1 Cosmos, Rhythm and Plane (Approach to Sonorous Production) Richard Pinhas

Only now has it dawned on humanity that music is a figurative language of the passions: and later we will learn how to recognise clearly the impulsive system of a musician through his music. In truth, he did not intend to betray himself in this manner.1

That music is the figurative language [le langage figur of the passions, that it implies the discernment of the whole set of instincts: this is what !iet"sche affirms of a musician, and he means to e#tend it, without dou$t, to all possi$le music. %onorous production evo&es a singular &ind of instinct: a relation of forces that can in principle $e 'uantified and 'ualified. These are 'uantities of energy ('uanta) and 'ualities*powers (affects). + musical ,wor&- is a precipitate of determinate 'uantities of energy and e#presses determinate powers of $eing affected. .or e#ample: ,metal- music, $ecoming*water [le devenir eau , the crystal with the glass*harmonica of /o"art.0 These involve real syntheses, whether they $e analogical or digital, of forces determining singular states, configurations uni'ue to singular moments, li&e instantaneous cuts in Time (see 1eleu"e, The Time-Image). In the continuum of the plane of composition, this instantaneous cut determining the o$2ective state of sonorous forces, of actual multiplicities, is also a punctual description of affects, of affective comple#es e#pressed $y the play of these
1 [!iet"sche, Smtliche Werke: Kritische Studienausgabe (3erlin: 4alter de 5ruyter, 1678), 9ol. 11, pp. :17*16, ;: [0< , /ay*=uly 177:> cited in ?ierre @lossows&i, Nietzsche and the ici!us "ircle [16A6 , trans. 1. 4. %mith (Bondon: Continuum, 166D), pp. 0*; . 0 /etal: cf. the $rass in 4agner, $ut also .ripp and Eno, Inde# !f $etal, E5 Fecords. 4ater: 1e$ussy, %a mer, the &'uae of Edgar .roese. The syntheses: @raftwer& or indeed Geldon, $ut also contemporary ,intelligent- Techno (or metatechno): Chemical 3rothers, %canner, +phe# Twin.

0 powers. This data$le configuration of forces is the composition of the wor& in the organic $ody of the supposed musician (the agent or su(()t).; In its violence to individuated $odies, the sonorous $ody puts music itself into 'uestion. Instinct is an Encounter, the punctuation of a fulguration, H or, from the contrary perspective, a fi#ed state within which 'uantitative and 'ualititative multiplicities (o$2ective states of forces) seem to $e una$le to evolve further.< Bi&e a photo in the real world, this instantaneous cut is a fiction, li&e the fiction of the Intellect:: we thin& we can sei"e and interpret the regimes of signs and forms which constitute temporal reality, and date it precisely. 3ut that would $e a pure commodity. III

!iet"sche often ma&es reference to this notion of fi#ity: forces $ecome static, figured, fi#edA, enter a declination. This is a strategic relationship: he underlines the positions of the imple# of forces which, in the vital continuum of the plane, initialise and densify the process of e#pression. This procedure is e'ually &nown as Composition. The elementary forms of sonorous production, what constitutes the internal necessity of the ,wor&-, are what is a (ri!ri transparently visi$le and communica$le in this fi#ed state of forces. The necessity is strictly internal: it is Fhythm (the Jne'ual, in 1eleu"e-s terms), disengaged and comple# pressure, that $rings a$out the

; [Cf. 1aniel 4. %mith-s long informative note a$out the .rench term ,suppKt- in his introduction to his translation of @lossows&i-s Nietzsche and the ici!us "ircle: 4e have translated the unusual $ut important term su(()t as ,agent-. The word is derived from the Batin su((!situm, ,that which is placed under-. In contemporary usage, it refers to a su$ordinate who acts on $ehalf of someone else, such as a ,secret agent-, and usually implies that the su$ordinate is carrying out the designs of a wic&ed superior (#ii). < On the ,suppKt- and instinct, see @lossows&i, Nietzsche and the ici!us "ircle . On the notion of ,encounter-, see also .ripp as much as 1eleu"e. : [Cf. 3ergson-s notion of ,intellect- in "reative *v!luti!n, chapter III (trans. +. /itchell, Banham: Jniversity ?ress of +merica, 167; [1611 , pp. 17A*008 . A The +ay Science , -!sthum!us .ragments, /III*1.

