Musicologists have recently begun applying the diverse philosophies of Deleuze and Guattari to music. Though one may initially point to the irreconcilable differences in their approaches, both Rorty and Deleuze were more interested in creative readings of canonical philosophers than in representing them objectively. My article, in turn, takes the same approach with the philosophies of Deleuze and Guattari, particularly their pragmatic theories of linguistics.
But how is this position possible when speaking of musical experience? Perception, even in a collective assemblage 2 , still necessitates a listening subject, while aesthetics, with or without an ontologically-stable musical object, still references an object qua the noun described. In accordance with the postmodern sobriety of A Thousand Plateaus contra the modernist excess of Difference and Repetition , a point to which I will return 4 , I suggest that to avoid completely evacuating music-analytical thought of its referents a pragmatic stratification of subject and object must be preserved.
Second, I review some of the secondary musicological literature involving Deleuze and Guattari, focusing particularly on problems associated with orthodox approaches, and suggest how a pragmatic approach to Deleuze and Guattari might liberate more vivid musical insight. Though, to be clear, Rorty is very sympathetic to the importance of languageβRorty often speaks to the primacy and contingency of language. He concludes that philosophy, like empirical science as much as a scientist might dispute this , is merely another literary genre, no more capable of unveiling truth than Orwell or Shakespeare.
What this means for analysis, musical or otherwise should be clear from the following quotation:. By straining to keep consistent with these often-inconsistent philosophies, many commentators find themselves straining to say anything meaningful about music In other words, musicological writings of this nature often sacrifice musicality in favor of rigid specificity. Instead, Rorty is interested in re-interpretation, or, what we can do with those philosophies. Paradoxically, the most faithful application of Deleuzian philosophy may be that which is most reverently unfaithful.
Rather, on par with his consistent focus on creation 17 , Deleuze was more interested in deterritorializing those philosophies into something new Ultimately, like Rorty and Deleuze and Guattari, I am more interested in what we do with these philosophies than how stoically we represent the philosopher.
