THE STRONG SILENT TYPE: MASCULINITY AND WANDELWEISER MUSIC

Masculinity is not just about being the loudest; it is a contradictory network of relationships relating to power, control and work. Deploying the methodology first developed in Raewyn Connell's Masculinities (1995), this article argues that Wandelweiser works exhibit masculine social ordering. Silence presents apparent creative agency which is ultimately governed by the composer; fragile timbres strain the bodies of both the performers and listeners and encourage constant labour; openness displaces authorship, leaving interpreters to fill a composer-shaped hole. Analysis of these facets reveals a top-down power dynamic from these composers of the quiet that is integrally related to Connell's conception of hegemonic masculinity: the composer encourages reproduction and questioning of their dominant role from interpreters, which, counterintuitively, implicates their position of power. This investigation is interwoven with diary entries exposing and critiquing my own compositional process, demonstrating how masculinity is performed throughout my creative process and its subsequent documentation. This article explores how subversive, even if invisible, elements of masculinity lie within the process and product of composing instrumental music that initially may seem to counter typical ‘masculine’ musics.