A Great Composer of Time
One of the themes in my ongoing work on the music of Jóhann Jóhannsson is the difference and overlap between diegetic and non-diegetic music. That is, music that characters in a film or television show can hear — played through a radio or performed in front of them — and that which can only be heard by the viewer.
Though this paper — presented at Historical Materialism in London on November 10th, 2023 — doesn’t take up that specific topic, in writing it, I realized that I would be unable to do what is commonly done in most presentations on the politics of music: play a part of a song, then talk about it, followed by another song and yet another block of spoken text. I would need to play the music as I spoke about it. So, I invite you to play the audio (which includes samples of Jóhannsson’s work) and read along as you listen.
I have no idea whether this successfully communicates the brilliance of Jóhannsson’s music, but am comfortable leaving that for readers/listeners to judge for themselves. Text and audio are available to paid subscribers below.
