Casken, John

English

Goldsmiths, University of London: Journals Online

  Contact :  A  Journa l  for  Contemporary  Mus ic  ( 1971 -1988)  http://contactjournal.gold.ac.uk Citation      Casken, John. 1971. ‘A Case of Mistaken Identity’. Contact, 1. pp. 22-23. ISSN 0308-5066.22 A CASE OF -MISTAKEN IDENTITY In an article for the new music journal begins his 'Categories of Judgement in Modern Music' with an attempt a t placing .the term 1 innova tion' in some kind of perspective ••••• "In more stable artistic when the danger9 of stagnation were so often in evidence the true innovation had generally to work itself through against a hostile establishment and a hostile · In an extreme innovatory period like our own, innovation as such can even become a. kind of establish-ment, and receive a constant critical accolade .. 11 Tippett does not really justify the implications of such phrases as ••••• stable artistic period ••••• dangers of stagnation ••••• innovation ••.••• and these are open to discussion. If we search for a stable artistic period, then we would probably arrive at the eighteenth, century, its music, its painting and itl3 architec-ture. The introduction of Renaissance features into architecture of the Tudor period was done quite slowly until we had an established, '"stable" English Renaissance. After 1600 up to and including the death of Haydn, music had gradually absorbed new ideas until there was a "stable" classical period. Innovation then unknown. The working out of. lines and forms as an objective art allowed emotion as a secondary element, _and here the word "stable" can, I think, be replaced by word "complete". Perhaps a complete work of art is stagnant. As soon as romantic ideas came in the visual arts and in music, we do see an unstabilized artistic period, probably greater in its lasting effects than the 1600 revolution. The uprooting of ·convention, the completely musical being replaced by the dramatic inner man, the search for novel effects in the visual arts (e.g. works by John Turner and John Nash) - all created disturbances which were to grow out of all recognition and give birth to the avant-garde •••• itself a logical conclusion from the age of Beethoven, Turner and William Blake. The 'novel effects' throughout the Romantic period were often mistaken for innovation, when in actua l fact they were merely questions, searchings, and experiments with new means of expression. All romantics have searched for a personal means of expression, and in searching , they have exposed their connections with the past and their relation to the present. From Tippett 1 s remarks, we might expect, in our own totally non-stable period, a virile, non-stagnant art. He regards innovation as something to be got rid of soon as possible, in order to concentrate on more serious matters, yet in taking this stand he doesn't connect stagnation and innova-tion. Many works of art today illustrate that just as completeness can lead to stagnation, so can the over-excitement and enthusiasm of the artist, mis-t akenly called innovation. - 23 -True innovation in our own period belongs to very few figures, Debussy and Stravinsky being the first; Impressionism and Cubism in the visual arts may be as innovatory movements, yet both had their forerunners, and indeed Cubism can be seen to be an outcome of Impressionism. Such movements as De Stijl and Dadaism can be called innovatory, but in the overall picture , how important are these They of course provide an essential link between one main source and another. Similarly how 1 important 1 are composers such as Ravel, Milhaud, Hindemith, Dallapiccola, Britten and so on? This , of course, is it doesn't matter how 'important' a composer is. We are exposed in this progressive society (which to the achievements of tech-nologists and scientists, and we have come to expect constant ne.wness in the arts, again mistakenly called innovation. I think Michael Tippett's point, t4at qur period is extremely innovatory, is misleading., Certain parts of society expect an enamelled stnll every time they go out shopping, as it were, _and this puts a great,strain on the artist. Under this strain, he strives for newness or innovation, usually failing. A search for innovation will, I feel, in stagnation. True innovation does not exist today and if we look for this, then we must turn to composers of two previous periods in the twentieth century. Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenl:arg and Varese are the figt.l+'es in the first in the we have Messiaen, John Cage and Stockhausen. All these artists were (and are) huge sources of energy and they revitalised con-servative, eastablished trends. Artists following in their footsteps do not innovate at as Tippett would have us believe, but carry out ideas stemm-ing the main sources, creating new works-of art conditionE?d by their own lives and experiences. Certainly the period of art after the Second World War is very unstabie. The over-activity of tC?day 1 s artist is leading nowhere, not that it should, but as a result, I think that we are beginning to stag-'nate, just as society is in its desire for extremes-. ;On the other. hand, the results of improvisation, and electronic music are very l:lberating indeed; but does this mean that these two forms are the only cure for stagnation? (This all depends on whe.ther .I am correct in seeing imminent stagnation) .. The opened up bythE;l above forms are endless; (and to a certain extent electronic music), not unlike an operatic nria, crystallises in one set period.of time an irreplaceable, unrepeqtable n1_oment. Sureiy the value of this could never involve a question of _stagnation. The very immediacy of musical is surely necessary for a demanding audience, and the spontaneity of inventioJ:J. of a group of musi-cal people is a priceless as a (notated) Haydn string quartet. Disease sets in when these liberating influences are treated in a' dilletante manner with assumed innovation. The role of the artist in today's society can be rescued, I feel, if it is regarded with some respect for tradition. Even Stockhausen as much as admits this, and stagnation can be cured by forgetting innovation and developing a traditon liberated by the true innovators. When Tippett says that innovation can become establishment (tradition) •• • • does he mean that the avant-garde is not a period of art but an approach to art? JOHN CASKEN. 

A Case of Mistaken Identity

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A Case of Mistaken Identity

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