Being the other: defamiliarization processes in musical composition

Abstract

This investigation applies posthumanist theories and ideas in musical composition, more specifically, to explore the possibility of achieving critical distance. To accomplish this, I explore two important concepts: defamiliarization, and the idea of being the other. Both ideas have been approached by scholars using various methods and terminologies (Rosi Braidotti, Theodor Adorno), as well as by composers (John Cage, Arnold Schoenberg, Luigi Nono, Ming Tsao, and Steven Takasugi). The result is a reflection on rethinking musical language in general, and how this became a trend in the music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.