; sym$iosis of music with the elements. Fhythm, or the Jne'ual, renders vi$rations sensi$le.D The movement is a spanning out [balayage , operated within duration through a condensation, of elementary forms (simple or already composed, comple# se'uences). This movement is, $y definition, the circulation of densities in the sonorous continuum (operative nuclei, analogical modulators, syntheses of tessiturae, numerical ,manipulators- of time and data, etc.) %u$mitted to rhythm, movement gives $irth to the oscillatory principle of the plane of musical composition. In the comple# world of a$stract sonorous forces, continuous /ovement (or 9ariation) H which 3ergson got close to defining with his concept of duration as ,indivisi$le continuity of movement- H is left to unfold itself. Fhythm in the fundamental oscillation which determines the duration of a music, its pure heterogeneity. Fhythm is the e#act contrary of metrics, of the homogeneous. In the Temporality of the world, it is the real distri$utor: rhythm is the Jne'ual that is immanent to the plane of sonorous composition. It is the development of an active principle of movement, and it literally composes the plane of effectuation of sonorous $eings. ?ure and strict ontological unity.

III

4ill it $e one day necessary to formalise the relations $etween Time and %ilence, music and the cosmos, the constitution and efficacity of singular musical Ideas, the sinuous yet stellar relations of a Theory of the Geavens with the creation of a sonorous transhistorical continuumL + 'uestion posed $y !iet"sche, to which musicians and nomads are $eholden for a reply.
D .arrachi, %a -art du silence> 1eleu"e, /ifference and 0e(etiti!n.

< +t its limit point, the little refrain [la (etite rit!urnelle no dou$t implies a /usic of the %pheres. + single cosmos, a single and uni'ue ?lane, perhaps even a single refrain, renewed without cease, a musical e#pression of the Eternal Feturn. Fhythm is essentially Ontological, and the whole history of music can from a certain perspective $e seen as a plea for a true Ontology of the Jne'ual. Constituting and non*constituted, Fhythm and connected durations (or simultaneous temporalities) are the genetic principles of the musical a$stract machine: they engender diagrams of concrete effectuations, ma&ing the sonorous continuum audi$le here and now. The e#pressive positions of the relations of force are punctual densities. Certain statements can $e formulated for their performance and for the preservation of these relations. These statements, the modulators and tensors of language, are themselves the supports and vehicle of instinctive e#pressions. They articulate the always actual presence of sounds. In the same way, it is the inscription of the partition, in its singular temporality, that is imprinted upon the Idea of composition, and allows it to realise its presentation. In a differential time, and $y nature incompara$le, the instruments of the orchestra denominated as ,classical-, alongside the metallic guitars of ,thrash-, the electronic, cy$ertechnoid machine, all proceed towards the same actualisation. They are o$2ective concretions, or the real syntheses of effectuation. 3y nature, the Time of the writing of the composition is suspended, immaterial. It is in direct contact with the contraction and e#pansion of the passions. 1epositary of a special logic, em$odied in relations of forces, it is their figural language. Intimate to the passions, this semiotic language proceeds $y direct signs: it presents itself as in an immediate relation of ade'uation with sonorous matter, an instantaneous translation, $ut still a translation. It has formal modalities of e#ecution,

: and different modes of articulation proper to a system of language. 3ut it proceeds $y direct signs, sonorous images, figures of e#pression, icons> it is a semiotic modulatory language resonating with synthetic continuous modulation: a type of inscription in real diagrams, an asignifying semiotic, and one that is a long way off from the pleasant fantasy of the language of passions con2ured up $y Fousseau. It is grafted onto the system of interpretation of the instincts, as a privileged transductor. 4hen 4agnerian motifs are contracted, and the e#pressed content incarnates the continuity of differential relations, or the virtual unconscious idea (1eleu"e, /ifference and 0e(etiti!n) of the infinite melody, then e#pressivity, or the power of movement, can attain in strategic regimes a degree of consistency that is proper to figures of e#pression. Genceforth, these figures are a$le to disengage e#pressed contents which together form the true content of music itself: metal*affects, the crystal of the glass* harmonica, the organic oscillation of magnetic delay, the cold numericisation of numerical delays, the mythology of the 5rail, even 2ust comple# repetition itself, etc. The tas& is to ma&e an account of the .ormative elements, of the treatments of materials, of the diverse syntheses, of the organisation in segments or in aggregates, se'uences and motifs, of the degree of concrete effectuation and of their o$2ective, pragmatic conditions: the powers, the modes and the 'ualities of statements*affects. E#pressivity is here finally raised to the level of the diagram, with rhythm as the active and a$solute principle. /usic is a cosmic $ecoming [devenir . The plane.

