Irreal worlds: Constructions of phenomenal 'space' in experimental music, 1962-1978

An epistemic thread connects the discourse of twentieth-century aesthetics and phenomenology, asserting that works of art disclose a sort of "world," as well as an associated view of reality that accords with the subject's primordial and embodied sense of being. The concept of "world" can be understood more generally as phenomenal "space," or the "total" lived experience. Although the phenomenal realm is dependent upon the acquisition of sensory stimuli, it is categorically concerned with essences and will, at some point, transcend the perceptual. Indeed, insofar as this phenomenal "space" facilitates a path beyond the immediate perceptions of the empirical or "real" world, it can be characterized most fundamentally by its tendency to exhibit certain so-called "irreal" experiences.;The aim of this discussion is two-fold: first, to elaborate on the concept of the "irreal" in relation to the aural experience, as borrowed from a collection of ideas expressed in continental philosophy; and, second, to place the occurrence of this phenomenon in the context of certain forms of music that were particularly heightened toward this type of musical engagement. The approaches of three composers in particular - namely, La Monte Young, Eliane Radigue, and Iannis Xenakis - serve in various ways as especially illuminative cases of such phenomena. Although the compositional styles, aesthetic preferences, and approaches to timbre differ in certain fundamental ways between these three composers, they are united insofar as their work promotes the creation of an environment in which the essence of the aesthetic or perceptual experience is quite unique from the objective world in which it manifests.