“Art and Democracy”

Interprets an “increasingly visible weariness and distrust towards democracy” and proposes the construction of contemporary “Academies of Art” to aid in the education of “mature” citizens. Lachenmann interpolates his remarks into two discourses. First, he invokes Schiller’s political theory of art by citing remarks on Schiller by Thomas Mann made in 1955. Where Schiller’s horror was the perceived failure of the French Revolution, Mann’s was half a century of world wars, and Lachenmann’s is the rise of anti-democratic political movements. Second, he links his “mature citizen” to a “degree of environmental awareness” which he is happy to report has taken root in contemporary politics. Connections between individuality, nature, and reform-minded liberalism famously articulated by Kant and Schiller continue to be adapted to contemporary discussions of art and society.

Lachenmann, Helmut

Translated by Wieland Hoban, 238–244. In The Second Century of New Music. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2011 [2008].

McCarthy, David

German

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