{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/50554"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/50554","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"The radical music of John Zorn, Diamanda Galás, and Merzbow: a hermeneutic approach to expressive noise","abstract":"Music at the turn of the twenty-first century has expanded in new, previously inconceivable directions, many of which espouse a newfound freedom from dominant models of beauty and aesthetic excellence. From this musical space, vital new musical practices are emerging from composers such as John Zorn, Diamanda Galás, and Merzbow; however, because their music is so utterly unconventional, existing critical tools are failing to lead toward a greater understanding of the meaning created through the music. This interpretive lacuna has compelled the present study, which seeks to create a discursive space along with appropriate critical tools to help scholars and listeners better understand new streams of radical music from the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. The radical music of John Zorn, Diamanda Galás, and Merzbow presents special hermeneutic challenges to anyone who endeavors to find meaning within their aggressively alienating expressive languages. To this end, I propose a multifaceted, multi-perspectival approach that is grounded the hermeneutic philosophy of Paul Ricoeur and the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, but that also emerges organically from the exigencies of the works under consideration. Across case studies on Zorn, Galás, and Merzbow, I demonstrate how a hermeneutic approach can uncover comprehensible musical meaning even when confronting the extreme expressive languages of these composers. Ultimately, I hope to provide a model for future investigations into musical meaning to help elucidate the work of other radical composers.","abstract_html":"Music at the turn of the twenty-first century has expanded in new, previously inconceivable directions, many of which espouse a newfound freedom from dominant models of beauty and aesthetic excellence. From this musical space, vital new musical practices are emerging from composers such as John Zorn, Diamanda Galás, and Merzbow; however, because their music is so utterly unconventional, existing critical tools are failing to lead toward a greater understanding of the meaning created through the music. This interpretive lacuna has compelled the present study, which seeks to create a discursive space along with appropriate critical tools to help scholars and listeners better understand new streams of radical music from the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. The radical music of John Zorn, Diamanda Galás, and Merzbow presents special hermeneutic challenges to anyone who endeavors to find meaning within their aggressively alienating expressive languages. To this end, I propose a multifaceted, multi-perspectival approach that is grounded the hermeneutic philosophy of Paul Ricoeur and the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, but that also emerges organically from the exigencies of the works under consideration. Across case studies on Zorn, Galás, and Merzbow, I demonstrate how a hermeneutic approach can uncover comprehensible musical meaning even when confronting the extreme expressive languages of these composers. Ultimately, I hope to provide a model for future investigations into musical meaning to help elucidate the work of other radical composers.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Wilson, Steven"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Musicology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Magee, Gayle S.","Buchanan, Donna A.","Solis, Gabriel","Silvers, Michael"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-09-16T17:23:48Z","date_published":"2014-09-16T17:23:48Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:40Z","subjects":["Hermeneutics","Experimental Music","John Zorn","Diamanda Galas","Merzbow","Jacques Lacan","Paul Ricoeur"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2014 Steven Wilson"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/50554","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Magee, Gayle S.","Buchanan, Donna A.","Solis, Gabriel","Silvers, Michael"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Wilson, Steven"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2014-09-16T17:23:48Z","2014-08","2014-09-16"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Musicology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Hermeneutics","Experimental Music","John Zorn","Diamanda Galas","Merzbow","Jacques Lacan","Paul Ricoeur"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2014 Steven Wilson"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/50554"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Music at the turn of the twenty-first century has expanded in new, previously inconceivable directions, many of which espouse a newfound freedom from dominant models of beauty and aesthetic excellence. 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To this end, I propose a multifaceted, multi-perspectival approach that is grounded the hermeneutic philosophy of Paul Ricoeur and the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, but that also emerges organically from the exigencies of the works under consideration. Across case studies on Zorn, Galás, and Merzbow, I demonstrate how a hermeneutic approach can uncover comprehensible musical meaning even when confronting the extreme expressive languages of these composers. 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To this end, I propose a multifaceted, multi-perspectival approach that is grounded the hermeneutic philosophy of Paul Ricoeur and the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan, but that also emerges organically from the exigencies of the works under consideration. Across case studies on Zorn, Galás, and Merzbow, I demonstrate how a hermeneutic approach can uncover comprehensible musical meaning even when confronting the extreme expressive languages of these composers. 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