Conference Booklet - Music - National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Or we could single out Schubert‘s depiction of mechanical music in ‗Der Leiermann‘,
which leads to recent popular electronic music, 1970s to present, some subgenres of which
emphasize non-human sounds and repeating rhythms, separating the music from the natural
realm of human emotion. This ‗posthuman‘ aesthetic is best exemplified by groups such as
Kraftwerk (who in 1977 released a track entitled ‗Franz Schubert‘), and by the very young
musicians who have created the tradition of Detroit techno as a response to life in that
postindustrial American city. Since the 1990s, electronic music has also gradually replaced
traditional sounds in Bollywood.
This conjunction of sampling with mechanized music and a desire to reconfigure natural
age relationships suggests that Winterreise belongs more to a genre characteristic of the late 20th
century than to Schubert‘s own time. This genre represents the penetration of the thoughts of
young artists into the ―heart of darkness‖, which shou ld be distinguished from contemplation
of death. And it must be remembered that the coldness of Winterreise stands out even among
Schubert‘s works as exceptional. For him, the posthuman vision was only one aspect of life, an
aspect he could understand but which did not dominate either his life or his work.