Local exoticism: the musical culture of Austria in the works of Georg Friedrich Haas (Translated by Yuliya Veksler)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of local exoticism in the microtonal music of the modern Austrian and American composer Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953). The author identifies the local origins of Haas' microchromatics, which include the atmosphere of the fin de siècle musical Vienna (the discordant, blurred orchestral sound of that time), the timbre of the Alpine horn, a specially designed instrument that is shown to tourists in the Alps, and local “musique concrète” (the buzzing of a transformer booth in the place where the composer spent his childhood years). As a result, the author comes to a revision of the concept of exoticism, which includes not only “alien as one's own”, but also “one's own as another's”.

Keywords

Georg Friedrich Haas, microchromatics, exoticism, localism, alpine horn