Agreed! The more I read of Gadamer, the more I see that he is committed to a kind of (modified) Platonic ontology. Also, I am pretty convinced that Gadamer is not a relativist. See Brice Wachterhauser’s essay in the Cambridge Companion to Gadamer. So perhaps these are areas where Gadamer and Derrida would differ? Again, I haven’t read enough of Derrida to be able to speak about him with any kind of genuine depth.

Best,
Cynthia

Perhaps the best place to look for the stuff on autobiography in Derrida is his short volume of a couple of essays entitled, The Ear of the Other. He also does some interesting things with authorship in Plato’s Pharmacy (from Disseminations).

Always good to hear from you. I appreciate your comments and agree that the jazz/classical divide is overrated. I also find your connections with Derrida interesting, especially in light of my very limited knowledge of Derrida.

Best wishes,
Cynthia

I really like the kind of “elasticisty” (I’ll come back to this) of a jazz lead sheet; the chordal structure remains the same, but any chordal structure already relates itself kind of inter-connectingly to other harmonic chordal structures…you can always substitute some chord for another (be it the relative minor or major, or something more complex if you have a 7 chord). So the really attentive and creative jazz player will allow the same song to come through but in a completely new way — and I really think that perhaps the greatest improvisations in jazz take place rhythmically, and not simply at the level of chordal substitutions.

With a classical score, it would seem that you don’t have this kind of flexibility. And yet, there is a precedent for the jazz lead sheet in classical music as well. Both in Renaissance and more fully-developed in the Baroque period, often scores would be written — for instrumentalists — with only chords upon which the virtuoso would improvise. Cuban composer Leo Brouwer calls this the “elasticity” of Bach’s baroque style…one that he says anticipates the “atonal serialism” of Berg and Webern and Schoenberg.

In another sense of course, and especially as an instrumentalist myself, even a “traditional” score is never performed the same way twice. I really kind of think that there is a kind of “otobiography” (to poach on Derrida) in the performance of a written piece…the performer is herslef re-writing the piece each time she plays it (and each time one’s ear takes in the music, it is taken in in a new way as well). And I think this kind of Derridean displacement of the author aligns itself pretty closely to what you are doing with Gadamer as well. Again, thanks for just a wonderful set of stimulating reflections. Looking forward to more! No one writes about music any more! Give me V Jankelevitch or give me death!