The End of Swiss New Music
A thought provocation
Patrick Frank
After the fall of the Berlin Wall politologist F. Fukuyama diagnosed The End of History: what was meant by that was the triumph of liberal, democracy-based capitalism over concurrent ideologies, notably communism. Frank describes the era between the fall of the wall and 9/11 the “eutopic phase” – this period is the witness of the rise of rightwing populist parties as well as the dissolution of the “critical stance” (Foucault) by a conservative mindset that pervades even the Swiss New Music scene. This stance displays opportunism, a lack of artistic vision, indifference and the absence of critical discourse. That, however, leads to the end of Swiss New Music as an innovation-driven field of experiment of musical forms of expression.
