O presente artigo propõe-se primeiramente a examinar o argumento de Seth Kim-Cohen sobre a existência de um divisor de águas nas artes em meados do século XX a que atribui a origem de uma “virada epistemológica e ontológica” cultural profunda – situada, na música, no ano de 1948. Kim-Cohen aponta nessa data a confluência de três eventos decisivos para isso: o início das experimentações sonoras do engenheiro Pierre Schaeffer, nos estúdios da ORTF (Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française) e a primeira composição silenciosa de John Cage – lançando os princípios da música concreta e da aleatoriedade na música, como alternativa ao paradigma da música ocidental erudita. O terceiro evento assinalado por Kim-Cohen refere-se às gravações elétricas pioneiras de Muddy Water, em que a tecnologia, usada tanto na gravação como na reprodução sonora, por um lado amplifica e modifica o som acústico, por outro interfere na relação presença/ausência, dada pela interação entre os próprios músicos na performance musical, entre músicos e ouvintes, entre produção sonora e espaço acústico, além de tornar possível, a ampla circulação e utilização de músicas.
This paper aims at examining, first of all, Seth Kim-Cohen’s argument according to which the mid 20th century represented a hallmark in arts, with the beginning of a deep cultural “epistemological and ontological turn”. In music, the turning point was the year of 1948, when, for Kim-Cohen, three decisive events came together. First, the beginning of engineer Pierre Schaeffer’s sonorous experiments, in the ORTF studios (Office of Radiodiffusion Télévision Française) and, secondly, the first silent composition by John Cage. Together, they meant the release of the principles of concrete music and of aleatoric music as an alternative to western erudite music paradigm. The third event refers to Muddy Water’s pioneering electric recordings. In this case the technology used both in recording and in sound reproduction amplifies and modifies, on the one hand, the acoustic sound and, on the other hand, interferes in the presence / absence relation given by the interaction between the musicians themselves in musical performance, between musicians and listeners and between sound production and acoustic space, besides making possible the wide circulation and utilization of musical pieces. For understanding the effect of 20th century’s new technology in sound production and reproduction over postmodernity musical listening and composition, we focuse such effects in what they relate to composer Luciano Berio’s poetics as both a musical and aesthetical thought. The choice of this composer among so many others is justified and foremost by the particular way in which he articulates many of the questions that presented themselves to his generation, especially those between legacy, rupture and innovation, between sound-in-itself and the implicit meanings of his choices, between his personal journey and the awareness of his time, between personal expression and the feeling of historical responsibility and, finally, between representation of nationality and alterity.
