Singing Theory

What is it about academic theory that begs to be, well, sung by people who can't sing? Our pal Brian J. Davis has provided a punk rock response: An EP of Theodor Adorno's bleak classic Minima Moralia set to thrash-rock. MP3s: The, The People | This Side of the Pleasure Prinsiple | UNmeasure for UNmeasure |  Johnn Head In The Air |  Every Work of Art is an Uncommitted Crime

Brian's not the first one to tackle this. Finnish eccentric genius M.A.Numminen composed six songs to the book "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" by philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in 1966 (listen to A Proposition Is [MP3]). And these works have alas (sadly for my listeners), spawned my own adventures into the field: Kenny G Sings Wittgenstein (MP3) Part 1 | Part 2. Ouch.

Comments

[brian]

I seem to remember Wittgenstein coming up in both the Most Wanted and Most Unwanted songs by Melamid & Kumar. That's just how far-reaching his appeal is.

[cat dirt]

and i just added horkheimer and adorno's "the dialectic of enlightenement" as my blog's favorite book.

[Charbel El-Hani]

M. A. Nuuminen studied philosophy at the University of Helsinki, said to me one of the professors there. This is the probable origin of the idea of singing the Tractactus. I indeed has this CD at my hands at Helsinki. Very sorry for not have bought it. Very funny to listen to Wittgenstein sang in this way.