalue. Schenkerianmethodis a foundationof
the currentmusic theoryprofession,and it is often appliedto repertoriesacross cultural
periods,regardlessof relevance.

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202 boundary2 / Summer1992

extrapolationsfrom Marxistliteraryand art criticismsuggest that in cultures
of aristocratic patronage, where art and artists have been owned as property, the artistic styles reflect the hard boundaries of ownership, as can be
seen in the distinct, often symmetrical, phrases, sections, and movements
articulated by clear meters and mainlymasculine cadences of eighteenthcentury musical style.41The tendency of romanticand modernistmusic criticism has been to associate the breakingof these boundaries with "genius,"
which is very much in accordance with Kant'sview of the concept,42and to
base canonical hierarchizationsof greater and lesser geniuses on theirtendency to break the boundaries. WolfgangAmadeus Mozart(our archetypal
musical genius), for example, is a great composer because of his constant
resistance to these boundaries, which takes the form of frequent feminine
cadences, assymetrical phrases, metricaldisplacements, and surprises of
chromaticism, tonality,and melodic contour.
Putting the mythology of artistic genius aside, however, Mozart's
boundary breaking might be understood better in relationship to his resistance to playing his expected role within the patronage system and
against conventions and authority,in general.43By comparison within Mozart's close circle of contacts, this was a resistance that did not appeal to
Antonio Salieri, on whom Pushkin, Schaffer, and their audiences have projected such heavy doses of romanticideology. Moreover,such resistance
was probably psychologically impossible for Wolfgang's older sister Maria
Anna Mozart:also a child prodigybut barredby familyand culturefrom public musical activityas an adult woman.44These observations move the criti41. See John Berger's influentialanalysis of seventeenth- throughnineteenth-century
Europeanoil painting,Waysof Seeing (NewYork:PenguinBooks, 1977), 83-112.
42. ImmanuelKant,Critiqueof Judgment,trans.WernerS. Pluhar(1790; reprint,Indianapolis:HackettPublishing,1987), 176-78.
43. There is not time to develop this pointadequatelyhere, but resistance to authority
is apparentin the composer's relationshipto his fatherand in the attitudesto musical
and social conventions expressed in his letters, as, for instance, when he makes fun
of the French "FirstStroke of the Bow"in a letterof 12 June 1778. W.A. Bauer and
O. E. Deutsch, eds., Mozart:Briefeund Aufzeichnungen,II(Kassel:Barenreiter,1962),
378-79.
44. See RudolpheAngemuller,New Grove Dictionaryof Music and Musicians, s.vv.
MariaAnna Mozart,on her retirementfrompublicmusicalachievement.Also see Eva
Rieger,"DolceSemplice?On the ChangingRole of Womenin Music,"FeministAesthetmuting"of musical
ics, 135-49, fora discussionof the psychologicaleffectof the "cultural
women such as AnnaMariaMozart,ClaraWieckSchumann,Cosima LisztWagner,and
AlmaSchindlerMahler,on theircreativity,147-48.

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Detels / SoftBoundariesand Relatedness 203

cal focus from hierarchizationof greatness to culturalrelatedness, but they
do not in any way devalue Mozart's music. Rather, they present another,
more culturallyrelated basis for appreciatingthat music, without requiring
the devaluation and dismissal of musical repertories in which boundary
breaking is a lesser factor.
In terms of current musical practice, application of the new paradigm of soft boundaries and relatedness between musical style and culture
means questioning and playingwith the hard boundaries of traditionaland
modernist styles, as in the deconstructive play of Cage, Peter Schickele
(masquerading as P.D.Q. Bach),45and performanceartist LaurieAnderson,
whose characteristic electronic distortionsof her own voice seem to mirror
the electronic distortion and transformationof the subject in postmodern
culture in general.46
Althoughthe new paradigmdoes not aim to privilegefemale musical
voices over male, there is stilla prominentrole forwomen to play in its application, because they are best positionedto use the paradigmto deconstruct
the traditionalbases of masculinistmusical privilegeand to explore expressions of feminine culturalidentitythat have been overlooked under the old
paradigm. In Feminine Endings, Susan McClarydiscusses the possibilities of new discursive strategies for women composers at length, including
a description of Janika Vanderwelde's Genesis II, in which the composer
consciously decided to turn from the masculinist "beanstalk gestures" of
traditionalmusical narrativeto an explorationof birthimagery in sound.47
It is impossible to predict exactly what effect an untried paradigm
might have on the discourse and practice of music should it become accepted and current. Based on the effect of new feminist concepts in the
other arts, it does appear that a new paradigmcan help lead to increased
theoretical and criticalactivity,which, in turn,may have considerable effect
on how music is taught and practiced in our society. On the pessimistic
side, however, the positivisticfragmentationand isolation of music professionals into composition, theory, history,education, and performance, and
the equally stark fragmentationof our musical subcultures, mean that any
45. See, for example, Peter Schickele's combinationof Baroqueand countrywestern
idioms in Oedipus Texand OtherChoralCalamities(TelarcCD-80239, 1990).
46. See McClary,FeminineEndings, 132-66, for furtherdiscussion of LaurieAnderson and of the popularmusicianMadonnaas examples of womenfindingtheircreative
musicalvoices throughnew feminist-minded
discursivestrategies.
47. McClary,FeminineEndings,112-31.

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204 boundary2 / Summer1992

new paradigmfaces an uphillbattle in receivingwide currencyin all the relevant musical institutions,journals, and associations.48Institutionalchange
is necessary in order to address the professional fragmentationand, more
generally, in order to reverse the ghettoization of music in the academy
as an arcane study of the Western canon relevant only to music majors
pursuing careers in performanceor in the teaching of more of the same.
Actually,this may be the most crucialtask for which the paradigmof
soft boundaries and relatedness is needed in our musical culture:to bring
music out of the fragmented professional ghetto and back into relationship
with people of all walks of life. At the moment, it appears as though only
very extensive, interdisciplinarycurricularreformfromgrade school to university would be able to produce such a change. That view, however, of the
situation may underestimate the readiness with which teachers and students of many subjects, and people in general, would reintegratemusic into
their cultural awareness and activities if critical discourse in music were
accessible and culturallyrelevant, as it would be under the new paradigm.

48. See MarciaJ. Citron,"Gender,Professionalism,and the MusicalCanon,"Journal

of Musicology 8 (1990): 102-17; and Bruce Wilshire,The MoralCollapse of the University;Professionalism,Purity,and Alienation(Albany:State Universityof New York
Press, 1990), 255-76, for a wider,more philosophicalview of the sickness of academic
reification,in general, and the need forthe feministchallengeto it.

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