III

Bet us listen to %a mer. 4hat affection, what figurative language of the passions, which sensations does it e#pressL It seems to enter into an empathetic and directly

A material relationship with its acoustic elements. 4e hear the surf, $ut even more the vital connection to li'uid molecules and to fluidity. + continuous sym$iosis of sonorous materials and marine elements pushed to a higher, non*organic, power emanates out of its composition. !otes and tim$res, harmonies, identify themselves, ta&ing on the guise of sonorous !ature, of molecules of water. In a living rapport, music ta&es charge of the e#pression and the supersensi$le potential of the Sea. The sonorous composition is the vehicle of the powers and affects of water: it ma&es marine time audi$le in its idiosyncrasy. +nd marine Time in turn $ecomes a s!n!r!us Idea. This metamorphosis of musical $eings is indeed down to the forces of the composer: we can o$serve Fichard 4agner constructing the continuous melody in which love*passion and suffering are e#pressed in the grandeur of motifs in a time of simultane!us c!m(!ssibility. It is through the same procedure that =imi Gendri# discharges the shame of the +merican nation following the 9ietnam war (and its great health following the destitution of !i#on), when he emits showers of slow*motion flaming napalm and gyring shafts of harmony, out of phase and suspended, on a marvellous guitar transmuted into a celestial element. +s if he has $ecome pure 1oppler effect, Gendri# sends our ,self- spinning out of phase, to the profit of a virtually infinite collection of fluctuating and metamorphic identities. These are su$lime and terrestrial e#pressions of the 4ill to ?ower. The ,good- organisation of form and the structural unity of the wor&, the supposed matri# of the narrative (cf. Byotard, /isc!urs1 figure), all disappear to the profit of a new distri$ution of materials and tessiturae, and of a magnificent dispersion of sonorous aggregates: the $reathing [s!uffle of the formative elements that are proper to musical $eing.

D /usic puts sound material into continuous variation. It is the apology of the molecular continuum, and as such it recovers the primordial meaning of cosmic, transfinite powers: the noise of the depths of the universe, and of chaotic, unlimited e#pansion, of matter, materials and $ecomings (see 1eleu"e*5uattari, ,Of the Fefrain-, in & Th!usand -lateaus). + test of resonances and percussions, music presents itself through Jne'ual movement in the real, in connected and simultaneous durations, $ut a$ove all as an a (ri!ri Temporal synthesiser. %a mer, an acoustic series of metamorphoses, an emission of a'uatic affects. Other e#amples: @raftwer&: analogical man in his machinic $ecoming, a melange of ca$les and data, on his path to a grandiose metamorphosis in the universe of num$ers. 3rian Eno and his impercepti$le $ecomings, his properly atm!s(heric music, with its !bli'ue strategies.

III

4e have to try to understand the syntheses proper to the comple# composition of a musical landscape, syntheses that e#ceed the usual academic, lyrical and figurative forms. It is in musical art as a whole that, $y virtue of its interior power, we attain the life of the elemental: the songs of the Earth, the su$limity of mountain heights, weather music, the tellurian Mlan of little differences and of terri$le Fepetition (?hilip 5lass). /usic should also $e understood as a final contraction, one that at last renders the density of the s&y audi$le, giving e#pression to the differences in which a freedom for the end of the world $ecomes possi$le, a forced movement towards an unsaya$le universe (1eleu"e, /ifference and 0e(etiti!n).

