Atalli

Attali- Noise The Political Economy of Music

Afterword by Susan McClary

“The subject of Attali’s book is noise, and his method is likewise noise. His unconcealed ideological premises, his penchant for sullying the purity of pitch structures with references to violence, death, and (worst of all) money, and his radically different account of the history of Western music all jar cacophonously against the neat ordering of institutionalized music scholarship, especially as it is practiced in the United States. It is, therefore, quite conceivable that those trained in music will perceive the book’s content also as noise- that is, as nonsense- and dismiss it out of hand.”

 

Attali breaks music into 4 ‘Networks’ throughout history:

1. Sacrificial Ritual
   1. Music’s distributive network- how music is passed from person to person
   2. Music is used in society to further religious, social, economic, symbolic ideologies
   3. Music is decentralized economically
2. Representation
   1. Music becomes a spectacle- how music is passed has changed
   2. Music is experienced in concert halls, or specific places, you must go to it for it
   3. Money is being exchanged, entrance fees… follow the money…
3. Repetition
   1. Music’s network changes dramatically- music maker no longer passes the music
   2. Recording: storing representation
   3. Music is consumed individually (network no longer relies on society)
4. Composition
   1. Music is performed for the musician’s own enjoyment- not necessarily even passed…
   2. No other goal, other than that of the music making itself
   3. Proposes a radical social model: personal transcendence

 

As community musicians, are we helping to build the social construct around music needed in order to achieve Attali’s final network, Composition? 

As community musicians, how does money fit into our narrative of where we would like society to go, musically? Do we need it to sustain our music?