Louis andriessen de staat firestarter

I wrote De Staat(The Republic) as a contribution to the discussion about the place of music in politics. To keep the issues straight it is necessary to differentiate between three aspects of the social phenomenon called music: 1.

De Staat (The Republic), Louis Andriessen - LA Phil

Its conception (devising and planning by the composer), 2. Its production (performance) and 3. Its consumption. Production and consumption are by definition if not political then at least social.

Louis Andriessen – De Staat – CD (Album), 1991 [r3022455

The situation is more intricate when it comes to the actual composing. Many composers feel that the act of composing is 'suprasocial'. I don’t agree. How you arrange your musical material, what you do with it, the techniques you use, the instruments you score for, all of this is determined to a large extent by your own social circumstances, your education, environment and listening experience, and the availability—or non-availability—of symphony orchestras and government grants.

The only point on which I agree with the liberal idealists is that a