7 1eleu"e &new how to articulate the convergence of history and music towards a common limit: the ma&ing sonorous of the cosmos, and the confounding of the organism through sonorous and luminous powers. One imagines the intense and repeated usage of a non*figurative material, precipitating the mo$ile constellations of forms and contents. ?roust as musician, the sonata of 9inteuil> or even 3audelaire, when he descri$es the movement of the soul of a continuous melody in the su$lime and celestial whiteout of 4agnerian musical drama. The analogical repetitive cells and molecular se'uences of .ripp and Eno (Filey, Geldon, Feich). If music is indeed the figurative language of the passions, the figuration should not $e conceived as an interpretative register of impulsive signs, nor as some sort of faithful representation of waves of intensity. It ta&es place on a different level, in the passage from sense to representation, where there is a limiting silence (.arrachi, 3lanchot). There is no signifier that can give us an evaluation of the sonorous passion. %pea&ing in the manner of .reud, one has to imagine a radical $arrier $etween the flu# of the primary process and the secondary order that is inha$ited $y words. .rom one sphere to the other, the only interpretative path is the production of .igures, of compositions: sensi$le e#pressions of forces wor&ing upon and in the ,wor&-. .or !iet"sche, figuring, in the sense of the 4ill to ?ower, is different to e#pressing. E#pression is a power, a strategic regime, an operative concrete mode, an aristocratic type of regime. .iguration (the ,figural- in =ean*.ranNois Byotard-s sense) is an ela$oration, a transformative wor& of energies through which the circulation of metamorphoses provo&es the Transvaluati!n that is $ound up with $ecoming. If figuration is a level of the synthesis of composition, ,the figurative- is to figuration what sentiment is to the sensation. 1evaluation, reactivity, and the nihilistic collapse

6 of the ,ego- into itself. .iguration is a power of e#pression, $ut the figurative, on the contrary, leads straight into the regime of representation. The process of sonorous production puts into action at least three sorts of temporality, which can succeed or enter into a simultaneous interweaving with each other. These types do not define the 'ualities of 1uration proper to the ,wor&-, $ut rather delimit the diverse times of the composition in its concrete effectuation. There e#ists an Integral -resent of the organisation of musical $eings, which depends directly on the ?resence of sonorous forces, on dynamics, accents and densities: the a (ri!ri presence of Fhythm and the continuity of movement. In this case, the Time of simultaneities H where such a time e#ists H is always ontologically $ound to definite rhythms, as an empirico*transcendental comple#. The 2ne'ual is the great integrator, the principle of distri$utions and of movement.7 Inserted into the Time of reproduction, music $ecomes audi$le. The movement of its e#ecution is contemporary with the process of hearing it, so it implies a certain ,su$2ectivity-. 3ound to the forms and variations of perception, it delimits a living time which is actualised in the ,su$2ective- durations proper to the ,Bogic of %ensations- (1eleu"e). /usic that has $een reified through a written score e#ists eternally (an eternal o$2ect in 4hitehead-s sense)> $ut it can also remain in this inaudi$le state. 4hence its literally infinite character: its incorporeal sounds, $eyond milieu, $eyond even the vi$rations of air. There is a &ind of a temporality in parentheses, a sort of o$2ective Time in which music implicates itself in compact and virtual forces, always endowed with possi$le actualisations. The time of musical writing differs $y nature from ordinary time $ecause it a Time of production: of diagrams in connection with pure
7 This characteristic of simultaneity posits the synthesis of the 2ne'ual and affirms the presence of specifically musical time. %ee 1eleu"e, /ifference and 0e(etiti!n.

18 o$2ectivity (the planes of composition of sonorous syntheses). +n illustration of the sonorous Infinitive: certain letters of /o"art affirm the thought that the surging forth of musical composition is li&e the unravelling of a pure Idea: it is as if everything $egins with a dream or contracted point, dense and concrete, re'uiring only an unfolding or e#plication, even an e#pression, a sort of narration of the sonorous flu#.

