Musik & Ästhetik, 2023, Jg. 27, Ausgabe 107

This general theory of polyphony presents the concept of difference internal to discursivity as the key to understanding what distinguishes polyphony from other forms of multi-part texture. If the use of multiple voices is thought differentially, the result is a series comprising polyphony, polymorphy, polyprocessuality and poly-work. At the same time, this theory explains semantic issues in diagonal listening as part of a strategy for dealing with the apperceptive surplus, and considers matters of material construction without which polyphony, especially in its higher-level forms, is not possible.

This essay deals with selected aspects of Eco’s engagement with music, looking at both fictional and academic texts that have seldom, or in some cases never, been examined in the field of music research. The reception of Eco’s work has hitherto concentrated mostly on his statements about music in such publications as The Open Work (1962) or the semiotic writings. After presenting and discussing selected passages on music from the novels Foucault’s Pendulum (1988), The Island of the Day Before (1994) and Numero Zero (2015), the author considers individual facets of musical reception and interpretation found in scattered academic and occasional texts by Eco. The final summing-up attempts to identify continuities or constants in Eco’s long-standing engagement with music.

Since Luigi Nono’s death in 1990, there has been an astonishingly intensive reception of his music. It not only encompasses the late works following the string quartet Fragmente – Stille, An Diotima (1980), but has also revived the earlier works with explicit political content. A central factor in this is the Archivio Nono in Venice, made possible by Nuria Schönberg-Nono, with its extensive collection of documents. This makes it possible to explore in depth the history of the works’ genesis and effects, and to present them comprehensively with ›new questions‹ (in Nono’s own words).

In his works, the French composer Franck Christoph Yeznikian weaves a multitude of references together to form supporting layers of meaning, combining these with a complex, precisely defined rhythmic and microtonal structure. His music, concentrated in contrapuntal lines, develops in slow and calm arcs; its sonic character is clearly a melancholy one. His historical models are merged with his sonic language with different degrees of presence. One particular characteristic of his harmonic and sonic spaces is a ›shining‹ created through a constant re-colouring of fixed-register pitches.

Under the rule of Taliban in Afghanistan, music is no longer possible in the country, since musicians are criminalized. Herewith one of the most significant intangible heritage in Afghanistan has been almost completely silenced and banned from any kind of social or communitarian life. In a close cooperation with the German Foreign Office in 2021 the UNESCO Chair on Transcultural Music Studies at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar was able to name important musicians and representatives of Afghan music and music archives for the official evacuation list of the German government. Aprox. 170 musicians and experts have left Afghanistan and are now mainly based in Germany. The aim is to keep working closely with Afghan musicians and experts on heritage matters, with concerts, workshops, research projects and on archival materials. Besides that, the UNESCO Chair’s »Afghan Music Research Center« (amrc-music.org) is among the largest and most important ones outside Afghanistan, especially regarding the recent music related living heritage of the country.