Favorite Books
Reading can be a time wonderfully spent. While I read a lot at random, the focused topics here relate to my profession, artistic life more generally, and sociological aspects of arts. As you've found the way to this site, I hope these books are fascinating for you as well.I love to hear the life stories of artists – but also of people outside the artistic and academic bubbles: interviews with and biographies of individuals who performed in sports, business, and politics, views of people who are socially empathic and have found inner peace. I love to read the reflections of those who can think outside the box and beyond ideological barriers because I'm convinced this is the precondition for embracing the complexity of life. I also enjoy studying texts from opposite parties – sometimes simultaneously. I'm never tired of listening to those who convincingly think about the power of changing oneself and starting anew. I admire authors who value history and know that thinking about the future is a must – especially for artists.
I've chosen mainly one representative work per writer and omitted many favorite authors – namely in philosophy – if their topics are distant from the arts. Concerning music, I've focussed on the more contemporary and electronic creation.
Philosophy, Aesthetics
Electronic Music
Psychology
Interviews, Biographical
Advice Literature
Miscellaneous
Philosophy, Aesthetics
Theodor W. Adorno: Ästhetische Theorie, Suhrkamp, 1970.
Published posthumously, unfinished, but nevertheless the quintessence of Adorno's thinking about art. Especially relevant in the age of digitalization: his call for artistic engagement with current technical processes. Ironically, it is precisely this point often deliberately overlooked, as Adorno is received more in the circles of instrumental new music than in electronic music.
Theodor W. Adorno: Aesthetic Theory, Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 1970.
Jean-Francois Lyotard: La Condition postmoderne: Rapport sur le savoir (Critique), Les Éditions de Minuit, 1979.
An influential text on the end of the grand narratives. Remarkably clear-sighted sociology of knowledge – as we can see today – and decidedly not a text about aesthetic postmodernism but a meaningful basis for this discourse.
Jean-Francois Lyotard: The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Manchester University Press, 1984.
Niklas Luhmann: Soziale Systeme, Suhrkamp, 1984
A radically unorthodox view of the mechanics of modern society and its functional differentiation. Starkly contrasting Adorno's normative theory (and Critical Theory in general) and refreshing for that very reason. Tricky.
Niklas Luhmann: Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996.
Harry Lehmann: Die digitale Revolution der Musik. Eine Musikphilosophie, Schott, 2012.
A provocative finding about the state of the New Music scene based on Luhmann's systems theory. Lehmann puts his finger in the wound of a system exposed to radical changes from digitalization, which – compared to other art forms – fends them off institutionally.
Harry Lehmann: La Révolution digitale dans la musique. Une Philosophie de la musique, Editions Allia, 2017.
Electronic Music
Pierre Schaeffer: À la recherche d'une musique concrète, Edition Seuil, 1952.
A relentlessly self-critical collection of diary entries by the pioneer of acousmatic music. Both visionary and tragic because his thoughts were ahead of the technical possibilities of his time.
Pierre Schaeffer: In Search of a Concrete Music, University of California Press, 2012.
Giorgina Born: Rationalizing Culture: IRCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde, University of California Press, 1995.
An ethnographic study of the early and middle years of IRCAM. The critical view, the insightful interviews with very different people working at the institute, and the author's broad theoretical horizon make the book an eminent contemporary document and a must-read for anyone interested in the history of computer music.
Curtis Roads: Microsound, MIT Press, 2001.
The ultimate book on granular synthesis with a wealth of technical commentary, aesthetic implications, and suggestions for further experimentation.
Joanna Demers: Listening Through the Noise, Oxford University Press, 2010.
This is a rare book as it deals with experimental electronic music on the basis of a solid philosophical foundation. The author attempts to grasp the confusing fragmentation into sub-scenes with the help of the categories Sign, Object and Situation.
Curtis Roads: Composing Electronic Music: A New Aesthetic, Oxford University Press, 2015.
An enormously comprehensive compendium on compositional strategies in electronic music. The term Aesthetic in the title is to be understood here more in the practical sense of the musical results of various techniques than in the sense of a specific philosophical aesthetic.
Psychology
Graham Wallas: The Art of Thought, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1926, Solis Press, 2014.
Influential work on the psychology of creativity, written when the subject was by no means en vogue. His 4-phase theory of creativity was adopted by many other authors, including Mihály Csíkszentmihályi.
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi: Creativity, HarperCollins, 1996.
Csíkszentmihályi, who became well-known for popularizing the term flow, finds surprising similarities between creative people in different fields of activity in a series of interviews.
Geoff Colvin: Talent is Overrated, Nicolas Brealey Publishing, 2008.
The author has combed through intriguing and sometimes counter-intuitive literature on the subject. In particular, he refers to a groundbreaking empirical study by Anders Ericsson on the practice of virtuoso violin playing. The arcane concept of talent is psychologically hardly tenable – this has far-reaching and optimistically attuning consequences for opportunities for individual development.
Adam Grant: Give and Take, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2013.
Adam Grant is a Professor of Organizational Psychology at Wharton Business School and a brilliant storyteller. Many examples from business life and empirically based analyses between psychology, game theory, and applied ethics.
Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner: Superforecasting, Broadway Books, 2015.
An empirically underpinned book on the theory and practice of good predictions. Astounding findings from behavioral psychology and proof of the harmfulness of blinkered thinking.
Interviews, Biographical
Ursula Stürzbecher: Werkstattgespräche mit Komponisten, dtv, 1973.
A collection of twenty interviews with prominent composers of post-war modernism (including only one woman). By asking exceptionally attentive questions, the author conveys a multi-layered panorama of the scene, focused on Germany.
Mason Currey: Daily Rituals, Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.
The remarkable rituals of famous historical figures are summarized concisely – not always recommended for imitation.
Mason Currey: Musenküsse, Kein & Aber, 2014.
Advice Literature
Steven Pressfield: The War of Art, Orion, 2003.
An entertaining pamphlet against the inner bastard, written by an honorary citizen of Sparta (sic!). Occasionally, peculiar and drifting into esoteric areas – a guidebook with a decisive literary flavor.
Cal Newport: Deep Work, Generic, 2013.
In an age of perpetual distraction, the principle of focus is becoming one of the most important virtues. A welcome reminder of a simple truth.
Erin Meyer: The Culture Map, PublicAffairs, 2014.
Practical tips for respectful interaction and consideration of cultural specifics. The author specializes in the difficulties and pitfalls of intercultural communication in the business world.
James Clear: Atomic Habits, Penguin Random House, 2018.
The power of habit can be turned from bad to good. As the author shows, abandoning unrealistic goals and simple tricks to outsmart yourself can have astonishing cumulative effects.
Miscellaneous
Robert J. Schiller: Narrative Economics, Princeton University Press, 2019.
Narratives may shape economic developments far more than previously assumed. The Nobel Prize winner describes processes that resemble the spread of viruses using historical examples and with the help of Google Ngrams. Incredibly stimulating, also with regard to the nearby relationship to the development of trends in other areas, e.g., art.