Musik, Ästhetik, Digitalisierung

In this book, worlds collide. The digital revolution seems like an assault on the established music industry. This applies not only to the orchestra itself, but to the study, practice, teaching, performance, and dissemination of both new and old “serious” music in general. The positions presented here suggest a generational conflict between those who have grown up taking computers for granted as a “second world” and who see quantification and acceleration as promising greater freedom, and those who feel committed to an emphatic conception of the work and of art—and thus to the immanent process of artistic production.
Belief in progress in art is nothing new. A good hundred years ago, Filippo T. Marinetti formulated his first Futurist Manifesto of a new machine art. It would take a hundred years, however, before technical possibilities began to hint at a qualitative quantum leap. It is on the point of “quality” that opinions now diverge. And: Does the concept overwhelm the idea, or does the latter dissolve into the former…
Composition, musical practice, and musical perception stand at a crossroads. The rapid development of the digital world, along with its interconnectedness, will not leave musical creation unscathed. For too long, there has been silence regarding aesthetic differences in new music. In the present fundamental controversy, long-overdue and pressing questions about the future of new music are now being raised and, in part, hotly debated.
The controversy, which, following Harry Lehmann’s introductory text, is conducted between Johannes Kreidler and Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, ultimately remains open-ended and will certainly give rise to further discussions. The concluding contributions consist of personal texts from the broader context of the debate.

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