III

In the contracted time of the condensation of musical 3eings, the nuclear Time of sonorous Ideas, $eyond the supposed su$2ectivity of composers, the only thing that counts are densities of duration and the inclusive infle#ions that are made of the realised suprasensi$le hori"on. %imultaneity of 4agnerian motifs, differential repetitions of organo*metallic syntheses in Fo$ert .ripp, the great analogy of simple rhythms in @raftwer&: an array of multiplicities each leading to the su$lime and to the a$solute. It is the a$solute density of the ,wor&-, of Fhythm, insofar as it is the Ine'ual, that grounds the great sonorous a$stract machine. It is a passage through milieu# and it creates c!nsistency> it distri$utes acoustic tensors or electronic tropes (electrotropes), deploying modules of variation. ?erhaps these electrotropes illustrate the first phases in a genetic sonorous mutation, of which the terminal state would $e ,schi"otropes-. %ynthetic modulation a (ri!ri condenses connected and simultaneous temporalities and engenders the strategies of the diagram. %onorous production is necessarily a &ind of essential sim(lificati!n: flowing out from the core of forces, showing its structures as it goes, e#tracting the purest intensities, ma&ing evident the very process of composition (Eno, 3oule", 5lass and .ripp possess this procedure in common). 3oule" e#plains how the diagram simplifies

11 movement in the strategic regime of the ,Overture-. It was the new $lood of the ,$ar$arians-, a &ind of electric shoc& applied without tact to chlorotic organisms. 6 In alge$ra, the term ,simplification- is applied when the terms of an e'uation are reduced to a more direct e#pression. In this sense, the 0ite may $e spo&en of as an essential simplification.18 This procedure of simplification is the innovation H necessarily highly performative H that $elongs to contemporary music. +s soon as the figurative language of the passions gains a consistency, e#pression is released on the plane of musical composition, in diagram and rhythm. In his reflections on rhythm, 3oule" inverts the usual critical perspectives: 4ith %travins&y, the pre*eminence of rhythm is shown $y the reduction of polyphony and harmony to su$ordinate functions. 11 The concrete rhythm which fills $odies is at once real empirical sensation, and the ma2or element of composition: it orders the world of effective syntheses. 3ut this real rhythm itself is dependent on another plane, the plane of the a$stract musical machine, the great sonorous Fhi"osphere. The dis3unctive synthesis !f simultaneities is carried !ut !n this immanent (lane !f unengendered 0hythm. Bet us follow !iet"sche: The concept of revelation H in the sense that suddenly, with indescri$a$le certainty and su$tlety, something $ecomes visible, audi$le, something that sha&es one to the last depths and throws one down H that merely descri$es the facts [O One is altogether $eside oneself, with the distinct consciousness of a multiplicity of shudders radiating down to ones toes: a depth of happiness in which even what is most painful and gloomy does not seem something opposite $ut rather conditioned, provo&ed, a necessary colour in such a
6 ,?rMsentation du Sacre du -rintem(s-, C3% 1is'ues. [Translated as ,%travins&y: The 0ite !f S(ringin ?ierre 3oule", 4rientati!ns, ed. =*=. !attie", trans. /. Cooper, Bondon: .a$er P .a$er, 167A), pp. ;A0*A;. ?inhas-s .rench te#t for the first sentence of the 'uotation reads ,chaotic- instead of 3oule"-s original ,chloroti'ue- . 18 I$id, ;A0 [Translation modified . 11 I$id, ;A;.

10 supera$undance of light> an instinct for rhythmic relationships that recovers immense e#tensions of forms H duration, the need for overarching rhythms, this is almost the measure of the power of inspiration, a &ind of compensation for its pressure and tension (*cce 5!m!, ,Thus %po&e Qarathustra-, R ;). 10 %peeds and slownesses, relations of movement and rest, are fundamental to the relations of rhythm. +n internal need to am(lify rhythm can $e ascri$ed to forms li&e durations, in the sense that rhythm, along with style, including great style, are the fundamental elements to all formation of sovereignty, to all e#pression of power, to all possi$le creation.

III

The rhythm of the wor&, of the se'uence, of the aggregate, even of a uni'ue sound, a point of singularity or infle#ion, is immediately derived from the ontological Fhythm produced $y the a$stract sonorous machine. It is for instance only through the accomplishment of properly diagrammatic procedures that figured or fi#ed co* ordinates are definitively eliminated from The 0ite. Gence the need to highlight accentuated modes of rhythm in any analysis of the properties of pulsation (3oule" again). The intrinsic consistency and internal density of the ,wor&- are the concrete issue of the continuum of compossi$le sounds, a virtual musical flu# that tends towards the dispersion of events, the distri$ution of materials and intensities, the e#pression and the development of melodies. To form unheard*of acoustic traces, to e#press cosmic resonances, to e#acer$ate the great fundamental pulsation, and finally to render music ne$ulous, an audi$le and sonorous gas: celestial diffraction and magical $reathing. .rom this moment, musical 6eings are taken t! be c!m(!sed !f
10 [*cce 5!m!, trans. 4. @aufmann (!ew Sor&: Fandom Gouse, 16AD), ;88. Translation modified .

1; s!n!r!us Ideas. They $ecome ontological essences upon the plane of sonorous composition. ,/odernity- perhaps consists in nothing other than this passage from the structure Comple# of 3ach to the materials-re(etiti!n Imple# of our contemporaries. +s with derived rhythms, essential sim(lificati!n can $e applied a (ri!ri to any particular element or form. Ta&e for e#ample The 0hineg!ld. The long introduction develops a single dou$le accord, at once a particular &ind of tessitura and a real s&etch of a motif. 4hen, in turn, the same la$our is applied once more to the concrete rhythm, it is the pulsation itself that $egins to magnify itself (cf. 4e$ern and abs!lute necessity). /usic then $ecomes the Time of the world, the virtual Oscillation of the cosmos, radiating out from the noise of the depths of the universe.

III

Bet us recapitulate. In its purest state1;, the concrete rhythmic impulsion leads towards a Fhythm that is differential insofar as it is Jne'ual. This is a comple# Fhythm, which effectuates dis2unctive and affirmative syntheses of simultaneous and connected durations, and composes the coe#istence of all movements and every compossi$le sonorous world. Each line of duration corresponds intimately to a specific sonorous universe, a monad*sound> each rhythm descri$es a singularity of

1; 3oule": The e#treme and most characteristic e#ample of this new state of affairs is furnished $y the ,1ances of the Soung 5irls-, where !ne chord contains, literally, the entire invention. Feduced to its simplest and most summary e#pression ($ecause a single chord cannot imply any functional relationship), the harmony serves as material for rhythmical ela$oration which is perceived $y means of accents. The orchestration helps us to hear these accents more clearly, $y the ,$ar&ing- of the horns a$ove the continuity of the strings. This is how we perceive music so conceived: $efore worrying a$out what chord we are hearing, we are sensitive to the (ulse emitted $y this chord. ,5lorification of the Chosen 9ictim-, or ,%acrificial 1ance-, though they are less simplified moments, impress initially in the same manner> for, $eyond melodic fragments (which repetition allows us to grasp so 'uic&ly as to neutralise them), what we hear is the rhythmic impulse almost in its pure state (3oule", ,%travins&y: The 0ite !f S(ring-, ;A;).

1< plane and the plane of immanence itself $ecomes confused in its sym$iosis with the 2ne'ual. + simple musical 3eing (or se'uence) is constituted of microrhythms, and is produced rhythmically (its $eing in the world is of a rhythmical nature, an amplified rhythmO). It modulates according to metamorphic processes, or internal rhythmic variations (pulsation), or again of the type ,encounters- (.ripp and 1eleu"e ma&e their apologies $ecause of c!mmitments). The (e!(ling the plane of sonorous composition is carried out $y such modulations. 3ehaviour, appearances, and modalities of $eing H all these are essentially rhythmical. /usical 3eings are rhythmical comple#es, and without dou$t we are too.

III

To sum up, we understand well that there e#ists a play of relative speeds inherent to rhythm> on the one hand, differential movements of speeds and slowness, on the other, modulations of possi$ilities: the putting into continuous variation of musical $eings and infle#ions, the differential rhythms of se'uential and simultaneous durations (c!m(!ssibility according to Bei$ni", interi!r simultaneity for !iet"sche). Tristan: ,I am the world-. The soul of the world, Fhythm is the essence of music: it is its most vital and fundamental compound, its a$solute necessity. %onorous compossi$ility consists in the simultaneity of e#position of multiplicities of motifs in varia$le and differential rhythms, and in heterogeneous durations affirmed as real and co*present. +lready the propositions of the Timaeus encompass a multiplicity of heterogeneous and irreduci$le temporalities, under the form of a plurality of wandering stars, each

1: possessing its own chronicity, its own singular movement, $ound to the rhythm of its tra2ectory (?lato, Timaeus, ;6$*d, <1e). Insofar as it is Jne'ual, Fhythm is the a (ri!ri founder of the syntheses of composition. +n ontological fold $etween Time and %ilence, it unfolds the process of differenciation and effectuates the putting into continuous variation of lines of simultaneous duration. Fhythm, great modulator of Time and of duration, concretises synthetic sonorous modulation. Fhythmic impulsion is the concrete and active face of constitutive difference. 3ecome material, it realises the composition of the plan of sonorous consistency. It is why rhythmic pulsation literally incarnates of the soul of the world: repetitive electronic se'uences in Fo$ert .ripp, displacement of accents in ?hilip 5lass, the nomadic machine in $inary tempo in @raftwer&, the industrial electrothrash machine in Geldon, metallic syntheses and aggregates of voice $ecome pure material in %chi"otrope. Biterature develops a particular &ind of analogy with the musical machine: the oscillation of the pendulum. It scans the eternity of J$i&, and the pure present of compossi$les.1< %trange creature of /m!ns et $erveilles [a .rench edition of the tales of Bovecraft , the entity Fandolph Carter incarnates this compossi$ility. Fandolph Carter H or rather all that he has $een, is, and will $e simultaneously (Bovecraft) H echoes %pino"a-s classic proposition: that the duration of things can $e held intact in a uni'ue moment, which comprises eternity.1: .rom the imaginary music of Erich Qann to ethereal perfection of -arsifal, it is the same a$solute necessity and the same pulsation which traverses the world of sounds. Bovecraft provides a description of the finite plane of integration, the species
1< This pea& of the present (see 1eleu"e, "inema 7: The Time-Image [chapter : ) unfolds events into heterogeneous and simultaneous durations (perceptions, acts, ideas, dates, etc.) ends up leading to a multiplicity of lines of irreduci$le realities in the novels of ?hilip @. 1ic& and !orman %pinrad. 1: [?inhas here repeats 3ergson-s conception of %pino"ist eternity in the third chapter of the *ssay !n the Immediate /ata !f "!nsci!usness. The conception is not derived directly from %pino"a-s te#ts .

1A of a$solute movement, $y virtue of which sonorous production $ecomes a plane of composition.

III

%ound permits a sym$iosis $etween pulsation and rhythm capa$le of transmitting the electronic radiation of matter> that $ecomes /atter*/ovement and /atter*Time (1eleu"e). /usic e#presses the totality of the world: Through the truth of music the passions themselves can $e sei"ed (!iet"sche, 6ey!nd +!!d and *vil, < [18A ). The grail of musical e#pression is the transvaluation that attends the $eauty of an infinite melody, where the motifs descri$e suspended themes that correspond organically to the continuous modulation of movement: the transparency of the passions to music and the auto*affirmation of necessity raised to the highest power. Bi&e passions, music is constituted out of $reaths and meteorological elements (!iet"sche, %etters t! +ast). Out of reach of every interpretation, sonorous Ideas are incarnated in effectuations, in perspectives, in com$inations and infle#ions (Fameau): the autochronic nature of musical 3eings is passion. If we ta&e this perspective, the wor& of 4agner not only reveals a physiology, $ut the integral essence of music, the necessity held sacred $y 4e$ern. It is necessary for the great passions that music $ecomes cosmic, an oscillatory a$solute movement. In =uly 17::, Bis"t writes to 4agner: 5o to the mountains, compose, and put the whole s&y into your music.

%aint*BMonard H 9al d-IsTre, %ummer 086D.1A

1A The te#t was first pu$lished in the we$ 2ournal Synaesthesie in 1666, dated ;8U6U1666, and dedicated to /aurice 5. 1antec and 4illiam %. 3urroughs.

1D

Translated $y C. @ersla&e, 08.87.0887.